Day Trips to Sintra and Cabo da Roca

On Wednesday we moved to a new Airbnb in a town called Cascais just outside of Lisbon. We rented a car to explore the area and yesterday we took a trip to the touristy town of Sintra. One of the most popular tourist attractions in Sintra is the Pena Palace, a very Disney-eque castle painted in bright red and yellow hues and perched high on a hilltop. Unfortunately for us, on the day of our visit a huge foggy cloud had settled directly on the hill limiting visibility to just a few feet in front of us.

It was not exactly the kind of weather we were hoping for, but we made the best of it and explored what we could.

In an alcove we found an exhibit with a video showing what the view from the castle looks like on a normal day -- you can see all the way to the ocean with great views of the next hill where there are the ruins of a Moorish Fortress.

Contrast that image to the "views" that we had -- when standing on the parapets we couldn't even see the ground below us through the pea soup fog.

There are two options when you buy your Pena Palace ticket -- you can just tour the outside of the castle, or you can add the option to go inside and see the furnished rooms. This is one of the most popular attractions in town, and there were hundreds of people already in line to get inside. So we decided to avoid all the crowds and just stick with the outdoor ticket. Even with the low visibility we could at least still see most of the decoration of the exterior. Some of it was a little bizarre.

Sintra is known for having great hiking trails, so instead of taking the bus or a taxi we decided to hike down the hill back to town. The fog began to lift as we descended, but it still stubbornly clung to the hilltops, which ruined our view of the Moorish fortress -- you can maybe just see it through the veil of fog.

The hiking path that we were on took us right past the Villa Sassetti, a summer house built in the 1890's to resemble an Italian castle.

The gardens of the Villa were beautifully landscaped with lots of exotic-looking flowering plants.

After our hike, we walked back into town and toured the gardens of yet another fancy "castle", the Quinta da Regaleira.

This estate was originally a farm (hence the Portuguese name "Quinta"), but in the 1890's the land was purchased by an eccentric millionaire who wanted to build a palace to live in. On the rest of the property, he wanted to have a garden of curiosities: towers, wells, statues, grottoes -- you name it, he built it. This photos shows a fancy wall with several towers and a grotto...

...After hiking up a series of levels in the garden, you arrive at the "Initiation Well" which isn't actually a well at all but a spiral staircase...

...which leads down into a maze of man-made caves (did I mention that the guy who built this place was eccentric?)...

...where you then walk behind a waterfall...

...to finally emerge back out into the lowest level of the garden. As we came out of the caves, I just happened to glance back up to the distant hills where we had hiked and -- guess what -- the fog had finally cleared and you could see the ruins of the Moorish castle. Unlike the fancy Regaleira and Pena "palaces", the Moorish castle was built back in the 9th century when castles were true strongholds built for defense. The castle remained a Moorish fortress until 1147 when it was surrendered to Christian forces.

Today, since we still had the car, we decided to head over to the westernmost point in continental Europe -- Cabo da Roca. A towering monument lets you know you have arrived at the right spot:

From the edge of the cliff it is easy to imagine people once upon a time looking out over the Atlantic and thinking this was the end of the world -- a big wall of cliffs and then nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see.

We drove back down to our airbnb along the coast, stopping at Guincho beach to have a late lunch at one of the outdoor beach cafes. Even though it is the middle of winter, there were still plenty of people on the beach enjoying the afternoon rays of the sun. 

Happy Holidays from Lisbon!

Before the holidays, we did a few nice walks in the older parts of town, starting with the Castelo de São Jorge. 

The castle hill has always been used for defense, even back to Celtic and Roman times. The fortress has been renovated and added to many times over the ages, but the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 left much of it in ruins. Extensive renovations were done in the 1930's by the Salazar regime, and now the castle has regained some of its former glory, with square towers and crenellated ramparts worthy of a Monty Python and the Holy Grail re-enactment.

From the castle hill, it was a steep downhill walk into the heart of the Alfama district. This is the oldest quarter of Lisbon and many buildings in this section survived the 1755 earthquake. The twisty streets hold some surprises -- you'll be walking along and suddenly come out on a beautiful viewpoint/miradouro. Or you will come out of a narrow alley onto a large open square like this one on the Rua São João da Praça. Alfama was a charming neighborhood to get lost in!

