Day 12: Sintra and a decent climb/Sintra et une montee interessant

Sintra had been recommended as a place we should visit. I was not sure what to expect except that it was cooler than Lisbon and learned that it was where the wealthy escape to during the summer to avoid the heat.

An example of the style of buildings in Sintra

It was an easy train ride although getting from the Metro to the district rail was much more of a challenge. However with a bit of help we managed to find Rossio station (an absolutely beautiful piece of architecture) and fortuitously the train was about to leave just when we arrived.

A museum in Sintra with distinctive chimneys

Sintra has to be the cleanest and tidiest town in Portugal (based, admittedly on our limited experience of Portuguese towns) with virtually no graffiti, clean and tidy streets and the park we walked through beautifully maintained. It also had a huge concentration of tourists. I would not like to be there when it is peak season.

After a walk through the centre of the town we decided to climb up to the ruins of a Moorish castle at the top of a hill. We discovered a walking track that took us up through a park and then around underneath the castle. While the path was not particularly difficult being paved for about half of it, it was an uphill grind. It went under the steep sided cliffs where mad people can do up to 72 different climbs with or without the safety of ropes. - in fact we came

The clean and very busy street to Sintra centre

across one woman just beginning her climb and as we wandered past decided we wouldn’t add it to our list of “must do”. I really enjoyed the exercise and for a while it felt like we were the only ones on the side of the “mountain”. However, by the time we got to the top the crowds who took a bus or tuktuk up there were present in abundance.

Resting for a moment

After another entrance fee we spent a pleasant hour or two wandering around the castle. Some of it was very narrow and even the narrowest portions did not have any guardrails so it felt very original and at times a little scary. The steep steps on a couple of areas did have a rail for support (not safety).

The views of Sintra and beyond were superb and if my camera had had more battery life then I would taken many more pictures than I did. Perhaps that was a good thing.

Phew! Almost there. Cliffs for climbing behind

We returned via the same path but it was much shorter as this time we now knew where we were going. We even found a shorter way to get back to the train and it took us through a maze of little lanes full of shops and tourists. As a reward for our hiking efforts we stopped and enjoyed a gelato.

On our return to Lisbon we disembarked at Rossio Station and found a Ginjinha bar nearby

where we had a local drink of cherry brandy. It had a bit of fire in it and I liked the strong cherry flavour.

I had found an elevator that would take us up near the castle, close to our AirBnB and as it was our last night I wanted to have a drink with a view. A number of the places we went to were either not open or closing but eventually, very close to our apartment, we found a nice place to have a drink and watch the sun begin its descent over the horizon. It was a very nice way to end our rather too short a stay in Lisbon.