We left Maisy to her own devices in the Orbitur campsite at Costa da Caparica for a couple of days and stayed with Sarah and Rob in the city centre. I suppose technically we exceeded the 36hr limit on leaving the van unattended imposed by our insurance, but nothing untoward happened. It was a short break within our long break. A break from driving and an opportunity to go out in the evening, which is not something we tend to do normally.
Rob's car was parked a couple of kilometres from the apartment outside the landlord's mother's house. It's great she agreed that they could keep it there as resident parking places in Lisbon are difficult to find. We planned a Sunday outing to Sintra. The walk to where the car was parked took us beyond Lisbon's historical centre and into an area of big office blocks, hotels and 60s style mid-rise apartments.
One wall was decorated spectacularly. Some images used a graffiti style, others more like photo collage. Really these were murals rather than graffiti as clearly the time it must have taken to produce the images indicated that they were officially sanctioned. Indeed, one appeared to be promoting National Geographical - a hybrid form requiring a portmanteau term, adfitti or gramurals or something.
.It was interesting to see something of Lisbon outside of the usual tourist sites. The city itself is moderately sized with a population of a little over half a million. However, if you include the satellite settlements that surround it then it becomes a considerable conurbation with 2.7 million inhabitants. That is 27% of Portugal's population. As we headed towards Sintra on the motorway you sensed how much the city sprawls into the surrounding countryside, the usual dispiriting mix of retail parks and high-rise developments.
Sintra itself is a green oasis among the sprawl, a stylish town of nineteenth century villas built on wooded hills as an aristocratic escape from Lisbon's stifling summer heat. Some of the mansions are abandoned, but the place still has sufficient shabby chic to tempt Madonna to buy a property here recently.
As well as the villas of the wealthy the town boasts two royal palaces and a Moorish castle. The old royal palace dates from the Arabic period with later additions,We had a great view of it from the restaurant where we had lunch.
However we opted to visit the Palácio de Pena, a mid nineteenth century concoction that dominates the hill high above the town. The palace is a fake fairy tale castle reminiscent of King Ludwig's Bavarian folly, Neuschwanstein . The similarity is not accidental. Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg Gotha, the consort of the Portuguese Queen drafted in a Prussian architect. The result is a strange mixture of Bavarian, Islamic and Manueline motifs.
The palace grounds cover the nearby wooded hills. They are designed in a late romantic style full of meandering pathways, grottoes and hidden streams. Much lovelier than the kitch mock castle, We wandered around them for a couple of hours, reaching the summit of Cruz Alta. perched at 380 metres the cross provides a spectacular viewpoint of not just the Sintra monuments, but the etire coastline south of the Tagus all the way to Cabo Espichel.
Though recent days have been sunny a chilly breeze has been blowing from the north. As the afternoon wore on a cold mist formed on the hills of Sintra. We had not dressed for autumn and were glad to return to the car. Still, on the way back to Lisbon we managed to squeeze a visit to Carcavelos beach just in time to catch sunset over the sea.
A few minutes walk from where Rob parks his car is one of Lisbon's noted traditional restaurants specialising in charcoal grilled whole chicken. 'A Valenciana' featured in Rick Stein's Long Weekend in Lisbon. In one sense it serves simple food - barbecued chicken with chips and rice. However, the chicken was grilled perfectly, the home produced piri piri sauce adding as big or small a spicy kick as you wished.
It was delicious, a perfect way to end an active day out and about in the hills of Sintra. We had certainly worked up the appetite for it.
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