We spent two days on trains out to Belem, Cascais, Caxias and Sintra. We managed to just miss the transit workers strike that disrupted train travel for a bit. Priscilla lived in Caxias in the 90’s, so we hunted around her old neighborhood and found her old house! And wandered around a nearby garden with this building looked like it was covered in barnacles. 
The Torre de Belem and Padrão dos Descobrimentos are located where Vasco De Gama set off to explore.
We took the train all the way to the seaside town of Cascais.
Sintra was incredible. We took the 45 min train from Lisbon and then spent the day walking around. It was quite a climb up to the castle, but way better than the shuttle bus. The entire trail was ornate and meticulously maintained.
We had some Portuguese sour cherry liqueur (ginja) in edible chocolate glasses at a tiny store just around this corner.
The Pena Palace is up on a hill so there are amazing views and you can see all the way to the coast. The colors make it pretty hard to miss, it feels like a Disney creation.
However, the 500 acre castle grounds were my favorite part of our trip to Portugal and the real highlight of Sintra. We spent 3 or 4 hours just wandering around.
Even the ducks have dedicated castles.
There’s a hobby farm on the grounds. Complete with goats, horses, sheep, pigs and chickens.
All 500 acres are crisscrossed by cobblestone paths, of course.
The far end of the grounds have the Queen’s cork cabin. For when she needed to get away from the castle, but only about 1 mile away, I guess.
Cork everywhere. Designs inlaid with cork. Cork sills, cork decorations.
