Portuguese tile work, Palacio National

July 2016, and Maureen and I were heading off to England for a family wedding in Wivenhoe, Essex. If we’re going all that way, why not also see something of Europe we hadn’t visited before?

So, we arranged to meet up with our friends Ken and Cindy, and their friends Ken and Kathy for a pre-nuptials trip to Portugal. Meeting place to start our travels was Sintra, just outside Lisboa. K and C flew in from Vancouver, K and K from Toronto, and it took less than two hours after finally getting together for the two groups of four friends to become one group of six friends. A great start, but it could have been so different.

The friends thing was easy. However, the challenges of navigation, we soon found out, would become a theme for the trip. Instead of meeting up for breakfast on the first morning, it could just as easily turned out that the KKK & C could have been touring somewhere else entirely, and still searching for Sintra.

On that first night, while Maureen and I slept soundly (actually jet lag type napping) in our Sintra hotel, the navigationally challenged, aka the GPS users, aka the other four, were careening up, and then down, the long dark hill to the closed palace at the highest point in Sintra, turning around, and finally arguing with a tree that unexpectedly jumped off the roadside and damaged their newly rented car, before they ended up at the hotel.

Really, the trip could only get better from there, and it did, except at the end when four of us took a Ryanair flight to England. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sintra

Sintra town square from Palacio National

Our hotel, notable for the dead fly (no photo available) that remained on the stairs to the rooms for our whole stay. Carefully noted by Ken, it was included in his Trip Advisor review.

Sintra sunset, castle, and moon from the Tivoli.

Daytime views were nice too

First dinner together. Maureen warms up her white wine.

Food’s coming

Quinta da Regaleira gate. This was one of the beautiful buildings missed by KKK&C on their midnight hurtle down the mountain.

Maureen swanning around the Palacio National (note ceiling)

Kathy likes interior window shots

Palacio da Pena. A real palace that looks just like Disneyland.

Apparently, Cindy’s fave feature. Hmmm!

More Palacio da Pena

Ken pledging allegiance to the memory of Salazar

Goodbye Sintra.

On the Road to Serta – Peniche

Peixaria Profesco, Peniche
“You want this one?”

We chose it, they grilled it fresh out of the ocean for us – great, simple, straightforward food.

“I don’t care that the GPS says go west, that’s the Atlantic behind me. Serta’s that way.”

Serta

We stayed in a converted convent. God kicked out, tourists in, and no sign of sack cloth and ashes anywhere. Really deluxe accommodation.

However, there were a few remaining nuns cavorting in the pool.

Below the convent (visible behind the lighted stalls), along the banks of the Serta River, a market and fair featuring the regional specialities of the Centro region awaited us. Lots more really goo food.

Pork specialties

Delicious bread

And cheese, which Neumann bargained hard for with a poor villager. “That’s three euros; three euros, not one.”

If your tastes ran to it, you could even get a little fresh-made moonshine. Photo taken at night, of course, when all proper moonshine is made.

And then you take your purchases for an impromptu picnic along the shady riverbank.

While we lunched, a traditional band played.

And traditional dancers showed off their steps.

On Saturday evening, at a community fundraiser, we paid 15 euros per person for as much suckling pig (a regional speciality), appetizers, salad, and dessert as you could eat.

Spit roasted, tail and all

Sectioned and served

Washed down with some Portuguese bubbly.

Our plates were emptied before I could even get a decent picture.

From Serta we travelled around a bit exploring the countryside.

Near Serta was the Geographic (Geodesic) centre of Portugal. For a bunch of lefties, being in the centre was a new experience.

After getting lost in the countryside we finally found the schist village we were looking for. The GPS was correct this time telling us that the road went right through the centre of the village. What it didn’t say was that cars wouldn’t fit the narrow streets – maybe a bicycle, or a skinny donkey, but not a car. Turning around at an old bemused couple’s back terrace and then laying rubber from spinning wheels on the sharp turn back up the steep track was an embarrassing challenge. Luckily there were no leaping trees here like those in Sintra, although a few of the buildings looked a bit threatening.

Schist Village, inside the labyrinth of streets

We also travelled to Dornes an important trade centre in ancient times and a centre for the Knights Templar. Like the schist village, Dornes was virtually empty. Not even Dan Brown was wandering the streets.

Dornes, in front of the Knights Templar five-sided tower.

Tomar at siesta time, another Knights’ Templar town. See the Templar crosses along the streets.

After Serta and the surrounding countryside, we headed off to Alcacer do Sal.

Alcacer do Sal

White Storks nesting on the roof tops welcomed us to Alcacer do Sal. We (some of us anyway) learned an important lesson here. Storks and castles occupy the high points – storks on roof tops, and castles hill tops. That bloody GPS again took us on a long search for the castle we were staying in. It had us drive kilometres along the banks of the Sado River and at the end of the road, no castle and no hotel. I think the thing was still pissed we wouldn’t take its directions and drive across the Atlantic Ocean from Peniche. Smart tech?

Nesting White Storks were on many of Alcacer’s taller buildings. None was seen carrying a human baby while we were in town.

The view from our hill-top castle pousada. The road below is the one leading up here that we eventually got on. You can see from here that the river flows in the valley bottom, the castle is on top of the hill.

Staying in a castle has some benefits. Dramatic new staircases resting on ancient structures.

Beautiful light airy corridors.

A reflecting pool in an interior courtyard with our room’s balcony visible on the extreme top right.

Morning walks took us through the picturesque town,

with street decorations catching the rising sun,

and each street with its own particular choice of decorations

finally arriving on the waterfront at the Sado River.

Maureen, with supporting roles from Cindy and Kathy, foraged in Comporta (see below) for an outstanding supper that we devoured in one of our castle rooms. Actually it was in Ken and Cindy’s room, the biggest room as it happened, but the bitterness has faded.

We also took a marvelous day trip to the coastal village of Comporta.

I somehow only got this one picture of Comporta. Must’ve been thinking food not pictures.

Along the route we passed cork oak forests.

And Maureen had a swim. To paraphrase Stevie Smith, Maureen is Waving and Not Drowning. She actually swam in the Atlantic for more than 45 mins, enjoying every minute. Only Kathy was brave enough to join her. The rest of us wouldn’t go in above our knees.

Waiting for the freshly grilled sardines.

Again I was too slow to get the full picture. With this crew it was a case of the quick and the hungry. Photographers eat last, and least, unless they join the rush.

Finally it was off to Lisboa. KKK&C left early, and missed the horrendous traffic that Maureen and I had heading into the city. However, we took another trip to the coast near Comporta to an interesting little fishing village on the Sado River.

Carrasquiera fishing village on the Sado estuary. Lisbon is in the distant background.

Lisboa

The shoppers were enthusiastic

The interior of Jeronimo’s cathedral, Lisbon

Morning walkies before breakfast were along the Lisboa waterfront. A gathering of tall ships was impressive.

Belem tower at mouth of Tagus, Lisboa

Happy Travellers

Free dinner, Serta

Park bench near Belem tower.

Kathy and Cindy sailing

Foraged dinner, Alcacer

Dornes

Belem tower

Tomar

Sintra

Pharmacia restaurant, Lisboa

Pharmacia restaurant, Lisboa

Sintra

Farewell Portugal

Portuguese tilework, Sintra.

But not before a few gratuitous bird shots.

Flaminingos on the Tagus Estuary. These birds actually breed on the Camargue in Southern France. Non-breeders like these spend the summer on the Tagus avoiding a long hazardous flight and France’s high prices.

Eurasian Crag Martin – just because I like the name.

England to follow, when I get to it.