The trip
Do not expect anything from a site has a distinct advantage: your ability to surprise is infinite. I expected little more from my visit to Sintra, upon arrival, noisily burst into rain and the sky darkened. But we got to walk the trails of the hill of Pena Palace and everything changed.
Sintra is a romantic whim of a king artist, Fernando II, consort of Maria II of Portugal, who in the mid nineteenth century wanted to turn around a decaying old chapel into a garden exotic palace crowned by a fairytale. And, course,got it. The Palacio da Pena, with its towers and battlements of medieval painted with colors typical of Buenos Aires Caminito, does not leave you indifferent. The contemplation of this Carcassonne Luso horrifies you or love you. I thought it was an anachronism sympathetic, the fickleness of a melancholy soul, romantic wink of a king who pursued his dream and wanted to share it with posterity. In the case of royalty, a thoughtful.
We arrived by train from Lisbon Rossio Station in just 40 minutes despite the wishes of tons of tourists, there is not peeped any agglomeration. Of course we got up early, November was a Sunday and the rain invited over to enjoy a quiet day in Lisbon to head for a mountainous area of more severe weather. Input, the option to walk up the palace was out for obvious reasons. Better get on the bus serving the route, leaving a few meters from the station, opposite the tourist office.
The ascent is winding among the foliage of the forest, actually planted a garden to fit the exotic taste of the monarch. Once up (There is an intermediate stop at the Moorish Castle but we chose to visit him back in the hope that the time for a truce), and after paying the entrance walk climbed the ramps leading to the main entrance (for a few euros more, I remember, a minibus save this little effort). Passing under an arch topped by a tower with the coat of arms of King Ferdinand, and walked by a tale by the Brothers Grimm, as if we had slipped into the castle, suspended in the mist, the ferocious giant "Jack and the Beanstalk". Two things attract our attention on the main facade: geometric tiles with which the king wanted to leave the imprint Lusa and, on the porch, triton with a human face and body of fish that happens to be an allegory of the creation of the world.
The place is idyllic, magic shows, and now has, also, the advantage that nobody wants to go into the forest filled with clay trails carpeted with fallen leaves and childhood fears
The interior of the palace visit with curiosity, but without a hint of passion. Traveling through these rooms full of pomp and palatial magnificence feel the same anywhere in the world: all revolutions seem few. At least we run from the rain for a while, now falls with unusual vigor to make vomit liters of water to the gargoyles of Manueline monastery cloister.
The best in these cases is to hit the string with any employee, of those that grow in the different rooms encased in gray uniforms rail reviewers. We are lucky and we with a linguist who, also, has lived in Spain, what redeems us to engage one of those surreal conversations "appreciative" that end with the classic: "For it is not so difficult to Portuguese, means any ". After a makeshift coven with our respective economic crisis, seasoned with the usual string of insults on the political, counsels us not to go up, as we wanted, the Cruz Alta, the highest point of the Sintra hills (530 meters). "With the fog that is not going to see anything, best trails down the valley of lakes, yes this is a very cool ", suggests.
We took the advice to the letter and, although jarreando and haze is not dispersed, soon understand what the hue wise. To understand the romance of King you go down this path that seems swayed by the dark. Because the sovereign was a romance with emergency exit. Here, surrounded by exotic trees in Australia, America, Asia and North Africa, Don Fernando was building a house for his mistress, the opera singer Elisa Hensler, to finally marry the widower of Queen Mary. The place is idyllic, magic shows, and now has, also, the advantage that nobody wants to go into the forest filled with clay trails carpeted with fallen leaves and childhood fears . The tourist bus is imposed.
While the thundering sky shakes with tears, descend to the unique source of Pajaritos, Moorish style. From that point, a succession of lakes and flooded towers (are actually pens of ducks) further accentuate the load place melancholic, where the autumn leaves and ferns rival the colors and shapes. The forest is thoroughly sweating and moisture is increasing, but only for this trip I will always remember the king's romantic Sintra. And even apologize architectural reverie of "Dungeons & Dragons".
Once at the gate of lakes, next to the guard shack, walked to the parking lot remembering the last recommendation of the friendly usher, we talked to a path that circumvents the road until you reach the entrance to the Moorish Castle, now you can not visit because the pavement is slippery and dangerous. This castle was donated to Muslims, while Sintra, by King Alfonso VI of Leon in the eleventh century and handed over half a century after the first king of Portugal, Don Alfonso Henriques.
The road continues to Sintra, Soaked but we prefer to wait for the bus. Eye! the way down is different upstream and return by bus to go back up there on the road to the desk of the Palacio da Pena. We fell into the account after half an hour of waiting and curses we could only see up buses (rain, apparently, undermines the ability deductive).
A table set
Although eminently Sintra is a tourist, you can eat cheaply around the National Palace, unmistakable with its characteristic pair of conical chimneys (although all photos are pure white, the truth is that the present natural gray color). Before leaving the city, is forced to taste the typical pastry travesseiros Piriquita (Rua das Padarias s / n, very close to the esplanade of the National Palace).
A nap
If there is a unique accommodation in Sintra and uniting all its romantic essence that is the Lawrence's Hotel (Councillors Rua Pedroso, 38-40, past the tourist office). Between the walls of colonial Lord Byron stayed. Little more need be.
Highly Recommended
-A good option to return to Lisbon is to head to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of Europe (latitude 38 ° 47'N and longitude 9 ° 30 'W) and then south towards Cascais and Estoril before heading to the capital. The route can be completed on the day (There are buses that connect the different points), although it is best to reserve a night not to walk in a hurry.
