August 24, 2006 by zankbennett.

Thanks to the advice of JR, the latter part of today was all about Sintra, the tiny town surrounded by hills just a short train ride West of Lisbon…in theory anyway!

Got into town and eventually found a nice hotel up the hill from the center of the old town. It’s an old spanish-style villa from another time. The window in my room opens like shutters do, and yes, it even has shutters on the inside to keep the morning light out.
From the hotel it’s a decent hike up to the two sites well worth seeing. They are: The Pena Palace and The Moorish Castle. They are a hilly, 20-min walk from each other, but the sights along the way make it worth it. There are a series of lakes between the two that make for picturesque hiking, complete with horse-drawn carriages and swans and geese. It was windy as could be at the top, so it was a good day to avoid the beaches. The pictures should be more telling, but at present it’s impossible to post them.
The Moorish Castle had a wall on the north side resembling a shortened version of the Great Wall of China. Beautiful and quite rugged. The path along parts of it was only about 18 inches wide with 30 foot drops to one side. In america there certainly would have been ropes and danger signs and the like. It’s nice that they let you figure all that out on your own here…I guess as long as no one falls off the edge!

More tomorrow from the train to the southern coast…reserved a room for there nights in … Well I can’t remember and am too tired to reach over and grab the book

Bon noite!

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August 24, 2006 by eatfeijoada.

i got one right now!

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August 24, 2006 by zankbennett.

Well, my main bag didn’t make it to Lisbon from NYC. I had only my mini guitar and MP3 player, passport and wallet for a night. It took a trip back to the airport from town to straighten the mess out. They have this huge collection of lost bags in this smelly back room of the Lisbon airport. After a good 200 yds of looking through bags we gave up and the lady brought me back inside for a final look at yet another pile! Finally there it was, dirty but intact. I can’t imagine a process less organized. It was just unbelievable.

It’s off today to Sintra. I’ve managed to miss my train stop already but using a combination of sign language and raw detectable frustration I was able to get some help with directions. I’m on this damn train right now. Bec of the lost bag and my lost mind, it looks like I’m going to miss the opportunity to get to Lagos today. I’m going to yet to spend the night in Sintra and make a go at it tomorrow. I think. There’s a lighthouse at the most south-west point of Portugal that is supposed to have the greatest sunsets. It’s a 6km run from Lagos. Perfect.

Last night and yesterday were spent in Lisbon. I checked into a €45 hotel and went out adventuring. Being without a camera was difficult. Nothing really outstanding to report, but that’s what I’d heard of Lisbon. Climbed a tower this morning. Good city views but nothing spectacular. The weather has been near perfect and cool enough at night to obviate the need for A/C. Last night was the first full 9 hrs of sleep in about 10 straight weeks, even with the non-stop stream of dreams about packing and selling my car and getting immunizations and all the other little things that needed attention before leaving…must have been all the Indian food before bed!

More from Sintra…

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