Another great breakfast to start the day. Every place we’ve been has a pot of hot milk and a pot of coffee and the preferred ratio seems to be 1 to 1. The coffee is great, but it is really more like a big pot of espresso. Considering we’re not much of breakfast eaters, we’ve been eating like pigs! The kids are now really spoiled (they better eat up now because they’re not getting any of it next week!) We went to the National Palace of Sintra today which happens to be steps away from our hotel. It doesn’t really look like a palace which made it all the more interesting. We then headed way up above the city to visit the Pena Palace which was last occupied as recently as 1910. 
The most bizarre looking castle we’ve ever seen. It looks like the byproduct of some crazy childish dream. Pastel colors, gargoyles, seashells, turrets…nothing matches, really weird. We were able to walk around the parapets of the castle, really neat because we were actually in a low hanging cloud. CJ was amazed at being “in” a cloud. The inside was also fascinating. The last Portuguese queen fled in 1910 and she literally just up and left, so the interior is a very accurate look at what royal life was like at that time. All the furnishings, pictures, personal stuff, is still there. Really enjoyable to see and learn about. We gave the kids the choice of taking a tram back down or hiking back through the park and they chose the hike; until they realized how far it was. We decided to try a short-cut and it worked out great until we realized we were still inside the castle walls. Another “this would give my mom a heart attack” situation. We just found the “lowest” part of the wall and Chris jumped down and I passed him the kids. I can’t believe these walls repelled invaders for 500 years, they didn’t contain a single American family for an hour!
We then drove to Cascais on the coast and had a nice lunch before hitting Boca de Inferno. This translates to “Mouth of Hell” and it is a cauldron in the rocks where the surf crashes in at high tide. It is surrounded by freaky looking rockscape that has folds big enough to swallow the kids.
Once we explained the tide to CJ he decided he wanted to wait until high tide came in…even if it was “hours away.” We settled for ice cream instead and decided to head to Cabo de Roca which is the most western point in Europe. Along the way (it was only 20km away) we stopped at a really cool deserted beach. We parked up on a little promontory and walked down to the beach. The kids collected MORE shells (to add to the bagful we already have!) and played on the dunes for awhile before they realized they were FREEZING. We hoped to watch the sunset at Cabo de Roca but there was no sunset; just clouds and lots of wind. We took some picture to prove we were actually there and then headed back to Sintra (about 20 min.)
Once we explained the tide to CJ he decided he wanted to wait until high tide came in…even if it was “hours away.” We settled for ice cream instead and decided to head to Cabo de Roca which is the most western point in Europe. Along the way (it was only 20km away) we stopped at a really cool deserted beach. We parked up on a little promontory and walked down to the beach. The kids collected MORE shells (to add to the bagful we already have!) and played on the dunes for awhile before they realized they were FREEZING. We hoped to watch the sunset at Cabo de Roca but there was no sunset; just clouds and lots of wind. We took some picture to prove we were actually there and then headed back to Sintra (about 20 min.)
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We are now enjoying a beer and watching the Benfica game while typing this. It’s about 9:00 and we’re debating if we really need dinner…or just another drink!