We were 2 couples who rented a nice flat in Lisbon as a home base. Once we decided to visit Sintra. We picked Tuesday while the Pena Castle is closed on Monday and the National Palace doesn’t work on Wednesday. We got to the Rossio train station by the metro. It has an awesome manueline facade with purplish framed doorways. To get to the ticket seller go inside and upstairs. Our guys bought us the tickets (4.50E return) while we were taking photos of the fog hanging around the neighborhood below.
The trains to Sintra go from 9am and run every 20 minutes or so. It was a marvelous 40 minute trip. We got there before we knew it. One tip – when you leave the train there are paid 0.2E bathrooms on the trackside platform before! you go through the turnstile toward the station. Those bathrooms were clean and available. We made our visits then went through the turnstile into the station, out the front door and saw our 434 bus standing right there and waiting for us. We paid the fare to the bus driver, 5E each, and began our trip.
My husband who is fond of driving on the roads with hairpin turns and immediate switch backs found riding while somebody else drove less desirable. I need to say he was a bit queasy. Our bus driver was a professional. The roads were quite reminiscent of the roads in Madeira or the Azores. Fun! We stopped at the first stop. The driver said something we couldn’t understand. There was no signage at the stops or on the bus. We decided to sit tight and see what happened. A few people got off the bus but the main part stayed on it. At the second stop, things looked better.
We saw a ticket kiosk and a gate with an official ticket taker. So we got off the bus there. I guess we paid 50E in common. Next tip – when the ticket person scans your ticket – remember where you put it. You’ll need it again. And, it will be more convenient if everyone has his own ticket. Thus we walked into the complex and were astonished with all the decorative architecture. There is a photo opportunity every two feet. One of the guys purchased the audio tours inside the visitor center. One more tip is to buy the audio, while it makes a great difference. Along with a smattering of history, the audio discloses out details no one would ever understand or notice.
We visited it in May 2012 on a drizzling rain kind of day so there were practically no crowds. We could amble about at our own pace without any problem. When you finally enter the castle, after a few courtyards, there is another ticket person who will need to scan that elusive ticket again and photos aren’t allowed anymore. From that point on, we wandered one room after another viewing kitchen, bedrooms, dining room, bathroom, living rooms, sitting rooms and so on. Each room was decorated with amazing furniture and architectural details. Some of them were renovated and it was wonderful to see the steps in their project. There was an elaborate set of oriental furniture in one of the rooms I could have studied for hours. Finally we visited all the rooms and came back outside to another courtyard and wall towers.
There was a small food place with tables outside in the courtyard. I guess they sold snacks like sandwiches and drinks including beer! We had our own sandwiches but bought our drinks from there. The sun began to peek out of the clouds showing us Sintra in the distance. So there were more photo opportunities. After we had our lunch, we headed out through the park to the second wife’s house. If you walk purposely without stopping for photos, it would perhaps take 20 minutes to walk there. But it took us much longer. There were small houses and outbuildings, lots of flowers, farm animals, great trees and tiny waterfalls along the way.
When we got to the second wife’s house, there was another ticket person who scanned our elusive tickets. That house was small and under a massive renovation project. The renovators have taken nice “before” pictures so one can gain a huge appreciation of the magnitude of this project. The house had fallen into a pity condition. Now the state is re-doing it and the surrounding gardens. We kept walking through the park, rather than returning to the castle, and exited near the lakes where there was another tiny visitor center with public bathrooms and bus stop on the road.
We guessed the entire Pena Castle would take about three hours. Instead we had spent about six hours there!! We waited for the bus and came back to town. Another tip – watch your times as the last bus goes back to town at 5 or 6 pm. We saw tourists getting off to see the castle as we were leaving. They would only have perhaps an hour or so to see it all. Initially we wanted to visit the National Sintra Palace but we have enough information for one day. So we went off to look for a nice Pastel de Nada! But, it’s another story!