Two Days in Sintra

I extracated myself from Lisbon to spend a couple of days in Sintra. Less than an hour on the train, but a world away. It was worth going just to smell the mossy hillsides!

I followed the good advice to go midweek, as the tourists apparently smother the place on summer weekends. I arrived late at night and stumbled mapless with a heavy pack to Nice Way Sintra Palace, a paradise of a hostel. It’s in an old mansion, with a lovely interior and yard, and the staff and owners were the best hosts one can imagine. You should go stay there.

The next morning, I walked up a lot of hills to the old Moorish castle, then made my way to Pena Palace. It’s a wonderfully ridiculous place–a gratuitous and extravagant playground. I bet the grounds were better maintained back when the royals whiled their days away there, but all the exotic trees they planted are more mature now, and us rabble are allowed to visit. So maybe that’s an OK tradeoff. Below is a view of the palace from Cruz Alta (a giant cross on a mountain top), and, deep in the woods, the Tanque dos Frades, which I assume was the reservoir used by the monastery that was up there before the palace.

On my way down the mountain, I picked up some groceries to cook for dinner, and sketched a twilight view near (I think?) Sabuga Fountain (where I filled up my water bottle, as seems to be the fashion). Lower on the page are some items from the communal table at the hostel that night, and finally, the Nice Way Palace hostel itself.

(Though I didn’t sketch it–I was too busy exploring–my favorite place in Sintra was Quinta da Regaleira. It’s the fantasy estate the eight-year-old me would have built.)