Last day of the climb

There are shops in Portugal specifically for the sale of sardines and sardine related products. You can buy colourful tins and watch a small Ferris wheel of sardine tins go 'round and 'round and you can take a photo of such a store and just move on.

At the other end of the spectrum is the 728 peak hour bus. Here you can live the life of a tinned sardine as you travel through the streets of Lisbon.

Today we used our Lisboa card, and by golly gee we were going to squeeze everything out of it to get value. Buses, trams, trolley cars, trams that just stopped with the driver yelling for everyone to get out, followed immediately by a replacement bus. 

Every new attraction required countless steps, to find it and also to climb to the top of it.

I stupidly assumed that today was an easy one. I've been waiting all holiday. I had not put on my game face and every step up was a huge effort. The caffeine strip 3/4 of the way helped. 

We saw some great stuff, that I'm sure the Editor will name in order.

First, the Jerónimos Monastery.

Monument to the Discoveries and nearby

Belém Tower

Catching the tram

Castelo de São Jorge

I'm sure the yelling at a police officer was tiredness, but you don't mess with the Editor when we can't find the exit to our last attraction. (In my defence, we were told that it was up more steps - so many steps - and it was a general exclamation of frustration, not at the police officer!)

Dinner was not home made. For our last night in Portugal we hit the town and went to a Fado restaurant (Recommendation: O Prego). Local music where you get to sing along sometimes. It was in Portuguese and I assume most songs were boy meets girl or boy loses girl, but we were able to clap in Portuguese and la la la is the international singing language.

Oh, and the last of the Portuguese pastries was purchased, or should I say the last six? (Editor's note: If you're in Lisbon go to Pastéis de Belém, it's right near the monastery. These tarts rival the ones I had in Porto as the best.)

85 or 726

The day always starts with a little uphill but then we headed down, down in search of our train station for a day trip to Sintra.

This was made more difficult by the hundreds of police, many dressed in riot gear on every corner. I think it has something to do with the housing protests but not really sure.

We arrived and had a 30ish minute, uphill walk to Quinta da Regaleira 

where we lined up for our 10am entry,

before wandering around (lots of wandering going on). Saw the Initiation Well and other sights that photos will describe because everything is just a daze at the moment.

From there to the old town,

where tarts (always plural) and lunch was eaten, 

hills were climbed looking for a bus and then unclimbed back to where we came from to catch the bus that we thought was up the hill. As far as old towns go, I prefer the flatter versions.

The bus took us up skinny, windy roads that doubled as roads and footpath combined.

We entered the Pena Palace property and then had to walk uphill again to the palace. At the palace there were stairs, palace terraces to walk and then gardens to visit. 

The gardens were downhill. Hallelujah. Unfortunately, it's not flower season so every plant looks green. 

I was pretty excited to leave, but against all things I thought to be true, we had to walk uphill lots in order to start our downward journey on the skinny, windy roads that barely fitted a bus. 

Had we left one minute earlier we may have caught the 4pm train, but rather than sprint and miss it, thus giving all those on board something to laugh about, we just accepted our fate and re-planned our route home.

It involved getting off at a different station and catching bus 726. Everyone should catch the 726 once in their lives. When it eventually arrives, extremely late, you have the pleasure of a packed bus, a 30 minute journey through streets that the bus shouldn't fit through, and the possibility of catching something from the many coughing people on board.

For the record, we climbed the equivalent of 85 flights today. A new record.

Coincidentally, the band Chicago had exactly the same experience as us in 1970. Same stairs, same bus, but the 85 or 726 title for their song didn't sound right, so 25 or 6 to 4 was used.

Thank you and it's good night from her and it's good night from me.