SINTRA

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The city of Sintra is 18 miles northwest of Lisbon. It is inland and therefore has a sub-micro climate that can be entirely different from Lisbon. When we left Lisbon, it was a bright sunny day. Upon arriving in Sintra it was a cloudy cool day, still humid, but cool. The mountain top which is where the Moorish castle and the Pena Palace are located were actually fogged in. Pedro did advise that this is usually the case, but most days the fog will burn off so it was best to do the top of the mountain last.

Sintra is on the slopes of the Serra de Sintra (Sintra Mountains) and has been inhabited in one form or the other since prehistoric times. The Moors were the first to build a castle and Sintra later became the summer home of the Portuguese royalty. The train ride from Lisbon is 30 to 40 minutes depending on how many people get off at each stop. It is basically like a LIRR (Long Island Rail Road for you non-New Yorkers) commuter train. When you get off the train you have several options to get into the historic center: you can walk (it is an easy walk), you can take a taxi (I do not advise, you can walk faster), you can hire a tuk tuk which will take you everywhere you want to go for the day; you can rent a tiny electric car (also don’t advise because parking is sparse and the drive up the hill narrow); or you can pay 5 euros for the tour bus (not the red hop on hop off) but the one that looks more like a city bus. You can choose from 434 for 5 euros or 435 for 2.5 euros. The difference is that the 434 makes a complete loop of the attractions (except Quinta Regaleira) and the 435 takes you to the four palaces only (including Quinta Regaleira) but not to the Moorish castle. The 434 is the better option, as you can walk (leisurely 10 minutes one way) to the Quintal Regaleira).

Our day in Sintra was as follows: We walked from the train station into town; then we walked to the Quinta Regaleira (more on this later); then walked back to town had lunch; visited the National Palace of Sintra; did some shopping; took the 434 to the Pena Palace; toured the palace, took the 434 to the train station; returned to Lisbon.

Now, Fodor’s says another option to get to the Pena and the castle is to take the lovely and leisurely walk there. Here is the truth, if you are in great shape and under 30, sure take the walk, but it maybe leisurely but it is not easy, it is 100% uphill the entire way and take 1 hour and 40 minutes. That sounds like a hike to me and way too much work. If it’s a nice day, maybe a walk down through the forest, but certainly not a walk up.

Unfortunately for us, the fog never lifted from the mountain top, but we did get in one mountain top sight. We spent about 6 hours in the City. It is an easy day trip, but you could easily spend 2 to 3 days there as a side trip from Lisbon. Travel alert: IT IS NOT CHEAP, all of the various sights cost to get into and to my knowledge there is no pass like the Lisbon Card, although there is a discount if you do multiple sights.

Pedro gave us a recommended itinerary, however, the place for Sintra cakes was closed and the for lunch was packed. We followed is plan with some variation.

Quinta da Regaleira

Our first stop was the Quinta da Regaleira, this is not exactly old, it was built in the early 20^th century by a Brazilian mining magnate. It is very horror movie looking and dark in side. You could easily spend a day just here, as there is not only the Mansion, but the entire grounds that contains several other buildings. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this site is the history before the mansion was built. The Knights Templar made this site their 11^th century headquarters. If you have read or seen The Divinci Code, you know all about the Knights Templar. We only toured the mansion itself, while very interesting, they did not do a very good job of telling you what the rooms were, except for a few on the first floor. Most of the tour was devoted to talking about the man who built the site, so basically an homage to his ego.

Lunch

We took the 5-minute walk back into town, fighting traffic both the human version and the car version. The sidewalks are very narrow as are the roads, so you spend have your time in the street and half your time on the sidewalk. Most of the time spent on the street is because as usual tourists are entitled to walk 4 a breast and they and no one else own the walkways. Or they can’t get their damn heads out of their I-this or that, long enough to see there is an entire historic world around them, oh and people other than them. Pedro had recommended a place for lunch just in front of the National Palace, obviously this is not a secret as everyone and their dog, Literally and their dog, was having lunch there. We were there for about 30 seconds, when one of the managers say to follow him, I was leery, because at the time I didn’t know he was the manager and thought we may be being duped into a very touristy place to eat. I was very pleasantly surprised. He walked us down the street to a place called Tulhas (you would never know it was there because it is down a little side street on a hill) I could tell you the address, but it is one of those places that is meant to just be discovered. This would be our final meal in Lisbon and we were in luck because they had one of the cod dishes I have been wanting to try: Bacalhau com Natas (on train to Paris as a write this and just have to note, the French at times live up to their reputation, and that is all I will say). The description of Bacalhau com Natas given by Fodor’s is; salt cod with cream, gratin style. This does in no way describe the dish. A better description would be the Portuguese version of shepherd’s pie. Creamy mashed potatoes filled with codfish and bay leaf. It is so simple but so very good. We did the 3 course menu of the day, consisted of pretty average vegetable soup the Bacalhau and a dessert. Jerry’s dessert was an almond pie (very tasty) and mine was an apple cheesecake, but I don’t think it really had in cheese in it, it was very different than any cheesecake I have ever had and had the consistency of whipped marsh mellows.

Palacio Nacional de Sintra

After lunch we toured the Sintra Palace. This is a sprawling palace (not Versailles sprawling) just lots of winding and turning so it appears bigger than it is. It was built in the 15^th to 16^th century and was a monetary prior to being a royal palace. There are many aspects of Moorish influence throughout the palace. It is very well organized and every sign is in both English and Portuguese. You can also rent the recorded guided tour in numerous languages, this gives you a more detailed explanation but adds about an hour to your tour. Without the recorded tour you can pretty much get through the palace in an hour, unless you are one to read every single sign in the place.

