Sintra Portugal – Two Days

Next: Lisbon

In the spring of 2024 Emilie walked the full length of the Camino de Santiago from southern France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  This route is know as the Camino Frances. As a prelude to that, we together embarked on a road trip to discover Portugal and Spain.  We started in Sintra, in southern Portugal and drove a rental car north to Porto over a week’s time.  From Porto we made our way east into Spain toward Madrid (with a stop in Salamanca first).  From Madrid we took a train to Valancia, where we met up with friends from the U.S. We all then did a few days in Valencia, Tarragona, and Barcelona. Then Emilie and I trained it to Pamplona as a jumping off point for the Camino de Santiago.

This blog entry records the section of the trip from Sintra, Portugal to Porto, and on to Salamanca and Madrid, Spain.

Sintra in April

April 10

National Palace of Sintra

We landed at Lisbon Airport around 10 a.m. and breezed through customs and baggage claim in about 30 minutes. A quick 25-minute taxi ride delivered us to Sintra, a charming historic town in Portugal’s hills famous for its fairytale palaces, gardens, and architecture.

Sintra Bliss Hotel in Old Town kindly let us check in early. Our friendly hotel clerk supplied great sightseeing tips and restaurant recommendations.

Thanks to the five-hour time difference, we took a much-needed nap until 3 p.m. Refreshed, we walked about 10 minutes to the National Palace of Sintra, a historic royal residence easily recognized by its two enormous white conical chimneys. This is the oldest palace in Portugal.

Sintra Street Scenes

After the palace visit we walked around town to take in Sintra before dinner.

At 6 p.m., we grabbed drinks and an appetizer at the casual Tropico Cafe, conveniently across from our hotel, while waiting for Portugal’s famously late dinner hour.

At 7 p.m. (when most restaurants open for dinner), we headed to Apeadeiro, a local, no-frills restaurant recommended by our hotel clerk. Great food, great service, and where the locals eat. After our meal the waiter brought us two glasses of port with travesseiros, a puff pastry with eggs and almond cream inside.

We strolled around Old Town to explore, walk off dinner, and get a nightcap…

…then we called it a night.

April 11

Quinta da Regaleira

After breakfast at the hotel, we set off on a beautiful, sunny day in the mid-70s. Beautiful weather, but a bit warm for all the walking ahead!

First stop: Quinta da Regaleira, a gorgeous estate about a 10 minute uphill walk from town center that is filled with lush gardens, caves, lakes, towers, and elaborate stonework. The palace and grounds were developed in the early 1900’s and is full of symbolic references to secret societies, like the Knights Templar.

The most fascinating, and popular thing here is the Initiation Well.

Initiation Well

The Initiation Well is a subterranean stone tower plunging 88 feet underground, and ringed by a 9-level spiral staircase. The 9 levels of stairs represent the nine circles of Dante’s Inferno, or the nine founding members of the Knights Templar. At the base lies a Knights Templar cross set over a compass. The bottom connects to a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels, caves, grottoes, and an underground lake.  The well was never used to collect water, but rather for ceremonial initiation rites. It is truly fascinating. There was a very long line, but we somehow were able to slip in ahead of a large student group and so we did not actually wait very long to descend the staircase into the well. This was a highlight of Sintra for us.

After the well excursion we walked the grounds of the Quinta da Regaleira.

Next up was The Palace of Pena, an unusually colorful castle perched high above Sintra.

We walked partway up the steep route before wisely switching to an Uber. A tuk-tuk driver preying on sweaty tourists offered to take us for €10 each, but our Uber cost just €9 for both of us, tip included. Score one for Uber!

Palace of Pena was spectacular, but really packed full of tourists. It was best enjoyed by us from the outside.

We then walked about 10 minutes to the Moorish Castle, a 10th century medieval fortress built by the Moors whose stone walls snake along the hilltops, offering sweeping views of Sintra and the surrounding countryside. It was much less crowded by afternoon, making it easier to appreciate this setting.

The view Sintra from the Moorish Castle was both awesome and intimidating, since we would be walking down there shortly!

After exploring the castle, we made the long—but mercifully downhill and often beautifully wooded—walk back to Old Town.

We rewarded ourselves with drinks and appetizers at Villa Craft.

This was followed by an excellent dinner at the Restaurant Regional Sintra near our hotel. It was at this restaurant that we were enlightened to our new favorite Portuguese desserts…pineapple with port.  Yum!!

One last wander through town helped us locate tomorrow’s train station, just five minutes away. We will be hopping that train to Lisbon in the morning.

Off to bed.

Next: Lisbon in April