{"id":198,"date":"2012-07-17T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=198"},"modified":"2012-07-15T11:57:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-15T18:57:10","slug":"possible-lisbon-side-trip-sintra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"Possible Lisbon Side Trip: Sintra"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a recent morning, I opened a Portugal guidebook we are using to plan our trip to Lisbon to a random page with a picture of a quintessential castle. \u00a0It reminded me of one of our favorite adventures in Umbria during our Honeymoon–exploring the \u00a0Rocca Maggiore in Assisi. \u00a0The castle described on the page was in Sintra, Portugal. \u00a0To my surprise, upon further reading, I discovered that Sintra is a short 35 minute train ride from Lisbon, where we will be staying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Sintra<\/a><\/p>\n

Sintra’s Moorish Castle’s appearance conforms to many storybook stereotypes of medieval castles.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not only is Sintra home to the Moorish Castle<\/a>, but also the National Palace<\/a> (a historic royal residence that is still used for receptions today) and the Pena Palace<\/a> (a “fantasy” castle built in the style of King Ludwig’s famous Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. \u00a0Other sightseeing options include caves at Quinta de Regaleria<\/a> and exotic gardens at Monserrate<\/a>. \u00a0With the LisboaCard that we are planning on buying, admission to the National Palace is free, and discounts are available on admission to the Pena Palace, Moorish Castle, and Monserrate gardens. \u00a0The train trip (usually only 4 Euros round-trip) is also included with the LisboaCard.<\/p>\n

After reviewing the exciting sightseeing options in Sintra, we are strongly considering adding it to our itinerary. \u00a0Side trips from major cities are a great way to get acquainted with \u00a0the culture and landscape of the countryside. \u00a0The sights in Sintra warrant about half a day for us. \u00a0We are actually thinking we may journey to Sintra on the afternoon of our arrival in Europe, because many sights in Lisbon are closed on Monday. \u00a0<\/p>\n

We were previously very satisfied with a similar length side trip we did to Chianti while staying in Florence (that one was done by bus). \u00a0We strongly recommend travelers look at opportunities to get out of the main cities. \u00a0Many travel books will often have special sections dedicates just for side trips. \u00a0Public transit is extremely well organized in Europe and most side trips are very doable without a rental car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a recent morning, I opened a Portugal guidebook we are using to plan our trip to Lisbon to a random page with a picture of a quintessential castle. \u00a0It reminded me of one of our favorite adventures in Umbria … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27,10,11,57,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/suitcasejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}