Day 6 - Sintra Part 2

# Pasteis de Nata: 3, Distance Walked: 16.1km, # Floors Climbed: 183

Today I walked up to the Pena Palace and the Castle of the Moors in the hills overlooking Sintra, hence the crazy number of floors climbed.

The Pena Palace originally was a monastery but later became the summer palace of the Portuguese royal family.  It is ridiculously colourful and set in enormous grounds.  It is very popular with tourists so entry into the palace itself is timed.  You have to buy a ticket for a particular entry time on a particular day and if you show up late you aren't allow in.

I bought a ticket for the earliest time slot, 9:30am.  I decided to walk up to the palace from Sintra as I felt I needed the exercise to help prepare for the hiking starting next week.  Even though it is only a little under 3km to get there, it is very hilly and I was warned it takes about 70 minutes to get to the palace gates and then another 30 minutes to get to the palace itself.  I thought this was probably an over-estimate but decided to head out at about 7:30am for a leisurely breakfast in a cafe before climbing up the palace.  Unfortunately, nothing was open in the centre of Sintra at that hour.  All the cafes in the historic centre cater to tourists, who are either day trippers from Lisbon or else staying in hotels with sensible breakfast policies.  Eventually a bakery opened at 8am so I was able to get pastry with spinach and cheese along with a Good pastel de nata and, of course, coffee before setting off.

In the end it took me 45 minutes to get to the palace gates and another 15 minutes to get to the palace itself.  I entered between two tour groups but this was fine as the groups were fairly small and the tours were in English so I got a free tour myself.  You were moved fairly briskly through the palace but it was an interesting visit all the same.

Next I spent a few hours ambling around the palace gardens.  These weren't gardens so much as native forest with the occasional building or fountain tucked away in random locations.  The gardens at the Quinta de Regaleria were lovelier.  After this I had to trek back (uphill!) to the palace to buy some lunch from the caf their since I didn't get a chance to buy anything in Sintra.  After one slightly stale roll and one slightly stale and totally Dull pastry later it was off to my next stop.

This was the Castle of the Moors about 1km away.  As the name suggests this was originally built by the Moors in the 10th century when Portugal was part of their kingdom.  It has been modified over the years and nothing much of the interior of the castle remains but about 2/3 of the battlements/castle walls are still standing.  I spent a pleasant time walking around the walls which featured steep, slippery steps, precipitous drops and a severe absence of railings.  I didn't push anyone off the battlements which I believe shows great strength of character.  People en masse, particularly when they are in the form of tourists, are very annoying.

I then staggered back to Sintra and bought my 3rd pastel de nata for the day from the third bakery in town.  It was sadly Dull.  Much too sweet and the pastry was burnt on the bottom. 

For dinner tonight I just went to one of the tourist traps in town.  The food was merely Decent but the service was excellent.  I was made to feel welcme and wanted by professionally friendly and charming waiters.  I had a traditional bean stew which came with random (cheap) cuts of slow cooked pork.  It was a touch too salty for me and could have used some fresh parsley and perhaps a squeeze of lemon but was perfectly Decent.  They were out of all the desserts I wanted to try so I settled for the apple pie.  This came as 3 even layers.  The base was a biscuit crumb, the middle layer was stewed apple and the top layer was a sort of custard made from condensed milk.  The whole thing came liberally dusted with cinnamon.  Again, I think this is a traditional dish.  It was Decent verging on Good.  However, when I went to pay I was asked if I wanted to leave a tip.  This was the first time I've been asked that.  Tourists spoiling things for everyone again.  I did leave one since the service was pleasing to my wounded ego.

I'm off to Santiago do Cacém tomorrow to begin the official hiking part of my holiday.  I think my  first official hiking day will be shorter and flatter than today!