Sintra from Obidos: Been there and done that!

So glad we got a good breakfast in Obidos because the day unfolded a bit differently than expected—-as frequently occurs with travel. Thanks to Alvaro we found a beautiful spot on the coast for a quick hike then hit the road for Sintra.

We had already circumnavigated one castle and we had advance tickets to another. Also we had learned our car rental needed to be in by ten the next day—-an impossible task. (Note to self: not only are pick up times important-see azores entry-but drop off times are equally important given the hefty fine which is of course the only reason why they would be important). So we said lets drop off in Sintra, Well Sintra drop off #1(which we sadly waited an hour to reopen after there lunch) was only for RV drop offs and Sintra #2 did not exist which was immediately apparent to me but was puzzled over by at least 5 other non English speaking (shocking I know) employees of the car dealership and the SIxt car rental that was mysteriously there instead. I finally convinced the staff to give me my phone back (sil vous plait mi teléfono is apparently not French enough) and instead we proceeded to the traffic zoo of Cais Cais where Brant suddenly learned how to be rental car employee and just drove that alpha romero right up and over the sidewalk—no parking space needed.

It would have been funnier but we had a ticket to the castle and BNB check in. So we grabbed a cab after dragging our luggage over to the rail station (the first guy turned us down and this should have been a clue) but the second guy was kind and happily took us as he knew where the place was. Unfortunately this man knew the name double of our place but not actually ours. He was so upset—he insisted on getting an English speaking man from inside the swanky hotel where we were not staying to explain the predicament that he could not turn the corner as it became “cab illegal” for his particular cab. We tried to reassure him it was ok—I truly think he was more upset than us. It was only another 5 minutes of luggage dragging so no big deal—-took longer to explain than walk there!

SO check in, no time for an aperitif, OTD for another castle. Now we are tired and can’t seem to find the right castle (which is kind of a weird problem if you think about it and is a much longer story that I will spare my memory bank). I tell Brant everyone has said just take a cab—very easy. So we do. The castle is 5 minutes away—BUT as it turns out we must take the cab about 45 minutes out of town on a one way loop in order to get back to the castle. At last we get there—we are feeling a bit smug. BUT then we realized its another 30 minute slog up the hill to enter the grounds. Okay so it’s a nice place, but I think I’d rather live closer to town. By the way, they seem to call everything a castle around here so specific names are important. Just saying hope they had drivers to take each other to the various castle parties back in the day….

Actually the trail down through the gardens of the castle was the best, because there were really packed; wild gardens all going down the side of the mini mountain. About 8 of us all speaking different languages trying to figure out which fork in what path to take before we got locked in for the night. We didn’t really worry as long as we had a downhill course. (To be honest, we just don’t like crowds except at music festivals so it was great to lose the crowds as we wondered through the gardens).

It didn’t matter where we ate that night—anything would have tasted good. I was thrilled when the waiter said, “ Pick it up, here is ok, not in France ok”—-I had a plate full of lambchops and he did not have to repeat himself!

That night I kept thinking why do we have tickets to Moorish castle—-I thought we had tickets to some weird mansion with a well whose name I don’t recall? (6 weeks of travel is filled with many details not always written down).Oddly enough googling mansion with well in Sintra yielded no results. But then I found the name under the 10 best things to see and alas we then we found we had tickets but had not been able to print. Hmmm but now we had tickets to 2 places in the morning? We can do it! And thanks to extraordinarily cheap Ubers we got to that strange mansion with the well, and the Moorish Castle in one morning then a delicious lunch followed by yet another Uber. Why take a train when the Uber costs only 30 euros and takes you right to your hotel in Lisbon?

Would we come back? Probably not. A definite been there, done that sort of place. Unless of course Adele was giving a private concert at the Pena Castle and we were in invited……

And just to be clear, it’s a beautiful place, it’s actually quite organized and the people of the town were incredibly nice. I do think they have been a victim of their own success and they struggle trying to figure out what to do with all these visitors and traffic. (And I will say first thing in the morning was very pleasant). Also it seems slightly strange to have a town that is built around ogling at the tremendous wealth of a small number of people. Hah but I guess that is so many tourist locations.