Day 2 - A Morning in Sintra

We both slept like babies over night. It was probably something to do with the alcohol we had consumed, but possibly more to do with the extremely comfortable bed we were in. I woke around 5.45am to write my blog and Jackie finally roused around 7.45am.

We went down to breakfast at 9am to an anticipated smorgasbord of breakfast delights. Breakfast was not a disappointment and we, ok I, made sure that we got our monies worth.

We started on the savoury options and I had one of everything including quiche, omelette and aubergines with a double pouring of coffee. I then piled 6 different dessert type delicacies on to a plate with another double coffee and ate them until I couldn’t eat another morsel. Jackie did the same, but on a much less grander (greedier) scale.

Just before 10am, we headed out for the day. We walked down to Rossio railway station and using our Lisboa card, boarded the next train to Sintra. It was a fairly pleasant 40 minute train ride to Sintra with a train full of fellow tourists.

Sintra is a charming Portuguese town situated within the cooling hills of the Serra de Sintra. Once a summer retreat for Portuguese nobility and royalty, this UNESCO World Heritage Site delights visitors with its wealth of opulent palaces, extravagant villas, and historic sites, all set amidst lush forests and jagged hills.
These world-class tourist sights include the whimsical Palácio da Pena, the ruins of the Moorish castle, the mystical gardens of the Quinta da Regaleira, and the Arabian-inspired Palácio de Monserrate.
This variety of fascinating sights, abundance of Portuguese charm and stunning natural scenery, make Sintra an outstanding tourist destination, which is regarded as the best day trip of the Lisbon region. A visit to this wonderful town is often a highlight of a trip to Portugal.

Upon arrival at Sintra, we fought through the teeming throngs of tour guides, Tuk-tuk drivers, buses to Pena Palace etc etc all vying for our business. We had no plans to visit any of the above listed ‘world-class’ tourist sites, but intended to take just a gentle stroll to and through the Sintra’s Historic Centre and just take in the sights.

Our well trodden route took us along a circular road littered with random sculptures and overlooking the gardens leading down to Anjos Teixera Museum, a free museum, but unfortunately closed on Mondays.

In the Historic Centre we located the National Palace of Sintra, also called Town Palace (Palácio da Vila), which is a present-day historic house museum. It is allegedly the best-preserved medieval royal residence in Portugal, being inhabited more or less continuously from at least the early 15th century to the late 19th century. It is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We walked on Quinta da Regaleira, a manor house and estate also known as the Regaleira Palace. The estate is another UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its mysterious gardens, lakes, caves, and symbolic structures like the Initiation Well. At the entrance we took a couple of photos through and over the fence then headed back.

Sintra is famous for its ‘sweet treats’, a pair of words together that I find offensive, like some people have for the word ‘moist’. Anyway, these sweet treats are Queijada, a type of small sweet prepared using cheese or requeijão, eggs, milk, and powdered sugar or Travesseiros which are made with puff pastry, egg yolks, almonds and sugar.

Nearly every tourist was walking round eating a Travesseiros or carrying their purchases around in a box. We were still too full from breakfast, so we bought and necked a custard tart liqueur instead!

We walked back to the train station and had a choice of 2 trains to catch behind signs both suggesting that within minutes of each other, they going back to Rossio Station, where we had originally boarded. We picked the left hand train, purely because it was apparently leaving first.

Our train duly departed the station first and we sat back to enjoy the journey to Lisbon city centre, without taking in the stations we were stopping at. About 45 minutes later, the train came to a stop and announcements told us the train terminated here. We, with several other passengers were bewildered. It transpired that we had terminated at Lisboa Oriente, a station up the river from Lisbon and close to the airport.

Luckily for us, Lisboa Oriente was on the Metro Line that we had used the previous day from the airport. It took us another 30 minutes, 12 stops and one Metro line change to reach Rossio Station.

After lots of sitting around, we marched through the streets and up hundreds more steps to São Jorge Castle. Before entering, we espied a little terrace bar with views out over the Tagus River. We shared a bottle of white wine and a fizzy water, then headed for the castle and free entry using our Lisboa cards.

São Jorge Castle, sometimes known in English as Saint George's Castle, is a historic castle in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, located in the freguesia of Santa Maria Maior. Human occupation of the castle hill dates to at least the 8th century BC while the oldest fortifications on the site date from the 2nd century BC. The hill on which Saint George's Castle stands has played an important part in the history of Lisbon, having served as the location of fortifications occupied successively by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors, before its conquest by the Portuguese in the 1147 Siege of Lisbon.

We walked around the impressive ruins with its numerous roaming peacocks and resisted the urge to have a beer on the ramparts looking out over the city.

We then walked down through the winding streets to Lisbon Cathedral, but we did not enter because we had to pay, albeit at a discounted rate.

The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major, often called Lisbon Cathedral or simply the Sé, is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is the oldest church in the city, built in 1147. The cathedral has survived many earthquakes and has been modified, renovated and restored several times, resulting in a mix of different architectural styles. It is the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon, and has been classified as a National Monument since 1910.

Instead we walked on to Saint Anthony’s Church, virtually next door which was free to enter. Jackie lit a candle for mum and said her prayers.

The Santo António Church is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Lisbon. According to tradition, the church was built on the site where the saint was born, in 1195. The church is classified as a National Monument.

Jackie was now getting peckish and insisted we find a Tapas bar to sate her hunger. We selected O Cocas, a little Tapas Bar with outside tables on a pedestrianised street. We ordered a bottle of red wine with a selection of veal croquettes, a plate of fried pork ribs and a bowl of garlic mushrooms all very reasonably priced. It was very pleasant, but if we were being super critical the croquettes would have been nice with a serving of aioli mayonnaise, the ribs could’ve been a bit crispier and we should’ve ordered a portion of bread for the mushrooms.

On the way back home, Jackie stopped at a pick and mix sweet shop, where she selected a couple of literally everything, which resulted in a bulging bag costing over €14.

We continued past the Santa Justa Lift, also called Carmo Lift, which is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Justa, in the historical city of Lisbon, Portugal. Situated at the end of Rua de Santa Justa, it connects the lower streets of the Baixa with the higher Largo do Carmo (Carmo Square). Since its construction, the Lift has become a tourist attraction for Lisbon as, among the urban lifts in the city, Santa Justa is the only remaining vertical (conventional) one.

Unfortunately it wasn’t operating at that time so we had to keep climbing ourselves. We eventually ended up near home and dived in to an appealing bar but predominantly because I urgently needed to use the loo.

The wine bar was called Casa da Praia Tapas and Wine Bar. We found a prime seat and ordered a bottle of white wine and a portion of goat’s cheese and tomato jam, which came with a basket of bread. Jackie decided she wasn’t hungry so I was forced to eat the lot, which was very nice. The bar waiter was too fussy, filling up our water glasses the moment we had a sip from it and the female owner was a quite miserable. When we came to pay, she tried once to use her credit card reader then said we would have to pay by cash. Luckily for her, we had cash and we were happy to actually spend it!

Subsequently reading reviews for Casa da Praia Tapas and Wine Bar, it would seem that a lot of people had come to the same conclusion about the staff. Maybe they should read the reviews themselves to see how they could improve.

It was 8pm when we returned to our hotel. I popped down to see receptionist Joana, who told me to help myself to coffees from the breakfast machine. She also gave me extra coffee sachets and a cup of milk for the room and a recommendation for dinner tomorrow night. Bless her.

By 8.30pm, we were both asleep.

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