Saturday, April 8 – Another perfect weather day in Portugal! Day started with my morning run through Sintra. Decided to challenge myself by hitting some stairs. So.Many.Stairs. It was definitely a good workout.

The substantial breakfast provided by the hotel likely more than offset the run, but I’ll think about that next week. We had a little time before our train to Lisbon, so we took a final stroll in Sintra before grabbing our bags and heading to the station. Glad we were heading out because it was obvious the hordes were coming in, strikes at the monuments or not!

Easy 40 minute ride into Lisbon and our Airbnb was a short walk from the train station. After we dumped our bags we took a short exploratory walk before we could formally check in. We are here for several days, so we had the luxury of unpacking everything. Dan decided to rest for a bit, but I was ready to go a little farther afield.

Easter weekend is a four day holiday and Lisbon gets many visitors at this time. This became very evident as I headed to the waterfront. Observations—(1) there were shiatsu massage practitioners all along the walkway. I don’t know about you, but nothing says relaxation to me more than a massage in the middle of thousands of tourists. (2) what genius thought renting bikes and electric scooters in and area bounded by water and filled with surging crowds was a good idea? Slightly amazed no one ended up in the water…

Covered more ground than I planned and got a good idea of the lay of the land as I wandered (ok, and, if I’m honest, got a tad lost). Found my way “home” and was ready for dinner as we had skipped lunch. Had Asian for dinner and it was a nice change of pace from all the seafood and traditional Portuguese cuisine. Strolled up to a little park/plaza at the end of our street which was hopping with music and revelers. We opted for some gelato for dessert and headed back for a (relatively) early night.

Tomorrow Easter and more in depth exploration.

32,484 steps, 14.5 miles