4 April – Lisbon

It’s our penultimate day and night of the trip. Today we journeyed to a pair of “resort” towns outside of Lisbon.

The first was Sintra, nestled in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains. A longtime royal sanctuary, the town’s surrounding hilly terrain is studded with pastel-colored villas and palaces. We’re here to visit the Moorish- and Manueline-style Sintra National Palace, former summer home of Portuguese royalty and distinguished by its extensive tile work and prominent twin chimneys.

Sintra views

Exterior shots of and around the palace

Principal interior rooms of the palace

The Coat of Arms Room

The Galleys Room

Curiosities in the palace

After touring the palace, we were allotted some free time to wander up and down the sloping streets of old Sintra for shopping and…shopping. (Every store in the palace vicinity exists solely to serve the tourist trade that swarms all over the town. We later saw actual evidence that there is a “real” Sintra–a place where local residents live their lives outside of the tourists’ lenses, often commuting to Lisbon for work.)

Having boosted the town’s economy, we departed Sintra and headed south on our way to Cascais, another resort town, for lunch.

Our route opened up on a vast grassy expanse as we approached the Atlantic coast. The area is a Portuguese national park. And soon, the road was running parallel with the shore, providing us with swiftly-passing but incredible views of the Atlantic Ocean.
   We pulled off along Praia do Guincho (Grinch Beach) to enjoy (and immortalize digitally) the spectacular vista of white-crested waves crashing along beaches rimmed with wind-swept sand dunes. Further beyond, thrust into the Atlantic, loomed Cabo da Roca (Cape Roca). Cape Roca forms the westernmost point 1) of the Sintra Mountain Range, 2) of mainland Portugal, 3) of continental Europe, and 4) of the entire Eurasian landmass.

Photos taken, we reached Cascais, a large town with a very concentrated tourist district complete with a Ferris wheel, merry-go-rounds and many, many, MANY restaurants and souvenir shops. After checking out several, we settled on a patio restaurant with an extensive menu and a very persuasive manager. Once the savory lunch was downed, we crossed the street for gelato at Santini, reputed to be the best in the city by our Portuguese guide Rui.

Reassembled, our group re-boarded and returned to the hotel. I had one last chance to capture both the Águas Livres Aqueduct and Castelo de São Jorge (St. George’s Castle) during the drive.

There was a final group dinner around the corner from the hotel after which we bid farewell to Juanjo and retreated to our rooms to pack for our homeward trips.