Just a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon, but seemingly a world apart, lies the UNESCO World Heritage town of Sintra. The heat and bustle of the capital city is exchanged for fairytale palaces and castle ruins amid cool, pine forests and exotic gardens. Built on the mountains looking into the valley, you can’t ask for a more scenic place to feel like royalty for a day. We were also able to tack on quick visits to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in Europe, and the beach town of Cascais making this one of our favorite days during our time in Portugal.
For centuries, Sintra was the summer getaway of kings and aristocracy. Wealthy Portuguese and British built lavish palaces and luxurious gardens in the 18th and 19th centuries. Our first stop, which ended up being our favorite, was Quinta da Regaleira, a mansion and mystical garden built in 1912 by an Italian opera-set designer. The mansion was beautiful, but the grounds were definitely the highlight. Set on a gently sloping hillside, the grounds are full of fanciful follies, secret underground passages, waterfalls, grottos, and an inverted tower.
We made our way up into the garden to our first discovery, the Portal of the Guardians.
This dramatic structure with twin towers hid one of the entryways into a world of underground tunnels. We snuck inside and quickly went from a bright, sunny day to absolute darkness. I couldn’t see a thing and scrambled to find my iPhone for some light. Just around the dark corner, we discovered the subterranean, inverted tower burrowed 90 feet into the earth.
Walking down the monumental spiral staircase, we felt like we were part of a movie set.
The bottom of the well/inverted tower led to more tunnels. We made our way through the tunnel maze and came across the backside of a waterfall.
A bit further, we found some stepping stones to cross the pond to escape the darkness of the tunnel and emerge into daylight surrounded by a canyon with a sparkling waterfall and a floating bridge.
Hopping over stones across the pond and exploring dark, damp tunnels made us feel like kids in a playground.
The wonders continued as we made our way around the park. We found spiral staircases that led to towers with magnificent views of other palaces and castle ruins. We found labyrinthic grottos with cute, little ducks swimming around.
Lastly, we made our way to the bottom of the hill to admire the striking mansion.
After a couple hours of walking the hills and exploring the tunnels and wells around Quinta da Regaleira, the time had come for our usual post-tourist-attraction treat. Luckily, in Portugal, you are never far from a bakery serving a plethora of fine pastries. Sintra, in particular, has a famous bakery called Piriquita that has been making pastries for the king since 1862. Originally, they were best known for their queijada, a pastry made from cheese, eggs, milk, and sugar.
About 80 years ago, the granddaughter of the founder created the travesseiro, a flaky pastry stuffed with a sweet egg cream and a hint of almond.
The recipe is still a family secret, which makes a stop at Piriquita essential on a day trip to Sintra, especially considering this was one of our favorite pastries in Portugal.
After munching on a couple pastries, we were refueled and ready to visit two more sites. We grabbed a tuk-tuk to haul us up the mountain to the Disneyesque Pena Palace.
This magical hilltop palace was built in the 19th century by Portugal’s German-born Prince Ferdinand. The whimsical nature of the castle came as no surprise as this king was cousin to Bavaria’s “Mad” King Ludwig who built the famous Neuschwanstein and Linderhof castles. We visited both of these sights last year (See here), so we found it interesting to see how cousins can influence each other.
We found the inside of the castle a bit underwhelming, especially considering some of the renovations in progress, but the outside with its Manueline carvings, Gothic towers, Moorish minarets, and Renaissance domes made it quite a sight to behold. The eclectic decorative style of the castle is the best example of Romantic architecture in Portugal.
In addition, marvelous views of the coast, the town of Sintra, and the Moorish castle ruins below can be seen by taking a stroll around the narrow castle wall walkway.
After the Pena Palace, we made our way over to the Moorish castle ruins to ramble around the ramparts. This military fort was built in the 10th century by the Muslims who occupied the Iberian peninsula. The castle is built on two hills with towers connected by a crenelated wall.
Set in a lush forest half-way up the mountain, the views up to the Pena Palace and down to the city of Sintra and Quinta da Regaleira are perfect.
As I looked over the castle walls to the Atlantic coast and the wind whipped around the towers, I felt like Daenerys Targaryen, waiting for my dragons to swoop down from the hills above. Sintra really takes you to a different place and time.
Back to reality and back in the center of Sintra, we had conquered two castles and were ready to reward ourselves with another post-tourist-attraction treat. All over town we found stands and tiny specialty stores selling shots of Ginjinha, a sour cherry liquor. We had already tried this popular Portuguese liquor in Lisbon a couple times, but we couldn’t resist in Sintra as they were serving them in tiny chocolate cups. Yum!
In Lisbon, we also sampled many of the famous pastel de nata, a Portuguese egg tart pastry, to find the bakery that makes the best one (more details to follow in the upcoming Portuguese Cuisine blog including how Jimmy and I disagree). In Sintra, we actually found a pastel de nata liquor being served in tiny shot glasses alongside the Ginjinha shots. This liquor was also tasty and reminded us of Bailey’s.
Fueled by a couple shots and loaded up with a second round of roadie pastries from Piriquita, we made our way to the bus to get to Cabo de Roca. After a long day already, the bus ride seemed to drag on, but we were rewarded for our efforts. Cabo de Roca, the westernmost point in Europe, is a breathtaking place to stop to be the last person in Europe to see the sunset.
After the beautiful seascape at Cabo de Roca, we were ready to relax at the seaside town of Cascais for a peaceful seafood dinner along the beach. We strolled through the cute pedestrian street and over to a square near the beach. To our surprise, a party was going on!
A huge stage was at one end of the square with a live band singing, and tons of food stands were set-up along the street and throughout a couple squares. Change of plans. We decided to party with the locals and enjoy their traditional street food. We grabbed a couple drinks and traditional steak sandwiches called Prego no Pão and enjoyed the music and the vibe.
We even found another stand serving Ginjinha chocolate shots and Ginjinha Sangria for a little nightcap before heading over to the train station to catch a ride back to Lisbon. Whew! What a long but absolutely amazing day!
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