Our plan was to set off somewhat early since we had to walk to the metro, take the metro to the train station, and then take the train to Sintra, and we wanted to have a good portion of the day to explore without having to return too late in the day. So, at about 7:30AM, we went to the Pastelaria around the corner from our apartment, expecting to get a quick breakfast before setting off. But they were closed. At the time, I assumed they were closed for the day since it was Monday and that is a common day for restaurants to be closed. However, I have since decided that it was probably just too early, as almost all Pastelarias we have encountered seem to open at 8:00AM.
We decided just to set off for the metro since we weren't super hungry and we had seen a Starbucks at the train station a few days prior. (As I mentioned briefly in my post about reducing waste while traveling, this is one of the places where we failed. We should have gone back to the apartment and taken our reusable cups with us, but we didn't.) We really felt like tourists going to a Starbucks while abroad, but, alas, we knew it would be a reliable option for coffee and breakfast on the go. It was funny to see that even Starbucks carries pastéis de nata in Lisbon! (Sorry for the terrible pastry case photo. We did not actually buy any this time.)
With our breakfast purchased, we left Starbucks and took the escalator up to the train station. Looking at the departures board, we discovered that a train was leaving for Sintra in four minutes. We were so glad that we had decided to top up our Viva Viagem transit cards the evening before. We didn't have to waste any time purchasing tickets or adding money; we just swiped our cards and were on the train with two minutes to spare. We couldn't have timed it more perfectly if we'd tried! Though, if we had arrived earlier, we might have gotten seats. As it was, we had to wait for a few stops before there were two seats available together.
Arriving in Sintra was very overwhelming. It is pretty clear that almost everyone getting off the train is a tourist there on a day trip. So, immediately upon exiting the station, we were mobbed by people trying to sell tours, private guides, and tuk tuk rides. This made it impossible to think or to figure out our game plan since we hadn't decided where we wanted to go first or how to get there. I was so frustrated that I just started walking. We had to get ourselves lost away from the crowd before we could pause to discuss our options. We finally settled on walking to the National Palace, which was closest to the train station. We found Rick Steves's directions to be confusing (I'm still certain they are wrong, as making a left turn would send us in the opposite direction as indicated on his map and Apple Maps), so we decided to follow GPS. I'm not sure this was entirely better. It took us down and then back up a steep hill. We got to see a bit of the cute town, but we were really sweating by the time we made it to the palace and had to peel off all the layers of clothes we were wearing. (We later discovered that there was another road with no hills that we could have taken...)
After pausing outside to cool down and finally eat our breakfast, we entered the National Palace. This is the oldest surviving royal palace in Portugal. It housed royalty until 1910 and is still used for official receptions today. The palace was originally built in Moorish times, but most of what is seen today was built by King João I in the 15th-century.
I particularly enjoyed the Bedchamber of King Sebastian for its tiled walls topped with corn cobs, a reminder of the "discovery" of the Americas. These tiles are considered to be the first of the now-famous Portuguese tiles, and were installed during the time of Manuel I, King Sebastian's great-grandfather. The story of King Sebastian is an interesting one as well. In 1578, at age 24, he chased the Moors out of Europe and followed them into Africa where he disappeared. Some "Sebastianists" awaited his return into the 19th century. King Sebastian had not married, and so his great uncle Henrique, as the only heir, became king. King Henrique only ruled for two years before dying himself. Again, the only heir was a great uncle, this time King Henrique's great uncle, King Philip II of Spain, and this led to 60 years of Spanish rule over Portugal.
We continued our circular tour through the palace and entered into Blazons Hall, or the Coat of Arms Room. This is an impressive room. The lower walls are entirely covered in blue tiles and the room is capped by a dazzling golden dome. The dome is filled with the coats of arms of Portugal's nobility. In the very center is the king's coat of arms. Below that are the coats of arms of his children. A row of stags separates the royal family from the Portuguese noble families, whose coats of arms fill the lower rows. All but one family, that is. The Távora family had conspired to assassinate the king. The entire family was executed and they were given a blank niche in the dome. Below these coats of arms, a Latin phrase encircles the room reading, "Honoring all the noble families who've been loyal to the king." Certainly seems like a reminder to the rest of the noble families to stay in line...
