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I recently rode up to Lisbon on my motorbike to visit some clients at Cascais Marina and also to take part in the Lisbon peace march the next day. Having completed my business at Cascais at 4.00 pm I rode towards Sintra taking the coast road west and then north round Cabo da Roca after which I rode inland and up a narrow winding road to Sintra, where I had a quick ride up the steep hill above the town in the hour before dusk to have a closer look at the Royal Palace and the Moorish castle both of which could be seen from the centre of Sintra. Returning to the town centre I took a room at the The Hotel Central, a rather dilapidated establishment that had clearly had known better times probably in the 1930's when it must have been THE place to stay. It was however very nice, and for 35 euros (75 in the summer) I had a very nice double room with bathroom overlooking the central square and the National Palace.

The next morning I went up to see the Moorish Castle, about a mile from the town centre at the top of a steep winding road. It was probably built by the Moors in the latter part of the 8th century and re taken by the Portuguese in 1147 with the help of Crusaders from Scandanavia. Now it is just parts of the outer walls that remain plus what is known as The Royal Tower and an enormous underground water cistern where the moors kept their water in order to be able to withstand long sieges. Now the whole area is very overgrown with trees, which gives it a strange mystical atmosphere. There is also the most wonderful view of the sea to the west and countryside for miles in every other direction.

From there I went to the Pena National Palace, which is on top of another very high hill at the same height as the Moorish castle and about a mile away. This is where the Royal Family lived in the 19th century. Originally built as a monastery in 1503 to celebrate the first site of Vasco da Gama's returning fleet. It was bought in 1839 by Prince Saxe Coburg-Gotha the husband of the Portuguese Queen Maria 2nd. With the help of a German engineer he made it into a wonderful example of romantic Portuguese architecture that is both beautiful, sensitive and absolutely magnificent. The Royal apartments were fascinating, having had my camera taken from me at the entrance I was able to walk through and in some cases past the rooms that the royal family lived in until 1910 when they fled from Portugal. The rooms are exactly as they left them, rather over furnished and overlooking a beautiful inner courtyard that I suspect was little changed from its days as a monastery.

I also visited the National Palace in the centre of Sintra which was already in existence under the Moors and inside retains some of it’s Moorish ambience. The building as I saw it was built as a Royal Palace in around 1420. It is now a museum, the enormous chimneys that you can see in the pictures above are over the kitchens, their ceilings tapering into these giant structures. There are many impressive state rooms but the most magnificent of all is the Sala das Armas, its domed ceiling emblazoned with the arms of 72 noble families.

The area surrounding Sintra is natural forest covering thousands of acres of unspoilt countryside with a road that leads up through the town to two hilltops, one with the Pena Royal Palace at the summit and the other a mile away with the Moorish castle at the top. Both have a wonderful view of each other and a magnificent view across country to the coast in the west and the river Tejo and Lisbon to the south east.

As the Pena Royal Palace is where the Royal family lived for most of the 19th century, and prior to that they lived in the National Palace, the Portuguese aristocracy built the most beautiful houses here so to be close to the King and therefore a part of the Royal Court in the summer.

Byron stayed in Sintra in 1809, writing home to his mother he said; "perhaps in every aspect the most delightful in Europe; it contains beauties of every description natural and artificial. Palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks, cataracts and precipices; convents on stupendous heights, a distant view of the sea and the Tagus… it unites in itself all the wildness of the Western Highlands with the verdure of the South of France".

At least a day and a night here are well worthwhile, the restaurants in the town are excellent and not at all expensive. It is only about 30 minutes drive north west of Lisbon on a good road that passes through beautiful countryside. Some of the photographs that I took while I was there are shown above. Click on the thumbnails and they will appear full size.