First peek at Sintra

Once we unpacked, we headed off in search of food and to check out the local area. On our way into Sintra we passed a number of beautiful old buildings in wonderful condition and a couple of the palaces, including the Palacio Da Quinta da Regaleria, which we had visited on our day trip to Sintra in 2019. Being Sunday afternoon there were lots of people out and about, including large tour groups parading about the place.

We passed a five star hotel called Lawrences that had a restaurant, so we thought we would give it a go and we are glad we did. It was a beautiful restaurant with lovely staff and great food and wine. As we were going out for dinner, we only had a light lunch of olives, codfish croquettes (best ever) and a cheese board. I had a glass of green wine and Ian had a local red, both were excellent.

After being watered and feed we kept walking into the centre of the old city of Sintra to check out the tourist info centre, the Sintra National Palace and the shops. We bought tickets for the public bus so that we could get up to to Peña Palace the following day. We walked up some narrow and winding laneways to check out what was on offer in relation to pastries. We saw a few fine establishments, which we took note of so that we could return to the next day to try out their products.

We ventured further up a laneway and discovered a lovely place called Bar Fonte Da Pippa where we stopped for a drink. I had a white Sangria and Ian had a beer. The Sangria was the best I have had this trip and gets an A+. We chatted to a lovely British couple and their five year old daughter Hattie before heading back to our hotel.

We had about an hour before we headed out again for dinner. I had booked a place called Romania de Baco, which got very good reviews and did not disappoint.Read more