One place that should be on everybody's travel bucket list is the beautiful Sintra, if you haven't heard of it, it's a town full of mystery, romance and history on the west coast of Portugal. It could be one of the most beautiful places I have had the pleasure of visiting, as it's not like anywhere else I've gone to before. If you're chilling and munching away in Lisbon, I recommend you hop on a cheap direct train from Rossio station to Sintra for a day trip. It takes less than 40 minutes and a return trip will only set you back €4.30.
One of my travel guilty pleasures is visiting places listed on the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) heritage and cultural list. I know, it's a bit of a mouthful. I'm sure most of you know about the list - but if not you should totally have a gander.
And rightly so, Sintra is on that list:
Before we get onto the pretty stuff, we can't forget the all important PASTRIES. Periquita is the bakery of this town, and you should definitely stop by. It's just off the main square and is bright yellow so it's easy to spot. Go there and grab a Travesseiros. They are Sintra’s traditional sweet pastry, filled with an almond cream filling. You can get all different flavours, and Periquita has been following their traditional recipe since 1862! Yummmmeh.
Now we can get onto the good stuff! Walking around the town is beautiful; green rolling hills and cobbled streets. Sintra is said to be chocka with palaces, a friendly taxi driver told me there were NINE. I like to believe him, but I can't actually find anything to back that up... (Damnit José!) If I had more time, I would have visited as may as I could find so I could validate, but given that we only really had one full day to enjoy Sintra's mystery, we chose to narrow it down to two to explore fully. Otherwise, I reckon you'd just be too palace'd out to appreciate them.
Stop One: an atmospheric step back in time, Castelo dos Mouros, aka, Moorish Castle,. The castle was built strategically on the top of the Sintra mountains in the 8th and 9th century. It's about an hour's hike up the mountains to the castle from the town, and in the sweltering heat I wouldn't really recommend it, you'll be doing a lot of walking anyway! You can get the 434 bus from outside the National Palace in the town, (the one with the humongous chimneys) and it takes you all the way up. (If you're not sure whether to bus or walk at this point, look straight up and you should be able to see the castle - that definitely helped us make up our mind!) It costs €5 for a return ticket, which I thought wasn't bad value as you'll spend more than that on water if you walk up! The queue looks big, but that just means you're in the right place and it'll go down fairly quick - just buy them from the driver.
When you get up there, frustratingly you of course need to pay for more tickets. Depending on how many places you want to visit, you can get discount on combination tickets, so we ended up paying €7,60 for this pleasure, but it was worth it. The walk along to the castle is mystifying enough, but when you go through the archway, WOWSERZZ. You don't really realise how high you've come until you start looking around the ruins. The main thing that struck me was the lack of any safety barriers and how high we were! It sounds a bit lame, but it was SO refreshing to be trusted as a tourist and to freely look out at the views (but then again, I wasn't there with any young children!) Once you get to the last point of the ruins, you'll be able to see Pena Palace. Wonder round, get a drink, and soak it all in, because it's only going to get better.
Stop Two: The fairy tale castle, aka, Pena Palace. I believe you can go back to the original bus stop and catch the 434 again round to Pena Palace on your same bus ticket, but it is a nice stroll if you're feeling up to it; only 5-10 mins. This beauty is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site which I wrote about earlier; but not only that, it is even considered as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. Architecturally, it's stunning and one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the whole DAMN WORLD. I could have spent hours wandering the grounds of this place, the bright colours make the whole atmosphere so magical. It's one of my favourite spots I've visited, and I can't recommend it enough. If I haven't already, I don't want to boost it up TOO much, because you need to experience it for yourself. However we bought a ticket (on the combo price) for €9,98 which included the grounds, the palace and the terrace. I'd really recommend paying those extra €3 or whatever it is to see the terrace; you get great views from there. You can pay more again to go and see the rooms inside, but personally I'm more interested by exterior architecture rather interior so I didn't bother.
Stop Three: After a day exploring, we ventured back into town to find somewhere to eat. There's lots of yummy stops tucked away in the windy cobbled streets, so no doubt you'll find somewhere which is good value, with atmosphere, and most likely a good view!
SO - what have we learnt from all this? That Sintra is one that should definitely be added to your bucket list. If you have gone, and you had the chance to visit some of the other palaces, do comment below and let me know where else I should go... I'd be MORE than happy to find some extra excuses to to go back!
Kommentare