24th Feb 2016
Sintra is an amazing town !
It was pretty miserable in Estoril, with rain showers and cool weather,
so after we had packed up we moved up to the restaurant where they had good
coffee and good wifi ! We were only
planning the short drive into Lisbon today, so there was no hurry, although
looking in the guide books it sounded as though the little town of Sintra up in
the hills looked interesting, so we planned a short detour there en route. But with the rain continuing, we ended up
staying in the restaurant and eventually had our lunch there before setting
off. On the way up to Sintra we passed
the local F1 (cars and bikes) race track at Estoril – Couldn’t see much due to
fencing but it nestles in the hills above Estoril and seems quite an undulating
track – I will have to pay more attention next time a race from there is on the
TV !
Well, Sintra is unbelievable !! It was the summer residence of the kings
of Portugal, and the Moorish lords before them, and has long been celebrated.
British travellers of the 18th and 19th C’s loved it,
recording the old Spanish saying ”To see the world and leave out Sintra is to
go blind about”. Even Byron in 1809
claimed it “to be the most delightful place in Europe”. It is home to two of Portugal’s most
extraordinary palaces, some lavish private estates, and a Moorish castle with
breathtaking views over Lisbon.
The roads are tiny and twist and turn around the mountainsides and
ravines – If you take a wrong turning you end up having to go right round the
city’s one way streets to get back again !
We passed the incredible Palacio dos Milhoes with its turrets and
towers, past the Palacio Nacional (from 1385, but last occupied in the 1880’s)
which is now a museum, and suddenly above us we see this most amazing castle
set high on bare rock above us – The Castelo dos Mouros. Built in the 9th
C, it is truly perched on a mountain top, and how it was captured in 1147 by
Alfonso Henriques and some Scandinavian Crusaders, I don’t know. No sooner have you spied this castle, then a
few corners later you see this amazing red and yellow building above you
through the trees – The Palacio da Pena.
We also passed Monserrate – The Victorian folly type mansion set in a
vast botanical park of exotic trees and subtropical shrubs. While one wealthy Englishman (William
Beckford) had an original impact on it,
in 1850 Sir Francis Cook took over, even importing Kew’s head gardener
to lay out the gardens.
Finally we went to the Conveto dos Capuchos (The Cork Convent) which is
reached by driving though increasingly rocky terrain. It was built in 1560, and
is remarkable for its supreme simplicity, embodying the ideal of universal
brotherhood by the Franciscan friars who lived there. It is an extraordinary
hermitage with tiny dwarf like cells cut from the rock and lined in cork – Thus
the name. It was occupied for over 300
years and finally abandoned in 1834 by its 7 remaining monks. The cell doorways
are about 3 feet high and can only be entered by crawling through. Yet in there
are also a washroom, kitchen, tiny chapels, and even a bread oven ! Just the most amazing place.
By now it was getting late – We hadn’t expected to find so much to see
in Sintra, otherwise we would have left Estoril earlier ! So we dropped back through the narrow streets
of town again, past the Royal Palace, and down into Lisbon below.
We planned to stay in a camp site tonight, and then move into a hotel
tomorrow, but when we got to the camp site the weather forecast for tonight was
rain, and as the hotel we were looking at was literally over the road from the
camp site, we decided two dry nights in a hotel was far better than one wet
night in a camp site ! So we checked into
the hotel, started unloading Janet’s stuff from the car so she could pack for
her trip home, and planned what we would go and look at in Lisbon
tomorrow.
Photos are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0431SintraAndOnToLisbon?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLC4o6_2oDoDA
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