I really didn’t know that Lisbon is so hilly. There’s a “miradour” spot everywhere. There are tons of stairs and hilly roads. And when you’re not feeling it, funiculars, elevators and even escalators to help get up the hills.And it would seem this whole area is hilly. Elaine and I went to Sintra (another historic town about 20 mi northwest of Lisbon) and my iPhone tracked that we went up 145 flights of stairs. (Stupidly we decided to walk up to these castles instead of taking one of a plethora of tuk-tuks, buses, or taxis that are waiting at every entrance to help you get around.) This beat my previous record of 135 flights when I was in Scotland trying to climb Old Man of Storr and other hills in Skye.

In any case Sintra was indeed beautiful. Because of being so high up it afforded great views of incoming invaders. Lots of forts have been built there but currently the remains of a Moorish Castle from the 10th century is a major attraction. Many more stairs. With my fear of heights I was not loving this — unlike the city walls around Dubrovnik, the wall sides weren’t very high and I could definitely envision falling over the side. But I did them all. And the views were pretty great. Though they don’t translate well with this phone — it was actually too sunny!That’s the Atlantic Ocean out there past the city but you really can’t see it in the shots. The castle has of course Roman remains and others underneath. And cool wells and areas within the castle grounds where they could keep all the soldiers and some townspeople. It was very large inside. This is Elaine in the remains of the old well. The whole area is also intensely rocky. When Elaine and I walked up we had to sidestep boulders and at one place there was a huge granite hill that is apparently used by rock climbers (something I will never understand).

After the Moorish Castle, we further hiked over to the Pena Palace, which was built much later (19th century though it was built around an existing 16th century monastery). It was beautiful but had a weirdly Disneyesque feel to it. There are so many different parts, in different colors and tiles, it’s a hodge podge but oddly pleasing. We also took a tour of the inside quarters but it was less interesting to me than the overall architecture–all the building courtyards and archways and randomly juxtaposed walls and towers, not to mention crazy decorations on the walls…That’s about it for Sintra. There are other things in the town to see but we spent so much time hiking, we were pretty exhausted and ready to leave as it got dark. Oh, we did a tram ride around the parks of Pena Palace and saw the chalet where King Ferdinand II kept his opera singer second wife (gasp) after the Queen died. In any case I’ve completely forgotten about our trip to the major castle in Lisbon that overlooks the town here. It’s the Sao Jorge Castle. Another originally Moorish Castle that was taken over by the Christians in the 12th century. It also involved a lot of stairs though it wasn’t as large as the Sintra castle. And it was raining the day we went there (last Saturday) which made it trickier to walk up and down those slick stone steps. The views are also normally very good from there but since it was raining, they were only so-so. I’m combining several of my Lisbon days into this blog because I was actually quite sick a few days this week. I managed to catch a bug that had me out for a few days (and I’m still afraid to eat anything beyond broth, bananas and crackers). I basically stayed in the Airbnb, slept, and couldn’t eat anything for two days straight. I got out today but am still taking things relatively easy. Poor Elaine had to travel around on her own for a few days. But we both survived.

Anyway before I got too ill, we visited a cool bombed-out convent that they chose to not rebuild but made into an archeological museum. It’s called the Carmo convent.And today, to create a better memory of the drowned out oceanarium, we revisited the area which was created for the Expo 98. It’s a very nice space. I have a ton more photos but I’m still feeling a little under the weather and need to go to bed. Tomorrow morning Elaine takes off and I head to Coimbra.

So long Lisbon!