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Published: September 1st 2017
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We decided on a day trip to Sintra - we had heard it was a beautiful city not too far from Lisbon, with castles, palaces mosaic tiles and other sites worth seeing.. We took the train from Lisbon and it was only a 40 min ride...Sintra is a pretty resort town nestled in the Sintra Mountains... It is set high in the hills and the views are stunning. the town is centred around the gothic national palace among narrow cobblestone streets... The area is known as an area for royalty and the elite to have homes and several mansions and palaces are a major attraction to the area.
After wandering around a bit to get out bearings... we realized that two of the main sites were up in the mountains... there was a bus, for 5.5 Euros that would take you the entire route... or one could walk... Google maps said it was only a 45 min walk to Peña Palace, so we thought why not? It was a bit cooler that morning and a bit hazy, but we still decided we would go on foot... I had not anticipated the trek that would ensue and wore flip flops... that
would later turn out to be a bit of a mistake lol... We started our climb up a steep, narrow cobblestone road, and then onto several STEEP staircases... when I say steep, i mean 11th-14th century steep... people would never be allowed to walk on these stairs without a harness or something back in Canada lol. Can't say I'm not getting a workout while I am here! After a 30 min of quad and ass burn, along with being soaking wet from sweat, we reached the Moorish Castle... and ate ice cream lol - we deserved it. The Moorish Castle or (Castelo dos Mouros) was built in the 9th century by the Moors from North Africa to guard the town. It fell into disrepair after Christians overtook it and was in disrepair until the 19th century when it became part of the Peña Palace grounds. The views from up there were spectacular! you can see the entire town of Sintra as well as a great vantage of Peña palace.
The Castelo dos Mouros actually took a while to see in its entirely.. was definitely worth the trip... We continued on to Peña palace, and unfortunately, it was after noon
and about a 2 hour wait to get tickets and actually get into the palace.. We made an exec decision (we were hungry, tired from climbing) to abandon Pena and head back down to Sintra for lunch. We hitched a ride with a tour operator, who told us that instead of the SIntra palace, after lunch we should see Quinta de Regaleira... We found a cute tapas restaurant up in the the hills away from the main drag, and enjoyed some lunch before heading over to Quinta de Regaleira. Quinta Regaleira was built by a wealthy Portuguese Businessman in 1904 - new by European standards, the house itself is ornate and beautiful, but the whimsical, enchanting gardens with never-endig underground tunnels, wells, grottos and waterfalls was certainly worth seeing!
After Quinta - it was beer o'clock and we found a place in town, and bought a few Queijadas... these are different from the pastels de nata (custard-filled pastries) in that they are filled with cheese and cinnamon... they are apparently from the Sintra Region and are a must try!
Tomorrow we are headed north to Porto... looking forward to that!
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Hills and rewards
If there was ice cream at the top of every steep climb, I think I would climb more often :) Really enjoying following your trip, and looking forward to reading about Porto