Sintra is around a 45 minute train journey north of Lisbon and is a popular destination for many tourists – too many it would seem these days, but when we came here back in March 2008 it wasn’t quite like that. In actual fact, we weren’t staying in Portugal’s capital, but in Cascais, a town along the coast also around a 45 minute train ride from Lisbon. Consequently, it didn’t make any sense to go into the city and travel to Sintra from there, so we opted for a white knuckle bus ride from Cascais instead.

Being on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, Sintra has a good number of interesting cultural attractions to occupy your time, but as there were only a handful of buses that ran between the two towns each day, we needed to be conscious of the time factor, especially as the last bus left at 4.30 in the afternoon. Under the circumstances, it was fairly obvious that we should concentrate on the most obvious landmark – the Pena Palace, one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal.

After just managing to survive the journey without having to look for a sick bag, we were dropped off at Sintra railway station where the #434 bus begins a circular tour of the town via the Pena Palace. It’s a really useful way of getting around and far more useful than the woman in the bus station office. In actual fact, we didn’t get off to a very good start at all because no sooner had the bus left it turned around and went back to the railway station. Just as we thought, the bus was playing up, but the driver eventually carried on anyway – or at least as far as a hairpin bend on the hill climbing up towards the palace. To cut a long story short, we were told to get off and walk the rest of the way. Some did – but we didn’t, which was just as well because another bus turned up not long afterwards and we squeezed on there.

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Originally posted 2024-07-31 12:58:45.