We progressed along the self-guided tour, finally making it to the kitchen, which was the room we were most interested to see. The palace has these two weird conical spires (one of which can be seen in the photo above) that dominate the profile of the palace, and indeed the town, and which I had never seen in other European architecture. These were part of the ingenious ventilation system of the kitchen. The cones are actually huge chimneys. Any smoke coming from cooking in the large kitchen was funneled up into these cones and out of the building. The rest of the kitchen also sported the latest in cooking technology. The chef could roast a whole cow on the spit in the center. There was also a large dish warmer to keep plates of food warm and running water.
Since we hadn't figured out our plan beyond visiting the National Palace due to the train station mob, we now had to decide what to see next. I consulted my Rick Steves book, only to discover that it would be a one-hour hike uphill to the next closest site. Lisbon may be known for being hilly, but it has nothing on the mountain-sized "hills" of Sintra. Thankfully, the city also has a bus that runs in a one-way loop to all the major sites. (This is partly why we were so stressed out by the mob at the train station. There is a bus station right outside the train station, but I was pretty sure it was going the wrong direction from where we wanted to go first. I ended up being right, but it was so hectic we couldn't even pause to look at the bus map or our guidebook without being accosted.) We found the bus stop outside the National Palace, paid way too much for a day pass so that we could ride it the entire way around the loop after our site visits, and set off for Pena Palace.
Even though the bus has taken you far up winding hills, when you arrive at the Palace gate you are still a very steep hill away from the Palace. They conveniently offer a shuttle for €3 apiece. When another tourist scoffed at the exorbitant price, the shuttle driver just laughed and said "It's all up hill." There was no way we were walking up that hill. Please take our money, shuttle driver.
Pena Palace is quite fantastical. Built in the 19th century on a hill high above Sintra, it is a multitude of brightly hued colors and a mishmash of Gothic, Renaissance, Moorish, and Manueline features piled on top of each other.
After wandering through the Palace, we decided to have lunch. Pena Palace has both a cafe and a sit-down restaurant, and we opted for the latter. It was actually pretty good for an attraction restaurant. I had cod and potatoes in gravy and, of course, a pastel de nata.
We opted not to visit the third main attraction in Sintra, the ruins of a Moorish Castle, since we were running low on time and it would have involved a lot of hiking up hills. But we were glad to be able to see it from one of the balconies at Pena Palace.
It was now mid-afternoon and we decided it was time to head back to Lisbon. We took the shuttle back down from Pena Palace and caught the Sintra bus to the train station. The trip downhill on the bus convinced us that we might actually be riding the Knight Bus with the way it squeezed through the narrowest of passageways between ancient brick walls and 19th century buildings. We made it to the train station alive only to discover that there were no trains going to Rossio station, were we had departed from that morning. I asked the ticket person about it, and he confirmed that we were indeed reading the departures board correctly. He recommended that we take the train to Oriente, which was departing momentarily. I knew there was a metro stop at that station, so we made the snap decision to take that train and rushed through the ticket turnstiles. The train doors shut right as we were about to board. Momentary panic ensued, but, thankfully, the doors still opened when the button was pushed and we were able to board. After an uneventful train ride and easy metro ride back to Alfama, we headed back to our apartment.
Since we were leaving Lisbon in the morning and still needed to pack, we decided to have dinner somewhere nearby. On the recommendation of our friends, we decided to have dinner at Alfama Celler, just a few streets away. It is a cute, hole-in-the-wall little restaurant with delicious food. In fact, I had the lamb stew and it was probably the best thing we ate on the whole trip! A perfect way to wrap up our visit to Lisbon.
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