"Two women lost in an unknown city. Now that's what I call an adventure." - Elanor Lavish

Third time's the charm. I wrote a lovely post all about Sintra and the Algarve, only to have HipGeo lose it. Let's try this again.

Hiking fuel!

We hiked up the hill to the Moorish castle on Sunday. The skies were clear and the castle towers gave us a wonderful view of the park, palaces in the valley, and Pena palace just above us. The stone walls were rebuilt in the 19th century and wind dizzyingly along the high ridge. Emily didn't seem so sure about the lack of railings... On the way down we stopped for a 6:00 dinner, for which we paid lunchtime prices. The place we ate at had a view of Sintra palace over the valley and we amused ourselves throwing olive pits at pigeons. 
In the evening we unwound at Nice Way Sintra Hostel and laid out a plan for the morning. 

A nice couple from Calgary took this picture for us.

I was out the door early and took the 8:20 train to the town of Mem Martins. After an hour of wandering the same street and asking locals where the Crossfit gym was, i was ready to call it quits and head back to Sintra before Em started to worry. As i walked by a cafe on my way to the train station, i saw a man on the window with a crossfit Sintra tshirt - so i walked in and asked him if he could tell me where his gym is. He smiled and asked "Rebecca?" Paolo was the gym owner and drove us to the gym, put me through a warmup and mobility work, coached my cleans, and then gave me a 10 minute burpee-box jump + wall ball AMRAP. finally, since i was concerned about being back by 11 (at whicb point Emily was allowed to start worrying), he drove me back to the central square in Sintra. I call it Portuguese hospitality. In Paolo's words, "that's Crossfit."
Meanwhile, Emily had been on her own adventure to mail a dozen postcards and find a grocery store for lunch food. She walked all the way past the train station before finding a tiny grocery in a back alley in central Sintra. We lunched on chorrizo, cheese, and oranges.
The skies were cloudy and the temperatures cooler that day, which made for a more comfortable hike through Quinta da Regaleira and up to Pena Palace, but no views from either. Quinta da Regaleira has amazing grounds, including a well with a spiral staircase carved into the outside. When you descend you find a network of tunnels which exit to other parts of the gardens. The house is equally ornate and exotic. The floors are tiled with mosaics, the walls muraled, and the ceilings carved. It has exactly the rooms you need to play Clue, too... The perfect place for hosting a mystery dinner,we thought!
After a stop for shopping in town, we hiked up to Pena Palace. It was a fairytale. High, brightly painted walls on the outside with colourfully decorated, warm living spaces inside. This, combined with the cooler temperatures and forests of Sintra, explains why the Portuguese royals loved vacationing there.
We were ravenous by the time we made it back down the hill and into town. 

After wandering a little while we wound up at a fantastic little cafe/tea house called Saudade. We split a half bottle of a local green wine, and i had perhaps the best Panini of my life. 
Tuesday morning we rolled out early and made our way back to Lisbon by train, and by bus from Lisbon to Albufeira. Albufeira is a resort town on the Algarve coast known for its beaches. We stumbled around town (literally- I'm glad my tablet survived the wipeout) before finally figuring out our tickets for the next day and how to get to our hostel. 
Aside- the local bus driver didn't speak any English, we don't speak Portuguese... So broken Spanish on both sides it was as we tried to figure out what time to catch the bus back to the station. "español? A que hora mañana... El bus... Aqui?" "mañana...?" "si.", at which point our driver walked off and was back two minutes later with a schedule.

Lost and Found hostel was exactly what we needed. A quiet little oasis on the outskirts of town with rooms and kitchen wrapped around a tiled and flower filled courtyard. We changed into our bathing suits and walked the mile to the beach. An hour napping in the sun, splashing in the surf, and watching the sailboats pass was exhausting. We picked up groceries on the way home and made a MASSIVE Denver scramble. Yum! Our hosts let us use their clothes line to dry the two sink-loads of laundry that followed. Our shirts smelled like sea breeze when we brought them in. The last part of the evening was consumed by "A Room with a View" and spritzer.

Wednesday was another early morning. We caught a 7:10 bus at 7:25 - we knew Portuguese busses tend to run a little late, but we were getting nervous! - and finally our bus to Sevilla. There I will leave you, because i have already been writing for an hour as we roll across Andalusia towards Granada...