Having never been to Portugal, it had been on my list for a while, and after toying between a sunshine holiday in the Algarve, or a cultural experience in Lisbon I went for the latter, joining my mum and sister for our third long weekend holiday of the year to the Portuguese capital.

Unfortunately the weather for the weekend we chose wasn't great, with most of it raining but as this was a sightseeing holiday it didn't completely ruin the trip.

Because of the times of our flights, it meant that essentially we had just two whole days to see everything. And so we began the first day early planning to visit the majority of attractions in Lisbon itself.

Starting from our hotel, with some lovely views of the hills in the city we made our way to the centre, taking a quick look at the start of a race through the city, before making our way around the corner to jump on one of the trams running through the city.


After riding through the hills around the Castle of St. Jorge, we jumped off as we reached the city centre, taking a look around the pedestrianised streets, before walking past the end of the race in Praça Do Comercio.

After taking a look at the busy square, the views of the River Tagus we walked towards the ferry terminal to cross the river to Almada. Once there taking a tram up the hill we made our way to Cristo Rei, the Portuguese version of Rio's Christ the Redeemer, as we looked over the city of Lisbon next to the 25th of April Bridge, another likeness to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.


Crossing back to the Lisbon side of the river, we got on a suburban train and made our way to Belém, to view the Belem Tower, the Monument to the Discoveries, and the Jerónimos Monastery before having dinner and heading back to the city centre and hotel via the Eduardo VII Park.

Having seen the majority of Lisbon's attractions on Sunday, we therefore had the majority of Monday to enjoy at Sintra. After taking a cheap and easy suburban train we arrived at the village and made our way onto a tourist circuit bus where we jumped off a regular stops to view the village's attractions.

After quick stops at the Sintra Palace and Moorish Castle, we eventually made our way to the Pena Palace at the very top of the hill.

The palace is absolutely outstanding, feeling almost like an attraction at a theme park, so much does it stand out apart from everything else. As the path from the entrance winds up, between the trees you start to see parts of the vibrantly coloured buildings, and as you get closer and the trees stop you can see it in its full awe and glory.


After taking lot of photos from all kinds of different angles, we went inside the building viewing many of the palatial rooms and views outside before walking around the edge of the palace with views of Lisbon and the Atlantic.

After taking a last wander through the grounds, with views of the palace emerging through the trees on top of a hill, we made our way back down to Sintra village, and eventually back to Lisbon.

Walking through Rossio square, more empty after yesterday's race, we took dinner and made our way back down towards the Praça Do Comercio, before going back to our hotel.

With its reminiscence of other cities - the trams and bridge of San Francisco, the Christ Monument of Rio, the arches of Paris and theme park palaces, Lisbon has many features present in other famous cities. But by putting them altogether it doesn't matter - Lisbon still has its uniqueness and is a very interesting city to visit for a weekend.