splendiferous Sintra.

Sintra, my dears, is something of a wonder, as you might guess from the fact that its entire territory is a UNESCO site. The town and its surroundings are sprinkled across some fairly rugged landscape near the western coast of Portugal, and the area is jam-packed with 19th- and early 20th-century palaces constructed by aristocrats looking to flee the heat of the interior (and possibly the unwashed masses...) for the cooler temperatures of the hills and the coast. There's even a 9th-century Moorish castle that you can see from pretty much everywhere. Sintra's a freaking wonderland.

I really don't get why so many people/companies claim that you can see it as a day trip from Lisbon, though. Sure, it's maybe only an hour away by train, but you can really only make Sintra a day trip if you don't like looking at awesome things. We spent a day and a night there...

...in these palatial accommodations!

With our TV in the mirror!

This magnificent, outrageous clock in the breakfast room! (Want, want, want, want, although this would definitely not fit into our apartment.)

And this view! (Thats the Moorish castle up on the hill, and Sintra's town hall at center.)

Ahem, as I was saying: we spent the night there and still didn't get to see all of the awesomeness. (Rats, rats, rats.) Here's what we did manage to fit in, though.

First stop, and the one place we absolutely had to see, hands-down, was Quinta da Regaleira. This palace and its vast gardens full of grottoes and fountains and tunnels (so many tunnels!) were built between 1904 and 1910, and there are apparently symbols related to--among other mystical concepts and organizations--alchemy, the Masons, the Knights Templar, and the Roscrucians (a mystical/occult society founded in Europe the 17th century) scattered all throughout, in accordance with the owner's interests. I can't claim that I'm either knowledgeable enough, or observant enough, to pick any of that up, but I will say that this place is just bonkers, in the best way possible.

First view of the palace from the road. Wow.

But more about that later. First, we decided to check out the grounds, about half of which we skipped in order to have more time in other places (to our detriment, obviously, but now we know). We did, however, find this weird iguana fountain in the middle of this huge towered structure called, dramatically enough, the Portal of the Guardians. 

Behind that fountain, we found these tunnels...

...whence we popped out in the middle of the most famous sight in Sintra, the Initiation Well. (Actually, there are two of these at Quinta da Regaleira, but this is the larger and more well known of the two.)

This thing never actually had anything to do with water collection; instead, it contains all sorts of numerology and symbolism related to Tarot and/or the Masons, and was supposedly used for related rituals. (Whatever that means.)

Another tunnel led us to this sublimely green grotto, which had a waterfall to the right and some stepping stones leading into another set of tunnels. (Into which we decided not to go, since a fall into that rife-with-growing-things water, in the freezing cold, would not have been the best.)

On our way back to the entrance to check out the palace, passed the chapel...

...and this crazy grotto-bench-thing flanked by life-sized stone waterfowl.

 

The palace itself is covered in so many spires and gargoyles and animals and craziness, and also happens to built in that neo-Manueline style I mentioned in the last post. (Isn't learning fun!)

The rather grand main entrance.

Crazy-ornate fireplace in the (octagonal) Hunting Room. (Some intricate mosaics on the floor, too.)

Gorgeously carved ceilings in one of the rooms. (Er, didn't bother to note which one, or maybe there wasn't signage...? Either way, I'm a big fan of those carved cherubs in the seashells.)

View from the palace to the Moorish castle.

Next, we stopped off at the beautiful Montserrate Palace, whose grounds were nowhere near as weird/fantastical as those at Quinta da Regaleira, but were elegant and lovely nonetheless. And that palace...! Montserrate Palace's current appearance was achieved in the mid-19th century (well, with major restoration between 2000 and 2007), as the result of a renovation of an 18th-century, neo-Gothic palace built on top of the ruins of a chapel from 1540. It now contains this amazing blend of Moorish, Gothic, Indian, and even some Art Nouveau styles, and is unbelievably ornate. 

Lovely waterfall and pond just past the main entrance.

"Ruins" on the grounds. (I think this little chapel-thing was actually built to look like it'd partially collapsed, but those Romantics did love a good, half-crumbled, plant-covered ruin.)

Half of the palace facade is behind scaffolding--I have to imagine a property like this involves constant maintenance and restoration--but the half we could see was just gorgeous.

See?? Ugh. So pretty.

Central octagonal hall, just past the palace's main entrance. Stunning.

The Grand Gallery, the niches of which were once filled with sculptures and busts (both reproductions and originals) collected by Francis Cook, the 19th-century property owner and visionary behind the palace's redesign.

Ceiling medallion in the Library. (I took lots and lots and lots of photos of ceilings and arches in this place. All spectacular.)

Another octagonal room, the South Hall, with 15th- and 16th-century ceramics from Alhambra and Burma. (That ceiling is patterned in oak leaves.)

Soooooo many filigree arches...!

Those Art Nouveau touches I mentioned appeared in the rooms along the Grand Gallery.

Look at this fireplace. It's positively a confection.

As jaw-dropping as that central hall is, I think the Music Room was my favorite. (It really was that blue-and-gold.) 

Plus, that ceiling...!

Soooooooo fancy. (Last photo of the music room, I promise.)

The magnificent "floating" grand staircase.

Another oak-leaf ceiling over the staircase. 

Really, the details here, and the mix of styles, was absolute mind-boggling. And, unlike other places closer in to Sintra's town center, this place was nearly devoid of other tourists.

