On Monday morning, we had to check out of our hotel, Pensão Residencial Portuense, and take our bags to where we would be staying for our final two nights, the Ritz Four Seasons Lisboa (I know, poor us). What a difference a mile (and what I guess would be a few hundred dollars a night) makes. Thanks to some sweet hookups, we were able to stay in the room free of charge. This was a super-nice place. The doormen were in top hats and tails, they give you slippers and bathrobes to use there, and there was even a separate room and phone inside the bathroom for the toilet (and bidet—I was surprised it didn't play music). This may not be much to some people, but to a kid growing up in northern Utah, this is big time. It had a great view from the balcony, which allowed you to see for miles around. The only problem was that it was at the top of a hill, and the closest metro stop was at the bottom , so that would mean after a long day of travel, we would still have to climb to the top before getting there. That, however, was easily overlooked due to all the comforts provided. 
After dropping off our bags, we hurried to the train station, where a friendly woman helped us to get our train fare to the nearby town of Sintra. We just missed the first train when we got there, and due to a strike, had to wait 20 minutes for a second (as opposed to 10 minutes on a non-strike day). The train took about 40 minutes and let us off a little bit outside of the major tourist sites. The town is a charming village where the royals historically would go to leave the city for a summer respite. There is the national palace, which was a royal residence, parts of which date back to the 1100s. And the surrounding homes are large chateaus where the nobles would go to be close to the royalty. We went on a self-guided tour of the palace, which was fine, and we were able to go at our own pace until we got stuck behind a huge group of Spanish tourists and their tour guide. Everywhere they went, they clogged the exits to the rooms, so we were stuck with them for half of the tour. Luckily, I can understand Spanish, but unfortunately for Melanie and the other five who weren't with their group, they were just stuck with the loud chatty group. After the tour, I overheard their guide saying that they had some free time to go wander around and she suggested that they go to a café, A Periquita, which Mel and I had already planned to do. Knowing we wanted to beat them there, we bolted off to make it in ahead of them. We ordered a traveseiro (pillow in Portuguese), a cream filled pie, and some queijados, which tasted kind of like buttered toast with cinnamon sugar. The Spaniards arrived en masse and soon the place was very loud, but still enjoyable.
Following our snack, we wandered around and found a tourist info place and got directions to get to the very top of the hill where the Moorish castle stood overlooking the village. We caught a bus that took us on some very narrow, windy roads, and finally to the top of the hill. We decided not to pay the fee of 8 Euros to go into the castle, since it was pretty much in ruins and we could see a lot of the outside without paying. The age of the castle was very amazing having been around for about 1200 years. The setting (of the town in general, but here specifically) was very magical. It seemed as though it was a sort of enchanted forest. This seemed to be more so the case when we went to our next destination, O Palácio Nacional da Pena. This palace was really a treat to see. The Romantic-inspired architecture was amazing, and the whimsical pastel coloring was fantastic. We (mostly Melanie) didn't want to pay the whole price to go in (12 euros). But we wanted pictures from outside, so we paid to enter the park, which had trails and different views of the palace and hidden oddities like a little pavilion and a statue of a warrior. At this point I was just amazed with the city and country as a whole, but we still were headed for more fun later in the afternoon.
We took the bus back to the train station. Across the street from there, we were able to get a bus that would take us to the coastal city of Cascais. We took the longer route which took us past the western-most point in all of Europe, Cabo da Rocha. The bus ride bordered on terrifying with a seemingly insane bus driver being encouraged to go faster by some Portuguese mad men cheering him on through the bumpy, winding country roads from a few rows back. After an hour's ride, we made it to Cascais. Needing a quick snack, we decided, contrary to our better judgment, but not wanting to wander looking for food, to get something from McDonalds. Ironically, after eating there, the queasiness from the bus ride subsided.
We walked to the beach and though it was quite warm outside, we decided not to swim since the water was frigid—it was the first week of April after all. It was unfortunate, because the water was perfectly clear and calm. We walked barefoot down the beautiful beach between Cascais and the neighboring city of Estoril. When exiting the beach there, we were "interviewed" by some local girls about "sustainable tourism" probably because we're the most obvious foreigners they had seen all day. I gave some lame answer to their questions, and will probably be laughed at by their classmates, but it was all in good fun. After that, we caught the train back to Lisbon, and went to our hotel to relax for a bit, and got a late dinner of pizza and fruity milkshakes at a place called the Bella da Impanema. We returned to the hotel and looked at the amazing view from there at night, which included going to the outdoor track on the roof.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010:
Our last day in Europe. We certainly didn't let that slow us down. On Tuesday, we went to the hillside neighborhood to the east of Baixa. The neighborhood is called Alfama, and it is the oldest part of the city, dating back to the times that the Moors ruled Portugal. It also has some of the hilliest terrain in the city. The Moors constructed a huge castle at the top of one of the tallest hills in Lisbon as a strategic lookout over the port and surrounding area. In 1147 they were ultimately kicked out, but their castle remains in amazingly good shape considering its age. The problem being, that getting to the castle was a bit tricky, leading us to many wrong turns and dead ends. However, a friendly neighborhood drunk gave us directions, and we ultimately found it.
After spending some time there, we found a place for a quick lunch, and went to look at a nearby church, Igreja São Vicente Fora, but didn't go in because we were not going to pay to see another church. After that, we went to the Pantheon of Portugal, which, with its blazing white dome, was one of the first things we saw flying in. Architecturally, it was one of the coolest things I saw on the whole trip. It apparently took more than 260 years to build, and was supposedly cursed, but they finished it in 1965, and now it holds monuments and some remains of famous Portuguese. Entrance to the building allows you to go to the top, just under the dome, and to go out, onto the roof, which was awesome. Unfortunately, while we were there, we saw some clouds gathering out across the water, which were coming towards us.
We left from there, walked down the river and up through Baixa looking for a few souvenirs. After that, we went to the hotel to organize some things, and take a break for a bit, and to wait out the passing storm. Then, later that evening, we went outside the old city center to the modern Parque das Nações, which, on a normal, non-rainy day looks like it would be a really cool place. It still was a lot of fun even though no one was out because of the earlier rainstorm. We were able to see the Vasco da Gama Bridge, which is one of the longest in Europe, and played around on some of the things they had there. After getting an interesting dinner (hamburger topped with a fried egg for me, turkey in a banana cream sauce for Mel) at the nearby mall, we headed home to go to bed as we had an early flight the next morning.
Lisbon was amazing. It reminded me of San Francisco with the hills, the cable cars, and the suspension bridge. The entire trip to Europe was amazing and I'm glad I had Melanie, my travel buddy, to take me along with her. She's quite the planner. She made all of this flow. We had a great time, and wish we didn't have to come back to the real world.
PS this is only a fraction of our pictures. They should be up on Facebook soon enough.
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