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The hardest thing about getting to Sintra was finding the train station in the center of town. We walked around in circles looking for a large building that had train tracks going in to it. Some clever planner decided that the train station should be up on the side of the hill and after asking directions a couple of times we stumbled across it. Portugal is lot like Spain the food is not very good, its not bad just very average. We decided on pizza and stopped in a large pizza chain called TelePizza. They seemed to have borrowed a few marketing themes from the American pizza chain Little Caesar's. The pizza place is very modern and everyone is wearing matching red Polos and buy one pizza get one free. These types of marketing concepts are unheard of in these parts and after fifteen minutes we had two pizzas dropped in front of us. We of course could not eat two pizzas and carrying a pizza box around with your back pack doesn't work to well. The homeless/hungry have also figured out the extra pizza concept. Without fail someone would approach the various tables and ask for the extra pizza. Each time the table would hand over a few extra slices and the recipient would walk away with a smile.
We boarded our train and a a short ten minutes outside of the city the landscape changes from city buildings to beautiful green and hilly countryside. Just what we wanted after a few days in the big city, this must be how the Kings and Queens felt as they made their way to Sintra in their horse drawn carriages. We didn't do a very good job of planning our trip to Sintra because after we arrived we discovered it is usually done as a day trip from Lisboa. The trains in Portugal are modern and fast which makes the city of Sintra more like a small suburb. Checking at the tourist information desk at the train station we are directed to a pension for $10 a night. After spending $70 a night for our hotel room in Lisboa it was a welcome budget accommodation. Without fail you get what you pay for. We walked in to town and Karen's rolling bag was a big hit. The sidewalks are all cobble stone and she made a lot of noise. I tried to keep a good distance from her to prevent any travel geek association. After the fifteen minute walk I wished my bag had wheels. We managed to find our accommodation for the evening and check-in. You really don't check-in the lady shows you the room and you hand her the money. Simple as that. The house was heavy in the throw rug and plastic flower department. We nicknamed our room the dungeon because even though we were on the third floor everything in the room was wet. It was easily 110% humidity in the room....and cold. We would only be here for one night so we would suffer through it.
The town itself is super quaint and is normally full of tourists but we were here during the off season. Cute shops, welcoming restaurants and cobblestone streets. The National Palace is located in the center of town and serves today as a tourist stop. Had a good meal , a glass of port, Portugal's specialty in an artsy cafe/bar and retired to the dungeon. We had a big day tomorrow exploring castles.
Castle day started early and we awoke to find everything in the room was soaking wet. Even the clothes in our bags were damp. We grabbed our bags skipped the cold shower and set out for breakfast and the castle tours. The area has four or five castles and you could easily spend the entire day looking at old ruins. Our first stop is the National Palace in the center of town. The Palace was built for the Royal Court, the interior is filled with the best collection of Mudejar (colored glazed) tiles in the world. They must have had some big parties in this place because the kitchen was huge capped by two giant chimneys in the center of the palace. It seems we arrived at the same time as a couple of bus loads of tourists so we switched in to high speed tour mode and quickly put the palace behind us.
We consider ourselves castle experts and decided our next and only stop would be the highlight of the Sintra castle tour. All the best castles in the world are located up on a hill and Pena was no exception. We contemplated walking but choose to take a taxi. It was a wise choice because this castle was way, way up on top of a lush green mountain. At the top is a picturesque yet wild looking castle. The castle actually had a color scheme of yellow and gray working for it. From the outside I knew this would be my favorite castle and I wondered when Walt Disney had visited because the place seemed familiar. Pena is a supreme example of Portuguese romantic architecture built at the expense of the people. In 1834 a German Prince bought the ruins of a former monastery built in 1503. He had the monastery enlarged to create a bizarre fantasy like palace. Royalty lived in the castle until 1910. What happened in 1910 do you ask? It seems the people got tired of having royalty, threw a little revolt party and the King and Queen were the guest of honors. The cool thing about being up on the hill is you can see guests coming and the Royal family decided to leave through the back door and took nothing with them. This is exactly what makes Pena our pick for top castle. The citizens for whatever reason did not ransack the place and had it turned in to a museum. Normally when you go on a castle tour all the rooms are empty. This place had all the original furniture, bed linens, a full royal table set, and yarn still on the sewing loom. The Queen's dressing table still had her comb, brushes and mirror. Based on what we saw it was good to be the King until an angry mob comes a knocking.
