Moor Castles...

Sintra, Portugal

November 26-27, 2007
N38°47.583
W009°23.309

The UNESCO heritage town of Sintra is a short 45 minute train ride from Lisbon. Our guide book described the small village as a fairytale town with castles and views out to the Atlantic Ocean several kilometers in the distance. After enjoying the picturesque UNESCO village of Cesky Krumlov outside of Prague, we figured spending a few days checking out the quaint village of Sintra, Portugal would be time well spent.

We walked across the street from the train station and dropped our packs at a quiet little guesthouse and immediately made our way to the town center. The village, situated around a large castle with a Christmas tree in the middle, is exactly the kind of undisturbed, charming place we were looking for after several nights in larger cities. The narrow streets were lined with handicraft shops, wine and Port stores and tons of restaurants serving up local Portuguese cuisine. The clip-clop-clip-clop sound of horse and carriage echoed off the windows of the local shops stenciled with snow reading “Boas Festas,” or what we translated into Happy Holidays.

It didn’t take us very long to cover the entire village. We trekked up and down the cobblestone steps and through tiny alleys when we stumbled upon a tiny market. The market sold regional wine, local cheese, fresh bread and a variety of other staples. For us, they had all we needed for rest of the afternoon; we headed back to our room to enjoy some wine and cheese, catch up on reading and simply relax for awhile. More importantly, we planned to rest our legs for the hike to the castle the following day.

This morning we woke up fairly early, grabbed a tasty café cortado at the local coffee shop and headed up—straight up the stairs and steep alleyways that led us to the Moor Castle, or Castelo Dos Mouros, and Palacio Nacional da Pena, the Portugal site nominated as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. The ascent through the isolated forest was challenging, but the crisp fall air made the trek up to the castle a little easier, allowing us to push the pace a little harder. It was good to feel our legs burning again.

After visiting several castles in Eastern Europe we were slightly castled out; however, the Moorish Castle, with an entirely different architecture and stunning views, didn’t disappoint. Once in the castle we climbed the stairs to the look-out point, approximately 1500 feet above sea-level, and starred out in amazement at the Atlantic Ocean to the west (yes that is strange to say) and the other gothic castles surrounding the fortress built by the Moops in the early 900’s. Further up the hill, still in the distance, was our final destination of the day, the National Palace.

As mentioned, the Palacio Nacional da Pena was nominated as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, but it didn’t make the final list when the winners were announced on 07/07/2007. The palace was impressive, vast and beautiful, but it didn’t really compare to some the final winners (except for that stupid statue in Brazil—sorry, had to say it).

The golden hue, dusty blue and rose colored building made for beautiful pictures, especially in the middle of the day with the intense sun shining and casting rich shadows. The palace, located in the middle of a National Park, is surrounded by a densely wooded forest and a labyrinth of trails. When we finished snapping pictures of the palace, we ventured out to see some of the other sights within the park—our favorite being a bench, carved into a rock, providing a picture perfect view of the castle across the forest.

After walking around for several hours we decided to make the trek back down the mountain. It was time to grab lunch and, more importantly, relax our legs. I have a feeling my quads will be pretty sore tomorrow after all the stairs and hills we climbed today. Thank goodness all we have to do is sit on a train to reach our next destination.