SINTRA, Portugal - All but the most dedicated couch potato has a secret desire to answer the melodious call of faraway places and search for those castles in Spain.
Equally breathtaking, although they haven’t had the benefit of a popular songwriter extolling their virtues, are the castles of Portugal - especially those clustered on the hilltops in this lush area on the country’s west coast.
Situated in a mountainous region about a leisurely hour’s motorcoach ride from the nation’s capital of Lisbon, Sintra offers enough manmade and natural phenomena to leave even the most seasoned traveller breathless with the sheer majesty of it all.
For the bargain hunter, the trip to Sintra starts with a drive along the area’s tortuous coastline where your driver might be persuaded to stop long enough for you to browse amongst the pockets of canvas-covered stalls that come into view around every curve in the road.
Beach towels, ceramic tiles and leather bags are up for barter and, for the practiced shopper, are a good bargain, but your tour guide may warn you that some of the so-called antiques that abound in and around Sintra are two-week wonders at best.
The locals apparently have learned how to ‘age’ goods almost as well as North Americans have learned how to keep things, including themselves, younger than springtime.
If attempting to knock a few euros off the price of a leather knapsack isn’t your bag, you can take advantage of the brief stop by getting some dramatic photographs of the pounding surf and rugged coastline just across the road from this bargain-hunters’ heaven.
Then it’s back on the bus and up the winding roads that are barely wide enough for your motorcoach. In fact, part of the thrill of the trip is playing chicken with coaches coming the other way. Sooner or later, one of the drivers has to blink, give in and back up - or down - to the nearest spot where he can let the victor in this war of nerves squeeze by.
As you swing around one of the hairpin curves, your tour guide will probably point out the sprawling red-tiled hideaway of movie superstar Robert DeNiro in the valley below and you’ll grit your teeth while the self-appointed jokester on the bus suggests that somebody must have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – a cornball reference to The Godfather II that the long – suffering driver has doubtlessly heard a thousand times.
As you enter Sintra proper, your guide will direct your attention to the villa where Lord Byron gained inspiration from the panoramic view to pen some of his epic poetry. Then it’s on to the National Palace, a unique combination of Moorish and 15th Century European architecture.
This structure, along with the nearby Chapel of Our Lady of Pity and the Chapel of St. Peter, contains some of the finest examples of glazed tiles in the world. The Palace of Pena, built by King Ferdinand II in the early 19th century on the ruins of a monastery destroyed in the great earthquake of 1755, includes a park famous worldwide for its exotic trees.
But the highlight of a trip to Sintra is a visit to the Palace of Seteais, which was built as a summer home for the Dutch consul to Lisbon at the end of the 18th Century. Now a hotel, it boasts a surrounding park where shrubbery and exotic flowers could win photo awards for even a rank amateur with a disposable camera.
Your tour guide, if he or she is a romantic, will tell you that the term “Seteais” comes from the amalgamation of two Portuguese words: “sete” or seven and “ais” or sighs. Legend has it that, not unlike the story of the princess who never laughed, a nobleman won the heart of a royal princess by making her sigh seven times, causing a grateful king to give the loving couple this palace in which to live happily ever after.
How he made her sigh seven times is left entirely up to your imagination. The more practical minded have suggested that “seteais” is the plural of the old Portuguese word “seto” which means “hedged enclosure”.
It’s worth the price of a stay here just for the privilege of walking through the beautifully-kept gardens.
Further details can be obtained from the hotel’s website at www.worldhotels.com/portugal/sintra/hotel_lispal.html or Tourism Portugal www.portugal.com.
This article appeared in East of the City Magazine.
(Photo by Tom Douglas)
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