We continued our tour and met a nice couple from New Jersey celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. They had honeymooned in Spain and the kids sent them on a Golfing vacation to Portugal. They had just finished playing six days of golf and decided to take a tourist break. They gave us a ride back down the mountain and bought us a beverage. Our days in Portugal are numbered so we decided to head north to the University town of Coimbra. We were in desperate need of doing laundry and figured a college town would have a self-serve place. In the Rick Steve's guidebook he raved about Coimbra being "A most enjoyable city."
We are now going to switch to our quest to do laundry in Coimbra. If you bore easily I would recommend skipping ahead. We checked into a three star joint after our night in the dungeon. It was clean, nice but the room was very small which got Karen a little bent out of shape. If you are going to pay three star prices the room should not be small. A good nights sleep and we awoke the next morning with laundry on our mind. The hotel wanted about $4 an item which would set us back $100. No thank you, can you direct us to a laundry place. A short walk down the street we found a laundry that would charge us $4 an item and it would only take four days. We should have stopped because the laundry gods had already shown us the signs of doom and gloom in Coimbra. I was down to my last clean pair of underwear and determined to find a place to do laundry.
Last night on our big walk around town we saw a sign for a self-serve laundry but it was a good distance from our hotel. We figured we'd take the bus and after a bit of map studying we boarded a bus and headed up another big hill. It is Saturday morning and we found the self-serve place open and the owners waiting for new customers. The place was not self-serve even though that is what the sign says on the door and they charge by weight. It has been our experience that places that charge by weight are the way to go. Based on the weight of our laundry bags the price would be $100 and it would only take four days. We quickly thanked the nice people and walked out the door shaking our heads. One last try we would ask a taxi driver if he knew of a self-serve place open on Saturday. He spoke a little English and after consulting with his fellow cab drivers he knew of a place at the mall. Ten minutes later we arrived at a large parking lot in a modern day Wal-Mart like mall. We paid the man and knew we would not find a laundry inside but you never know. The place was very nice and about the size of Wal-Mart with a twist. Across the walkway from the row of 50 cashiers were little stores for film developing, bookstore, pharmacy and of course a dry cleaner. Here we could get our laundry done for $4 an item and they would be able to return it today. I was finished, Karen had enough of my laundry adventure. I made a quick dash in to the department store and returned with three brand new pair of underwear which meant I was good for another three days, problem solved. We walked outside jumped into a taxi and headed for home. On the way I noticed it was laundry day because every apartment building was covered with freshly washed laundry waiting to dry on the clothesline. You can have a modern day department store but there is no place for a self-serve laundry in Coimbra.
One more night in our mini-three star hotel and we would be boarding another all night train to Paris. We both decided that a couchette was worth the price for a good night sleep. The only problem was that the only train heading to France left at 8 PM which gave us another full day in the exciting town of Coimbra. I need to remember to send a letter of inquiry to Rick Steve's about why he liked Coimbra so much. I hate to admit it but we headed to McDonalds for lunch, found a table and spent the entire afternoon working. This is not our usual style but no one seemed to care. McDonalds does a very brisk business in Coimbra, it must be because there is no place to do laundry. We returned to our hotel and hung out in the TV room/library and got lots of work done on travel writing and typing. Karen writes all the details and facts of our tourist activities/misadventures. I serve as video/photographer/typist/color commentary assistant. All together it takes about ten hours of typing and picture capturing per country. I either need to figure out how to type faster or write less. I think the general consensus would be to write less. Next stop is Paris for a couple of hours and then a short train ride to Rennes for another World Wonder, Mont St. Michel.
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| This page last changed on 27-Apr-2006 23:36:46 EDT by 70.171.24.221. |
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