Chuck's News: Day 23 - To Sintra and the Moorish Castle

I wake up before Sally and usually before the alarm. I tend to use this time to write about the events of the days before or to research and plan the coming day’s activities. I am so tired at night (probably because I wake before the alarm) that trying to concentrate on anything is impossible. Put me out of my misery and let me sleep. But mornings?! Let’s go.

This morning I checked the path of our walk to the bus depot. Last night we were allowing ourselves half an hour to traverse town. Mapping showed it to be a 10 minute walk. And most of it was on the streets I had walked last night during my grocery quest. Then I started looking at how to get to Sintra from the Sete Río bus depot. Using my partial knowledge from out two previous stays in a Lisbon I figured we would ride the blue metro line to the Sao Sebastian stop, take the red line to the Oriente stop and board the train to Sintra. Simple. But as it turned out, way to complicated. More on that later.

Hard boiled eggs for breakfast and out the door. On the way to the bus depot we passed the open public market and stopped in for a quick look. Fruits, vegetables and breads everywhere. It is hard to pass up a good looking pastry, so I bought a roll with raisins sticking out of it to munch while waiting for the bus. Delicious.

At the very small bus stop Sally and I were waiting inside. A young man came out of the bathroom and as he walked out the door to the outside he exclaimed loud enough for us to hear, in English, “I have diarrhea!” Sally couldn’t let that stand. She had anti-diarrhea pills in her purse and like the good mother/grandmother she is she went out to offer them to him and his parents. They were thankful for the offer and accepted. 20 minutes later as we boarded the bus they thanked her again.

After an uneventful hour plus bus ride we disembarked at Sete Rio station, a conjunction of rail, metro and bus lines. Still operating on the plan concocted earlier in the morning we started making our way to the metro. As we did Sally noticed a sign to Sintra. A Scobie Doo whaaaaattttt? We asked a ticket seller and he confirmed we could catch the train to Sintra right here.

Of course!! The train from the Oriente station passes through this station! We would have taken two subways to get to this train and then ridden it right through this very station. We walked up stairs to the train platform, sat on a bench and waited 10 minutes for our train to arrive.

Once in Sintra we headed to our hostel to drop off our packs so we could head up to the hill top castles. Our hostel was only half a block from the station and we were there in less than 10 minutes. We knew we were super early, but we had read that they would let us deposit our bags early. The house was walled in and had a gate at the street level. We pushed the buzzer and the gate unlocked. At the top of the stairs we were greeted by a young woman who showed us a closet to put our packs in. We were out the door and headed for the National Palace half a mile away to buy our tickets to enter the Moorish Castle today and the Peña Palace tomorrow morning at 10:30am (they have timed entries to help control the crowds).

Rick Steves’ directions said to turn left out of the trail station. This is not correct. There are three choices, left, right or straight. Straight is the correct way to go. Once we had that sorted we walked around to the main town center, met a wonderfully kind lady at the palace ticket booth and entered to purchase our tickets for entry. She asked if we wanted to buy a bus pass. We said no, we were going to walk up and also could she please give us the senior discount. She gave us a friendly stink eye and asked for our birth year. Apparently, walking up to the castles is not something people our age do so we must be younger than 65. She warned us of the distance and elevation gain to reach the top, but we insisted we were going to walk. We enjoyed our banter with her.

Once back out on the street we stopped at Cafe Piriquita for a grilled ham and cheese and Sintra’s legendary pastry, then headed out the door and up the street to the beginning of the trail.

The grounds around the castles are called a park. On my map on GaiaGPS on my phone I saw many trails leading up the hill. In my mind I saw dirt trails switchbacking up the hill, braided by many feet cutting switchbacks and blazing their own routes. The reality was very different. I had forgotten who had these trails built. The rich royalty over 150 years ago. They were all paved with cobblestones and nearly manicured. Just as we started up a Tuk Tuk driver told us the trail was closed about a third of the way up due to downed trees. Sure enough. We eventually hit detour signs and were guided out to the road. The next hour we hiked next to a constant stream of cars, busses, TukTuks and vans climbing to the pass between the Peña Palace and the Moorish Castle. It took us about an hour and a half to get there.

We headed over to the Moorish Castle. It was amazing!! We walk all the parapets from one end to the other as they climbed and descended this bouldery landscape.

I has something happen at the coffee shop that is very unusual and made me laugh. I am so accustomed to no one having Pepsi that I just ask for Coke when getting Sally her fix. I asked for a Coke Zero and the man behind the counter replied, “I’m sorry, all I have is Pepsi and Pepsi Max.” I haven’t heard that phrase this whole trip.

After delighting I the Moorish Castle we descending the opposite side of the ridge from our ascent. The “trail” was perfect. Wide cobblestones and steps all the way back to town. It was nearly dark when we reached the hostel and retired to our room. We had spied a Chinese restaurant across from the train station on our way back. We went out after dark, partly to see the castle lit up at night and partly for Chinese dinner.

Our room was the lowest we have had. The bed was okay for comfort, but the sheets and pillow cases were threadbare with a hole now and then, no art on the walls and the bathrooms were funky and tired. Yet, the price and location were perfect, as was the person running it. Plus, we got a breakfast with it. It is fun to see these houses more than a hundred years old with electronic key codes entries, LED lights and modern vinyl windows. A great day with excellent exercise, travel and sights.

Our hostel in Sintra

Sally on the “trail” up to the castles

This is what trails for royalty look like. No mud on their shoes. It is now a public park and is well maintained