From the Alfama district, we headed across the lower town (Baixa district) and up into Chiado, which is an upscale neighborhood on the western side of the city center. This is the Rua Garrett, a wide avenue that turns into a pedestrian-only shopping area.

Up the hill from the Rua Garrett is what's left of the Carmo Convent. The earthquake destroyed the convent ceiling leaving only the side walls and the ribs of the vaults. It is now a museum that of course happened to be closed on the day we took our walk. So we stopped for a rest in the beautiful and peaceful Largo do Carmo instead.

Continuing up the hill, we visited the Igreja de São Roque, one of the first Jesuit churches in the world. It's very unique-looking inside -- the ceiling is painted in a style called Trompe-l'oeil -- an attempt to fool you into thinking that the church is topped by stone arches and domes instead of flat wooden panels.

Since it's the holiday week, I should mention that just below our apartment in the Parque Eduardo VII there is a Christmas fair, called Wonderland Lisboa. We can see it from our balcony, especially at night with all the bright lights.

We actually went there several times during our stay in Lisbon, since it was so close by. It was free to go inside, but we did need to show proof of Covid vaccination at the gate.

Most of the venue was dedicated to food vendors and craft stalls, and for fun there was an ice-skating rink and a ferris wheel, plus plenty of instagram-worthy photo ops.

It was a festive place to have a meal outdoors and watch the lights come up as darkness fell.

On a different night we walked down into the old town to see the Christmas lights there. That night just so happened to be the night of the Corrida de São Silvestre -- a 10K road race through the heart of town.

A large Christmas market was set up in the Praça do Rossio just in front of the National Theater.

On the Rua Augusta we heard singing and music, so we stopped to watch this band of students perform traditional songs and dances. We have seen other such bands throughout Portugal. The bands are called "Tunas" and they have a long history dating back to the 13th century -- it used to be a way for students to earn money to support themselves in their studies. It seems like now they do it more for fun, although they do pass the hat for donations. This "Tuna" was one of the largest groups we've seen, playing a variety of traditional musical instruments. The students were from the Nova School of Business and Economics and their band was cleverly named "Tuna Fortuna".

The Praça do Comércio was also beautifully decorated for the holiday, with a towering Christmas tree and lights outlining every window in the square.

Here's wishing everyone a Feliz Ano Novo, Happy New Year!

Lisbon, Portugal - Week 6 + 7 video

Exploring Lisbon, Portugal

Our 8th floor Lisbon airbnb has a fabulous view of the Parque Eduardo VII. But along with the great view comes a price -- on our second day here, the lone elevator in the building was out of service all day. We had to hike up nine flights not once, but twice. At least it is working again -- for now!

Lisbon is about ten degrees warmer than Porto was, so this week while it's been sunny we have been taking full advantage of the nice weather to walk around and get our bearings. Just on the other side of the park from us is the Gulbenkian museum and gardens. The museum's benefactor was one of the original oil tycoons and he amassed a huge treasure trove of ancient and modern art and furniture.

We had a nice lunch on the terrace at the museum café with views of the park. We've really been impressed by all the green space in this bustling city. There are so many parks and tree-lined streets here.

This is one of my favorite small parks in the city, the Jardim de Amoreiras.  It's just a ten-minute walk from our apartment.

Our apartment is near the Praça Marquês de Pombal, which is a huge roundabout with a statue of the Marquis in the center. In 1755, Lisbon had a devastating earthquake (estimated 9.0), followed by a tsunami and fire that destroyed most of the city center. Although Portugal had a king at the time, the Marquis was the chief minister and de facto ruler of the country. He was responsible for rebuilding the city using a grid pattern instead of twisty narrow medieval streets.

We walked down the tree-lined Avenida da Liberdade which took us to the heart of town, near the Rossio Train Station. Built in the 1890's it has a very recognizable façade owing to the two enormous horseshoe arches at the entrance.

