Chuck's News: Day 24 - Pèna Palace, the Park and back to Lisbon

We usually like to get up early and be ahead of the roads, but with a timed entry to the Pèna Palace at 10:30am there wasn’t much point in arriving terribly early. Still, we can get there early enough to walk some of the gardens before our tour, but, breakfast at the hostel didn’t begin until 8:30am, so an early start was out of the question.

We packed up, preparing a day bag for our trip back up to the top, then headed downstairs to the dining room for breakfast. Breads, rolls, muffins, meat, cheeses, yogurts, cereal, milk-a typical continental breakfast. After eating we stowed our packs in the same closet they occupied yesterday and headed out the door. Today, we are riding the bus up, partly to save time, partly to save our energy for walking the palace and the grounds. We have to be back to the hostel by 3:00pm to retrieve our bags. We planned to walk down again.

We boarded an empty bus and got two seats just before a tour group filled it to capacity. I mean SRO and squished. Across from us sat a delightfully talkative man, a professor of English at a small college outside of Pittsburgh. He made the ride go quick.

Once out of the bus we got in the que for the entrance with a massive mob of people. No wonder we like an early start.

As we moved along we had a question about the gardens. We got the attention of one of the park personnel that had her back to us. When she turned around we recognized the same delightful woman that helped us at get our tickets yesterday. She smiled warmly when she recognized us and became our personal tour guide and delighted in helping us plan our day. Such kindness.

We were early for our entry to the palace but not early enough to wander too far afield. We explored the area around the base of the palace, visited the water closet, then got in the line marked 10:30. A wonderful couple from the Detroit area were behind us, Steven and Adrienne. They were 31 and 33, both optometrists, having met in school. We spent the next hour chatting with them as we entered the palace and moved through the rooms.

There were A LOT of people here. It was a conga line through the palace. Wall to wall people. You moved at the line’s pace. Really lessened the experience.

Once back outside we could move freely across the terraces. Much better.

Our tour guide had pointed out a distant outcrop of rocks on the map at the far end of the ridge called the chapel. We spent the next two hours walking to it, climbing it for fun and view and walking back. The grounds are spectacular.

We returned to town the same way we did yesterday arriving at the hostel about 2:45pm. Along the way we learned there was a rail strike. When the railroad worker strike, they don’t cripple the country by closing all transport. It is more like a slowdown. So instead of a train every 15 minutes, there was only one an hour. We saw we had about 50 minutes until the next train, retrieved our packs and sat on the platform waiting for it to arrive. While waiting, an English man and his wife arrived inquiring about the trains. We got to talking with them and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and evening with them. Rob and Caroline, both retired doctors from Bristol, England although they moved to Cambridge after retirement to be close to their daughter and grandkids which they watch two days a week. We rode the train and subway together and they walked with us to our hostel. Here we parted, they heading to their AirB&B while we checked into our hostel. We exchanged emails and phone numbers and agreed to meet for dinner in a few hours.

Checkin took about half an hour due to the line, but we were in our room and relaxing about 5:00pm. I found a recommended restaurant about halfway between their lodgings and ours on Rossio Square and we arranged to meet at 6:00pm.

Had a great dinner and time with them, then parted and headed back to our room, stopping for groceries along the way. Another great day. Interesting people, places and things. Must be a noun day.

Our personal tour guide. She was wonderful