Day 4: Castles, Castles, Castles

Today is the day of Castles. Christina was our tour guide and figured out how to get us out to Sintra! There were a bunch of options of castles to check out, we ended up going to two but seeing a bunch from a distance.

First Castle - Peña Palace. It was a bit of a hike up (14% grade) but we all made it. 

There was a crazy line to get inside the Palace, but Justin found us a sneaky way to get up onto the grounds. We didn’t go in, but the outside was worth it alone. It had 360 degree views of the neighboring areas. 






Next we went to the Moorish castle. It was more of a fortress wall than a castle, but again breathtaking views all around. View of more castles. 


The fortress walls were built in 4 phases, the first starting in the 12th century the fourth ending in the 19th century. 


We walked the stairs to the very top and had another view of Peña Palace. You can’t see the sweat dripping off their faces, but it’s there. I think most of us ended the day with anywhere from 50-70 flights of stairs and boat loads of steps. 




This guy and Brielle were such troopers. 


After some stressful times waiting for busses, we boarded the 403 bus for the more scenic ride back to Cascais. It was so beautiful, but only Christina and Malia really enjoyed it. Guess this crew was literally castled to sleep. 


Just needed to zoom in on this sleep position.

After a long day out and about, we all were happy to be back in our Cascais home. We ended the evening with an Italian meal to get us warmed up for Italy! 


Tomorrow we wake up in the wee hours of the night and embark on the Tuscany leg of the journey.

Fingers crossed the Villa is as dreamy as the pictures!

Wedding group arrival count now 19 of 25, Conor, Marlene, Miles, Cy and Landon arrived in Florence around midnight. The rest of the crew is in flight. Fingers crossed everyone has relatively smooth journeys.