In which Layla and Roz explore fairytale palaces, consume many custard tarts, and start to tire of mushroom-based dinners

by Layla

We started the day pleasingly today with breakfast on the hotel's very pretty, sunny patio, overlooking Sintra, and the fairytale style castle on the hill beyond. Having stuffed ourselves with excellent bread rolls and the like, we wandered cheerily down the road and into Sintra village, past the brilliant and random sculptures, and ended up in the bike hire shop where we were frustratingly told that their electric bikes were sadly not available. Our plans momentarily flummoxed, we quickly regrouped and decided to travel by bus instead.

The main draw of Sintra is fabulous palaces and castles situated on the surrounding hills. We randomly opted to visit Pena Palace, followed by the ruins of a Moorish castle. We clung on for dear life as the bus wound round and round the steep hill til it deposited us at the gates of Pena Palace. Before exploring, we settled down with drinks at a pretty little cafe surrounded by forest and attractive garden scenery, and then we braced ourselves and ascended. Soon the palace came into sight and made us grin with delight. Apparently it's the best example of Portugese romantic architecture, and it is gloriously mad. All pinks and yellows, it has turrets aplenty, crocodile gargoyles, and beautiful Moroccan-style patios. The views were stunning. I've never fallen in love with a building as I did with this one. Of course it was touristy, but we did marvel at how somewhere like the Alhambra in Spain is so absolutely mobbed, with huge queues, timed entry, and crammed spaces, while this wonderful palace was relatively quiet. We had lunch in their restaurant, reasonably priced, entirely serene, beautiful and delicious. And then, with a blue sky above us and a very attractive forest around us, we decided to follow a marked walking route through the palace gardens. Very few others followed suit so we had the joy of a beautiful forest walk to ourselves, and an explanation of why people refer to Sintra as Portugal's Eden. As we finally descended, past pretty ponds complete with castle-shaped duck houses, we emerged blinking onto the main road as though we'd just been awoken from a dream.

The fun wasn't over. We kept walking and found ourselves at the Moorish castle, which looked just as one would draw a castle in a primary school art class. Most satisfying, and more brilliant views. We walked around the castle wall before conceding exhaustion and heading for the bus. After some more winding, it deposited us at the train station and we walked to a very lovely little cafe I'd had my eye on. We had drinks and cake and I certainly did not have four little Portugese custard tarts. That would have been reprehensibly greedy...

After a pleasant time in the cafe, we returned to our hotel and established ourselves in a sunny spot on a swing chair on the patio with beers and books and a brilliant view of the castle we'd just climbed on. And then to dinner. We learned that Sintra village isn't the best place to dine; all the best restaurants are nearer our hotel. We deliberated and picked one with the unfortunate moniker of 'G Spot' (G stands for gastronomy, it seems). Despite no vegetarian items on the menu, a very sweet chef whipped us up some carrot soup and some mushroom risotto. We did feel a bit over-mushroomed, following a several day mushroom dinner stretch, but all in all, the ambience was cheery and cool, and the food nicely prepared, so we had a lovely time, polished off with a very large pot of fresh peppermint tea.

Yet again, we started feeling disinclined to go home tomorrow, but then remembered we're not going home, but to an apartment we've rented in Lisbon's Bairro Alto area for the next five nights. This really is a mad and excellent holiday of many acts...