Day 4 - Getting to Sinra

# Pateis de Nata: 2, Distance Walked: 6.2km, # Floors Climbed: 33

I didn't do much today as I just had to spend a lot of time sitting around.  I originally had planned to take a train from Porto to Sintra. However, the train drivers are in negotiations with the national rail company about their wages.  In other words, they are on strike.  I ended up taking a bus instead.

I had to check out of my Porto hotel by 10:30am but my bus wasn't until 1pm.  I spent longer than necessary getting t the bus station by metro (different unions so not on strike) but I still got there with almost 2 hours to spare.  I had a quick lunch, including a suprisingly Good pastel de nata, at the bus station cafe and then sat around.

Eventually the bus showed up, we all piled on and then spent another 4 hours sitting.  I can't read on a bus.  It makes me car sick.

I'd paid extra for a window seat by the front.  Next to me was an American man with his wife and child across the aisle.  As soon as we were underway he switched to sitting in the empty row behind us.  He then had an intense discussion with his wife about whether She might be willing to swap with him so he could sit by his wife and not have to sit by a stranger.  However, She had paid extra for her seat and She also didn't like being talked about as if she was deaf/stupid so She didn't budge.  Also, She figured he could cope with sitting in a different row to his wife and child.

The bus station in Sintra is about 2km out of town so I had to get a taxi to my hotel.  This proved to be a bit of an adventure.  The taxi driver only spoke Portuguese and French so describing where I wanted to go was a bit of a challenge.  Complicating matters was Sintra make Porto seem flat!  Porto might have been hilly, but it had roads going up and down.  Sintra has alleys and staircases.  You can't actally drive up to the front door of my hotel, just to the head of the stairs down from a nearby road.  These are near a bus stop.  I eventually dredged up how to say bus stop in Portuguese (a paragem do autocarro) and stairs in French (escalier) so we made it.  I felt rather smug.

My hotel here is another old building and once again I'm in the attic.  This time with sloping ceiling.  I've already banged my head once and I'm not exactly tall.  My room is theoretically a double but I wouldn't want to share it.  The glass enclosure on the left is the shower and the one on the right is the toilet.  Not much in the way of privacy.

After settling in I went for a bit of wander around Sintra.  I picked up a map from the tourist information centre but this is largely useless.  A 2D representation of something as determinedly 3D as Sintra isn't very informative.

I had an early dinner as lunch had been very meagre by holiday standards.  This proved a bit difficult as most of the actual restaurants don't open until at least 7pm.  Most of the places that are open earlier cater to day trippers and serve the Portuguese equivalent of burgers and chips.  I wanted something a little better than that so I ended up at a pizzeria again.  I had a very Good meal there.  The pizzaiolo was actually Asian but very good at his craft.  The pizzas are made in a woodfired oven, are thin and crispy with the right amount of topping.  For dessert I had a tiramisu that was almost as good as mine.  The biscuit part had been soaked a touch too long but that was the only thing that stopped it being Absolutely Delicious.

I'm going to have dinner at a Portuguese restaurant tomorrow night that was recommended by the hotel.  I will not eat anything fishy.  Perhaps I will have a Good meal there too.  Fingers crossed.