“Everything in Sintra is divine. There is no corner that is not a poem” (Eça De Queirós, Os Maias, 1888)

Friday 19^th June, 

Lisbon to Sintra & return

We made an early start on our train travel to Sintra – mountain-top home of the palaces of the Portuguese Royal Family, a Moorish Castle, a royal hunting ground, gardens and many other attractions. As with other Portuguese sights there was minimal customer service unless you said, “Obrigado” (for male) or “Obrigata” (for female) which means “thankyou” and then invariably you are greeted with a winning smile and the words, “Enjoy your day”.

The convent, friary, monastery, chapel/church that have been here in Sintra since time immemorial had at some point been taken over by the royal family on the dissolution of the religious order at the time. Or else rebuilt, renovated and refurbished at some point after the destruction of the 1755 earthquake. And of course the state had to do something with these incredible displays of total self-absorption by the royal family once the royal family either fled the country or were assassinated in 1908.

The Pena Palace, described as the “Versailles of Portugal”, looks like a Disney land fantasy: brightly coloured and decorated, but with relatively small rooms. The views across the valley and towards teh ocean are spectaular.

 However the older National Palace (closer to the station and lower down the hill) had far more character and atmosphere, especially with a magnificent Grand Room and an incredibly delicate ivory, bone & wood carving models of 2 thirteen story Chinese towers and temple (which was shipped over from Macau as a gift to a Portuguese queen in about 1800) and has been on permanent display in the same spot in the castle since 1830. There are many beautifully decorated rooms, of various themes: The Swan Hall, The Arab Room, The Julius Caesar Room  AND the Magpie Room. 

We had a lovely day, with a ride up a mountain on a Tuk Tuk chasing our bus and otherwise made all our connections to return home in time to enjoy a delicious and relaxing last dinner in Lisbon at one of the many restaurants just around the corner from where we are staying.

Portugal has fabulous wines, and we have enjoyed many of them over the past eight days: reds, whites, ports, rose. The restaurant we went to for our last meal in Lisbon, and before Karol and Michael depart for London, served only one rose, one which we were advised was only worth exporting" and not for Portuguese, was Mateus Rose. Back in the 70's Mateus was the height of sophistication for some........ Actually, it was OK, and we managed to get through the bottle, and Michael and Dick tried another Portuguese wine from Alentjo, which is rated very highly.

The waiter was hilarious (or thought he was) and played a number of tricks on Michael, including presenting him with a bill for 320 euros.

Now we are packed and ready to head off to Madrid in the morning.