European Travel Blog » Portugal

Specialty shops throughout Portugal

admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:48:12 +0000

Specialty shops throughout Portugal sell Port wine at inflated prices. Often, the same bottle can be bought in Canada for much less. The exception in Sintra is the Adega das Caves, a restaurant serving delicious, traditional Portuguese food at reasonable prices in a converted wine cellar. They also sell Port, vintage and recent, by the bottle to take away, at much better prices than can be found elsewhere. Many of the bottles are displayed, with their prices, on high shelves in the restaurant.

The Museu de Arte Moderna is located on Avenida Heliodoro Salgado, northwest of the train station. Open daily except Monday, admission is 600 escudo (a little more than $5 CDN).

Geographically, Sintra is small

admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 01:47:07 +0000

Geographically, Sintra is small, but it holds enough attractions to make a two- or three-day stay worthwhile. We spent three days exploring the town, staying at the basic, but comfortable, Casa de Hspedes Adelaide near the cmara municipal (city hall). Accommodations in the area are plentiful, ranging from a youth hostel to deluxe hotels, with a corresponding range in prices. Sintra is easily accessible from Lisbon, with trains departing Rossio Station every 15 minutes. The hour-long ride cost 185 escudo in 1997 (about $1.50 CDN) and ends around the corner from the town hall. There is a small tourist office at the train station, and a larger one in the Vila. The staff at either office will provide maps and help to arrange a room.

Back in Sintra, the visual delights continued -Sintra Portugal

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:45:57 +0000

Back in Sintra, the visual delights continued. The Palcio Real, or National Palace, is most prominent, with its white, conical bullhorns ("ice cream tops", as my wife dubbed them) towering over the village. The palace offers guided tours of its decoratively diverse rooms. Sintra is divided in two by a park, requiring a scenic (but easy) half-mile walk or bus ride between the train station and the town centre, or Vila. Half way along this walk, we followed the signs to the studio/museum of Anjos Teixera. The path winds down into a ravine, to the studio. The father-and-son Teixeras are now dead, but the studio now serves as a museum of their marble sculptures and drawings. The lone staff member recounted her memories of the two sculptors, their influence, and popularity. We spent our last morning browsing the recently-opened Museu de Arte Moderna, a collection of international twentieth-century art at the northwest end of town. This is a must-see for aficionados of modern art. The tourist office can provide details on numerous other museums and diversions.

Unlike most European castles Sintra Portugal

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 13:44:46 +0000

Unlike most European castles, this one is fully furnished in its original opulence, with extensive descriptions of each room. The rooms are an eclectic mix of themes, from Persian Renaissance to the Baroque. After touring the palace for a couple of hours, we descended the same path we had come. Halfway down the hill, at a shuttle bus stop, the entrance to the grounds of the Castelo dos Mouros beckoned. The remains of this Moorish fortress, in its rolling parkland setting, date from the sixteenth century. Its ramparts sprawl along the hillside, and climbing them (an easy task compared to the morning’s hike) offers dramatic views of the valley, and of the Palcio da Pena, glittering now in the afternoon sun.

Contrary to appearances Sintra Portugal

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 08:42:10 +0000

Contrary to appearances, this was far from Tolkein’s world, though he could easily have taken his inspiration here. We were at the Palcio Nacional da Pena, high above the town of Sintra, and about twenty miles northwest of Lisbon. The palace, which dates from the middle nineteenth century, was commissioned by a transplanted Bavarian prince and modeled after the castles of his cousin, ‘mad’ King Ludwig. From the high walls of the palace, it is easy to see why Byron called Sintra’s verdant hills and valleys "this glorious Eden". To the east, the spires and towers of Lisbon show themselves on clear days. To the west, the open Atlantic rolls and crashes onto the Portuguese coastline. From the ramparts of the palace I spied, on a nearby peak, the statue of an explorer surveying the western vista and the New World far beyond.

Sintra Portugal

admin — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 11:42:06 +0000

The path was more difficult than I had imagined, though the guidebook had warned about it. We hiked steeply and steadily, sometimes losing the trail to wisps of low cloud, under the wet cover of lush greenery. Though it was not hot, I was dripping with sweat, and understood why so many opted to take the shuttle bus to the top. After some twenty minutes, we broke into a clearing so obscured by roiling fog that we could not discern its edges. We paused for a damp breath, I feeling like Gollum come to the world above ground. As we stood uncertain, the slight, refreshing breeze began to reveal shadows. I grew more and more convinced that this was Middle Earth as the snout of a crocodile pushed its way through the fog bank, high above us. Little by little, the breeze exposed ramparts, turrets, and the waterspouts of which the stone crocodile was one. As the sun burned away the fog, the colors, too, began to show: yellows, pinks, and blues like a fantasy castle. Which, of course, it was.