A bit of Shopping and a bus up the hill

After the National Palace it was time for us to find a Portuguese dish for the kitchen. Ever since our first trip to Italy, we have always purchased something of use for the kitchen, some times more than one item, but usually some type of serving dish. This was our last opportunity to get a piece from Portugal. We went in to several stores before we found the perfect piece for this trip. No picture and I can’t really do a decent job of describing it.

From there we stood in line for the 434, they run about every 15 minutes, but we lucked out and there were 2 back to back, we got on the second, meaning we got a seat. The ride up the hill was a little nerve racking, as is said previously, the road is narrow and the bus was a regular sized bus, at one point the driver had to actually back up to make the turn. The driver also drove up the hill like a bat out of hell. I was afraid we might end up on the news back home as one of those tragic tour bus crashes, but instead we arrived safely at our last stop of the day.

Palacio da Pena

There are at least four palaces in Sintra, we only did two, but again, you can easily spend a good three days here in order to see all of the different sites. The Pena was built 1503 as a Monastery, but it went through a period of decay after the 1832 expulsion of religious orders from Portugual. A few years later it was purchased by Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, who renovated in the style of the Bavarian Castles of his homeland. It also retains several Moorish features. The palace is high on the hill and even when the bus drops you off there is quite the steep 10 minute walk up to the palace. You can opt for the mini-bus (an additional 3 euros) to take you to the foot of the palace entrance. This is a good option, since there are numerous steps up and down once you start exploring the palace. You can either just buy the terrace pass, which only allows you access to the over 20 terraces and the palace wall walk, or you can buy entry to the palace which gets you both the inside and outside tour. The castle is under constant renovation and addition. What I did like about this over the other two sites, as the rooms were actually decorated in the style and for the uses they were intended. And both here, as well as the national palace the original kitchens were in tack.

This palace was very crowded and there are large gardens (you could get lost in them) as well. This is another place you could spend half a day at alone. We got through the palace in about an hour (mainly because we needed to get back down the hill to our train back to Lisbon).

It was a very nice day in Sintra. I would not recommend it during high season, the crowds would just be too much.

The return to Lisbon and Bifica madness

The train ride back to Lisbon was quick and painless, when we got off at Rossio, we ran in to Rachel and Carolyn, two of the women in Saturday’s cooking class. They had also spent the day in Sintra and were on the same train car as we were. They actually walked down the hill from the Pena. We had (we thought we had) a few hours to kill so we went to one of the famous pastelerias which I won’t mention as it was clear they were over it, there are better pastelerias almost anywhere in the city. Nonetheless, we purchased two for the train to Paris.

We continued walking back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and a bit of gift shopping for others. As we got closer to our hotel, the crowds were growing larger, and there was 100’s of people walking towards us in what apparently are the colors of Bifica. As we turned the corner to our hotel we were met by a scream throng of people celebrating the Bifica, it was the cities, official celebration with the Mayor presenting the Key to the city to the players and all. We took a different route and the was also closed. It appeared that our hotel was in fact now not accessible as it was blocked by the celebration. We ended up walking around the Naval building, which was a large building in front of our hotel and did finally obtain access to the hotel, but it was like fish swimming upstream. There were so many people that Pedro had not only locked the sliding glass doors, he shut the wood doors as well.

We were a bit concerned that we would not be able to get a cab to the train station as we didn’t know how long the party would last, fortunately it was actually in the end stages, and by the time we said our good byes to Pedro and gathered our suitcases, we could walk to the next plaza to get a cab. This did cause us to be to the station about 90 minutes sooner than we needed to be, but better early than late (which turns out we could have been late since the train was about 25 minutes late leaving).

That brings me to the end of our trip to Portugal. Time for overall impressions and highlights.

First, the stay did get off to a bit of a rocky start but by the end, I did truly enjoy Lisbon. It is a beautiful city and you can wonder the Alfama or Lapa and easily be transported to an earlier time and place and get a feel of what it must have been to live there with none of our modern conveniences. But let’s be honest, Lisbon is a difficult city, not because of the language, they all pretty much speak English, but because it is very hilly and not easy to get around in an easy manner. The trams are inconsistent and have to fight traffic, cabs are inexpensive, but add up of you take them everywhere. But with these difficulties I do highly recommend it, I imagine as the country comes out of their financial difficulties, it will become a much different place.

The hotel (Lisbon Arsenal Suites) was reasonably prices, perfectly located and large rooms, rare for Europe. Best of all Pedro, who works last afternoons until 11 pm, is a wealth of information and extremely friendly. He made our trip much better than it otherwise might have been. The down side, the breakfast is just ok.

The true highlight for me is the Alfama area, we spent two days here, it is the most interesting section of the city. Sintra is also a big highlight I would just make it at least a two full day trip. Brunch at the botanical garden is also a definite must and you must take in a Fado show, doesn’t have to be at SrVinho, but it is a must do.

Best food, was actually in Lagos over all, but the best dish was the Portuguese style steak at SrVinho. The wine and cheese of Portugal is really coming into its own and I am sure will find its way to the US market in a bigger way soon.

We enjoyed Lisbon, it will be a repeat visit and Lagos, just may well be a retirement option, if the prices stay reasonable.

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