However. Pena Palace, which won out over a visit to the Moorish Castle, was packed. I know, I know, I can't believe we skipped a visit to a castle, either, but we were running out of daylight. Pena may be the kookiest, but maybe most original, place I've ever seen, and I think it was the right choice.

View of Pena Palace (waaaaaaay up on this hilltop) from Montserrate. (Later, we saw that red tower backlit by the sunset, and I swear to you, it looked just like Sauron's tower.)

To get to the palace itself, you park well below it, then wind your way through the gardens and up its steep hill. At least there's interesting things to look at as you're wheezing along, like this wee tower constructed as a house for the ducks in this pond. Hee.

There was also the "Little Birds Fountain," built in neo-Moorish style in 1840, with an Arabic inscription commemorating the safe return of Vasco da Gama in 1503.

Ok, so, the only place where you can get a photo of this thing in its entirety is right at its base, and, as we've already established that I don't tote around a wide-angle lens anymore, this is the best I can do. (And it involved stitching a couple of not-quite-adjoining photos together in a Word document. I'm so sorry.) But at least you can get a sense of the utter cartoony ridiculousness of the place, right?

Speaking of utter ridiculousness, these snakes on one of the monumental archways leading into the castle are straight out of 'Beetlejuice'...

...while the archway itself looks like a piece of a movie set. (Come to think of it, the exterior of this entire place looks like some sort of goofy fantasy movie set, or a cartoon come to life.)

Thusly.

I can't, with the colors.

It's definitely the product of a fanciful mind...

I do love the ornateness of this window, though.

I know very well that the design of this boss on the dining room ceiling is that of an armillary sphere (a very common emblem in Lisbon), but all I can see is pie.

Lots of tiles (...and faces!) in the four-sided courtyard in the center of the palace.

Amazing vaulting and tiles in the chapel.

As it turned out, there was no shortage of amazing vaulting in this palace. (I believe these, in one of the dressing/bedrooms, were stone painted to look like wood.)

View from a tiny wardrobe room. (It's not the worst, I suppose.)

Massive, yet flowery, iron safe in the Tea Room.

More vaulting, but this time in the creepily-trompe l'oeil-painted Arabic room. (If any part of this technicolor palace is haunted, it's this room for sure.)

Morning glory chandelier in the Smoking Room!

Pena Palace has an extraordinary collection of furniture, with an absurdly high number of really, really ornate pieces.

The Great Hall. (I'll say.)

Loooooove this dragon-crested china in the kitchen.

So, these palaces are all quite spread out, and getting between them involves either contracting with a tour company; coordinating between the two tourist buses that stop at all the places you might want to visit; or renting a car. However, working out the bus scheduling is difficult; I hear the buses are insanely crowded in the summer; and the tour companies are the ones selling Sintra as a day trip (hah!), so if you have the means, I'd recommend renting the smallest car you can find--parking is quite limited--in order to set your own schedule and to see everything you want to see. 

Thats what we did, anyway. (Yeah, that's a single-wide, electric car. This was, of course, Mike's idea, and one of the silliest things we've ever done. But oh, so effective! And weirdly practical!)

I didn't think we'd both fit in this car, and then I didn't believe the thing would have enough power to get us up those hills, but we did, and it did, and so the only real drawback was that it was freezing out there, and this car has no windows. Nor do the doors seal all the way around. (It only adds to the adventure, I suppose. At least the rental place was thoughtful enough to include a lap blanket for the poor frostbitten sod in the back seat. I.e., me.)

Dinner this evening, my actual birthday, was at Adega das Azenhas, this homey, laid-back seafood place close to the coast. It was a 30-minute cab ride--we'd turned in our half-Smartcar earlier--but it was absolutely perfect. The staff sent us their (seemingly) only English speaker, and he was the most gracious and funny host*, helping us with the menu and keeping a close eye on our table to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. We started with a local soft cheese, some vinho verde, and our final basket of that heavenly bread with salted butter (which does always need mentioning, because the Swiss don't believe in salted butter unless you're at a fancy fancy place), then shared an order of prawns with vinegar, garlic, butter, and bell peppers. And, at our waiter's suggestion, we ordered that day's special of local sea bass (and its accompanying plate of potatoes, broccoli, carrots and greens) to split, and holy cow, was it good. He deboned it and split it at our table, and let me tell you, that fish was magnificent. Fresh, light, not too fishy, and grilled to perfection, and to finish it all off, we shared desserts of passionfruit cheesecake (with a texture more like a custard, though) and another slice of convent pie, this time with almond paste (and yummmmm to both). It was a perfect birthday dinner, and the perfect last-major-meal in Portugal.

The next morning, we struck out through town to find some pastries, and passed the town hall...

...the weirdness that is the National Palace (which we will definitely visit the next time 'round, because holy tiles and ceilings)...

...and my next house, can you even imagine having this as your front door??

...and the caught a cab to the airport to catch our flight home, after an excellent, amazing, delicious, extravagant, adventurous, fascinating birthday trip. (Thanks, Mike. This trip was phenomenal, and the best part is that we got to see and eat and visit everything together.)

And with that, my dears, I wish you all the happiest and safest and most delicious of holiday seasons. See you in the new year.

*AND he reminded us of a slender Samwell Tarly, so that made him even more endearing.