Today we had a large but disparate group outing to the nearby town of Sintra. We met up at Starbucks in the train station and realized that we could leave immediately or wait an hour for the next train so a group of us hustled and made it on to the first train. Upon arriving it turned out more of us made it than I had originally thought. We walked from the train station up to Palacio da Pena which isn’t a long walk but it is very steep. The walk was worth it, though, because the palace, the grounds and the view were all great. I got separated from everyone and ended up by myself so I walked down through the gardens, the valley of lakes and then up to the Castelo dos Mouros on the lower peak. This is also cool but not as neat as the Pena Palace. From here I walked down to the train station and was exhausted by the time I got down there so I had lunch at Cafe Saudade by the station before heading back to Lisbon.