Day 05 – to Sintra, Portugal
Jun 1
- We took a train to Sintra, along part of “the Portuguese Riviera.” When you step off the train in Sintra, there are dozens of tour guides with tuk tuks and cars begging for you to use them. There is also a train-engine shaped car pulling two train cars of tourists for sight seeing. We just avoided eye contact and bee-lined it to a spot away from them. Getting a rideshare was a bit more difficult because the wait was longer, but it was fine.
- The town sits about 150m/500’ above sea level. Other than town, the rest is mostly up the side of a small 300m/1000’ area of a mountain. Several of the roads are also a network of one-way streets. It’s cute and charming and has great views from any spot.
- Our hotel was a giant (like 34 rooms giant) fancy old house and was run like a Bed & Breakfast. We were too early to check in, but we were allowed to leave our bags in the reception/living room while we explored the grounds. When we did come back at check-in time, a super-annoying American customer–that I refer to as Sherry because she was like a former boss–commandeered the guy checking us all in with a myriad of questions. How have I not been calling that “a Sherry of questions” all this time? She and her husband were going to leave a day early and she was determined to get that money back. As the group of new arrivals grew, our collective patience—and that of the clerk—waned. I nearly passed a hat around to collect enough to compensate her and spare the rest of us the drama. When she did finally leave, she told him it was because there were people waiting and that she’d come back with the rest of her questions. As if he didn’t have other work, too.
- Buses in Sintra are a tad confusing. There seem to be both city busses and local private ones. I’m not sure we ever figured it out.
- We walked down the hill to the touristy area of town for dinner, where we sat outside and watched bus drivers honk at all the tuk-tuk and Uber drivers parking in their way. Then, in a flash, they were all gone. About 30 seconds later, a Polícia car came through. I guess they aren’t supposed to wait there for riders.
- We did a little souvenir shopping and tried a custard tart made from the recipe from local monastery called Queijadas de Sintra. He had some soft-serve gelato.
- At the later time of day, catching our bus back up the mountain was easy. And, we had to go “all the way” around in a one-way circle, so we got to see a lot.
- It was a busy day, so we crashed early.
Day 06 – Sintra
Jun 2
- At the breakfast part of our B&B, we were the only ones with a 10am slot. Yay. But reception was closed and that meant there was no where to get Cokes. Boo.
- The day was a lot cooler than the one before. Despite that, we waited an hour in the cold wind for our bus, during heavy traffic, while being harassed by cab and tuk tuk drivers. When our bus finally came, it was full beyond capacity. We gave up and walked to town. After some shopping, we found burgers for lunch…and caffeine!
- We boarded the bus for the castles circuit. It was a nice and pretty ride. We picked the “good” castle which was a mistake. We got there early afternoon, but tickets to go inside were sold out until 4:30pm. We were able to walk the grounds. We walked most of the way up the very steep path, but then I gave up. He was able to view it from the outside, but the skies were gray, so the pics are, too.
- We popped into a tapas place for drinks. It was very nice, but it also came with a tiny free show. The owner was mad at someone about the plates. His rant wouldn’t have even gotten our attention in the US, but here, it was a bit misplaced.
- After some more walking and shopping, we found dinner. He had the schnitzel with fries and Guilherme on his Coke. I had a never-ending creamy shrimp in a bread bowl that was like a shrimp version of a chicken pot pie.
Day 07
June 3
- This time, for the breakfast part of our B&B, we had the chance to buy cokes. It really is the little things.
- He wanted to see the coast and ocean, so we walked to town in search of a bus (which bus? who knows!) to Boca da Roca, the western-most tip of Europe. There was a small accident along the route. There isn’t much to see there other than the pretty cliff edges and rocks. It was also very windy and a bit cool. When we were ready to return, “our” bus back denied us. We were at the end the route, so this was just bizarre. We took another bus to a more local area of town..found The Sherry and her husband at the very restaurant we picked.
- We had a late lunch at Mezcalito (Italian/Mexican), I bought a pretty teal wrap from a Dollar Tree type store while we walked some of of the more modern part of Sintra.
- We took a quick breeze through MU.SA – Museu das Artes de Sintra. On the way out, I dropped shades and they broke. Lucky for me, there was a store just a few feet down and my new ones are even cooler.
- He found some chocolate gelato for us to eat before walking back to the older/tourist area. We found an abandoned building with its own yard cat, who of course commanded some pettings. We stopped for wine at Dizinto Restaurant Wine Bar before we bussed back to our neighborhood.
- There, we went to ZID (hookah) Lounge Bar for drinks. They were worried about us not smoking in a hookah bar, but I just told them I love the smell. Before we left, a couple of tables of smokers came in for their afternoon bowls.
- We then walked to dinner at Ind.ian Pa.lace. I had some shrimp for my meal. I also had a glass and a half of wine and took the rest to go. This was to be the beginning of my end.
Day 08-10 – Coimbra, Portugal
Day 08 – Jun 4
- We woke up after a gentle, long, peaceful rain, said goodbye to our Ibis home, and headed for the train station. The travel day was normal: we got drinks, took the train back to Lisbon, transfered, and rode the two hours to Coimbra.
- Our hotel entrance was in an alley filled with “floating” hats. After we dropped our stuff, we grabbed lunch near by at Solar do Bacalhau, a Portuguese restaurant. In our alley was a liquor store selling Shit Liqueur.
- And then my existence in this world would end for a few days (Days 08 through 15 of our trip). I came back to the room with a fever, crawled into bed, and didn’t really leave the whole time we were in Coimbra. At first, I thought it was food poisoning (and a fever?), but at the 24- and 48-hour marks, I realized it was more than that; Dr Google said my symptoms leaned toward Salmonella. On our Day 13, I ventured out to meet our friends, but I had a soothing tea while they all had lunch. Our Day 16 was the first mostly normal day for me. He explored a bit and bought me anything I needed/wanted, which just wasn’t much beyond electrolytes, bananas, bread, and some medicine. Kudos once again to the superior health care system in Europe where he got all the help I needed.
Day 09 – Jun 5
- Since I was down, he wandered the city while running a few errands: bananas, bread, water, etc.
- He also found a museum–Bienal Anozero–of shadows and darkness (Canadian artists) and saw the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova and Queen Isabela’s silver tomb (first Queen of Portugal).
- He then found Seoul Chicken, Baixa de Coimbra, for dinner
Day 10 – Jun 6
- I was still down, so E found some medicine, electrolytes, and bread before heading out for lunch and other errands. He had lunch, got change for some of our Euros, and climbed the mountain of Coimbra to the Royal Palace. He also found the Academic Museum of the University of Coimbra. When he stopped for a drink, he noticed The Rookie on Portuguese TV.
- Later that evening, when he went out for dinner, he saw over 50 people wearing Guns N Roses tshirts. They were in town for a show.
Thank u fir letting me live vicariously through u. The picts r great.