Who Moves to Portugal?: Visiting Sintra: winding roads, old castles, and armored men

With a month of school solidly under our belts, we are committed to pushing ourselves to get out further from our cozy home to explore what this ancient country has to offer. On a sunny saturday in early October, we decided to venture up into the Sintra hills (or mountains? At 1700 feet, it's hard to say) to see one of the most well known tourist destinations in all of Portugal. We took the 406 bus out of Cascais, which took a circuitous route out to the West and North, out along the coast and around to Sintra from the north side. The trip had the advantage of showing us new scenic areas, such as the "cabo da roca", the furthest point West in continental Europe. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that it's hard to enjoy said scenery when you're near ready to lose your breakfast due to a combination of Portuguese racecar-style driving and hairpin turns. We managed to keep the cookies down, but it's safe to say we won't be taking that bus line again.

Hippie-fairyland lunch spot

Once in Sintra, we were immediately struck by its elegance and regal charm. It is perched halfway down a sweeping and rippled slope, so that the buildings seem to roll across the landscape, allowing many vistas and hobbit holes. We strolled aimlessly, walking off the nausea, and came across a lovely antique market full of items that would make Oakland hipsters swoon. We came across a sign for a vegetarian lunch, so we descended the adjacent steps into a what seemed like a little hippie-fairyland: a beautiful garden-swaddled house converted into a restaurant, decorated with plants hanging upside down from the ceiling, a bathtub growing flowers, and seemingly every surface utilized as a canvas for creative expression. The food was fresh, healthy and organic, and it more than calmed our disgruntled tummies.

The bathroom in the restaurant

Sated and ready to explore, we headed up (and up and up) into the more bustling touristy area of Sintra, where narrow streets climbed and twisted like a labrynth leading into older times (or at least shops selling the past). We wove through them for awhile, enjoying the bustle, before continuing up up up towards what we had chosen for our ultimate exploration of the day: a 1200-year old castle built by the Moors (aka "the Moops" for Seinfeld fans) after they had invaded from North Africa.

Up the winding streets

On our way to the castle, we passed a church with a dozen or more men dressed from head to toe in medieval-style armor, complete with chainmail, metal helmets, and swords. Naturally we assumed that either they really get into the history around here or that we had not adequately prepared for the Moorish castle experience. Reaching the castle we were relieved to learn that you only needed to pay 7euros to enter and didn't necessarily need to lay siege to gain access to to the spectacular views afforded by the ancient stone walls. We had picked a perfect, clear day, (it can often be significantly colder, wetter, and overcast in Sintra than in Cascais despite being less than 20 miles apart) so we were lucky enough to revel in the crisp, autumnal ocean wind as we gazed out over lands that must have looked very different in the 9th century. A great trip and a grand day... it had us thinking that perhaps we should consider moving up this way for the second year of our contract... although we would probably have to buy some armor.