From Rossio square, we continued walking down straight streets in the Baixa neighborhood to get to the wide open Praça do Comércio. It houses various government buildings and several cafés. The 100 foot tall arch (Arco da Rua Augusta) was built to commemorate the rebuilding of the city after the 1755 earthquake.

Getting around Lisbon on foot is pretty easy when you are going downhill. But getting back up to higher ground can be a challenge. In addition to the Metro and city busses, Lisbon has six tram lines that have been in operation since the 1870's. The signature yellow tram cars can be seen and heard throughout various neighborhoods.

For the really challenging hills, there are several tram-funicular pairs that run up and down the same stretch of hill all day long. This is the "Ascensor da Bica" -- one of its cars is covered in grafitti because it is stored outside at the top of the hill when it shuts down for the night. The other car has pristine yellow paint because it is kept inside the locked station at the base of the hill overnight.

And for the steepest parts of the city, there are several "Elevadors" that will take you straight up (or down, of course -- that's how elevators work). One of the city's best known lifts is the 45-meter high Elevador de Santa Justa that has been in operation since 1902 and was designed by a student of Gustav Eiffel. It can carry more than 25 people at a time - here is Kevin at the end of the walkway at the top.

One of the benefits of having so many hills is that there are awesome viewpoints all around the city (called Miradouros) that give you a perspective of just how high up you are. This is the Miradouro at the Jardim de São Pedro de Alcântara. You can see all the way across the city to the castle on the distant hill.

So we have mostly been getting around on foot, averaging about 6 or 7 miles a day since we arrived in Lisbon. We have discovered that good shoes with grippy soles are a must -- the cobblestones are hard on the feet. And, although very beautiful, the mosaic stone pavement (called calçada portuguesa) is extremely slippery when it rains!

Towards the end of the week, our legs were getting tired. So we decided to spring for a two-day pass on the Hop-on Hop-off bus. This gave us a whirlwind tour of some of the peripheral neighborhoods of the city. We saw modern street art ("Poseidon Facing the Tagus River" by PichiAvo), modern buildings (Torre Vasco da Gama), and modern statues ("Lisboa" by José de Guimarães) on the way to the Parque das Nações (Park of Nations). This was the site of the 1998 World Expo, which is why the area is so much more modern than the rest of the city.

Another interesting area of Lisbon is near the Campo Pequeno, the city's bullring built in the 1890's. Unlike in Spain, in Portugal they don't kill the bull in front of the spectators at the end of the bullfight. (It's still cruel and sometimes the bull dies from its injuries or is put down after the fight. There have been many attempts to end bullfighting in Portugal, but none have succeeded so far.). Bullfights are still held in the arena but it is also used now for concerts and live events and there is a big shopping center beneath it.

Our final stop on the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour took us out to the neighborhood of Belém. Belém has some very popular tourist attractions -- the first is the Belém Tower, a military outpost overlooking the Tejo River. It was built in the early 1500's. During the Age of Discovery, Portuguese sailors left from and returned to this spot (if they returned -- seafaring exploration was a dangerous profession).

Just a short walk away is the Monument of the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos). This was built during the Salazar regime to celebrate the naval heroes of Portugal. The figure at the front is Prince Henry the Navigator who lived in the 1400s. His name is a bit misleading, since he didn't actually navigate in any of the exploration voyages. Rather, he encouraged and supported the expeditions and helped Portugal grow into a maritime power. During his lifetime, Portuguese explorers discovered Madeira and the Azores, and were the first to round Cape Verde, the westernmost point of Africa. Shortly after Henry's death, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and before the century was over the Portuguese had found a sea route to India.

If you paid attention in school, you might remember that Vasco da Gama was the Portuguese sailor who was the first European to get to India by ship -- and he is also buried in Belém, at the Jerónimos Monastery.

After all of our "exploring" we decided to have a nice sunset dinner by the river. In this photo you can make out the outline of the statue of Christo Rei on the left, and the 25th of April Bridge spanning the Tejo. The bridge used to be called the Salazar Bridge but was renamed after Portugal peacefully overthrew his successor during the "Carnation Revolution".