A Trip to Portugal (page 5 of 11)
Day Four – Sintra
(The pictures on this page are, with one exception, from our walk down to town from the Moorish castle on day three. I only got one digital keeper on day four, and there were too many from yesterday, so I’m sharing the wealth.)
Today things turned ugly. Our day started with rain. This was the day we initially planned to go to Obidos. Instead, we decided to take a day trip to Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in Europe. We ate breakfast at the hotel and asked someone to call us a cab since our Portugese was not that good.
The cab driver came and asked us where we were going. We told him the old train station. He asked us where we were going from there, and we told
him. He offered to take us to Cabo da Roca and wait for us there for thirty euros. Foolishly, we declined. He insisted that the bus to Cabo da Roca did not leave from the train station in the old town, only from the new train station. We didn’t argue, and got dropped off at the new station.
When we got there, we looked at the schedule for the bus. It didn’t leave for another hour. The new train station is isolated from pretty much
everything else, and it was raining, so we were stuck with nothing to do. I was pretty certain that the bus did in fact leave from the old train station, and the schedule seemed to confirm this suspicion. So we took another cab back to the old station without incident. We found an English-language paper at a newsstand outside of the station and sat down to a coffee at the cafe accross the street. It was still raining.
The bus came. Cabo da Roca isn’t that far from Sintra, but the bus was a local, which means it made multiple stops in every small town along the way. The drive was scenic, so I didn’t mind. When we got to Cabo da Roca an hour later, it was still raning. Hard. The westernmost point in Europe is absolutely desolate, especially in the pounding rain. The bus dropped us off right at the turismo, which is only a few dozen meters from the actual point. We ventured out into the rain. The westernmost point in Europe is on a cliff overlooking the ocean. The wind was howling, the rain was coming down. We didn’t stay long. We ran off to the restaurant another
few dozen meters away and got a coffee, waiting for the bus back to Sintra.
When it was about time for the bus to arrive, we ran back to the turismo to watch and wait. This was when the real trouble began. Remember, the rain was coming down. Waiting outside was not a pleasant option. So we waited inside. Edie saw the bus coming, and we gathered our things. We watch the bus, waiting for it to stop outside the turismo, ready to dash out the moment it opens its doors. It never did.
Edie and I watched that bus fly by without even slowing down. Ugh. The next bus for Sintra didn’t arrive for another hour, and we were stuck at the edge of the world with nothing to do. We were both in a pretty rotten mood. The people at the turismo were less than sympathetic, and
I’ll just leave it at that. We went back to the restaurant for another drink and a little sandwich, and we waited the hour for the next bus to arrive. When it finally came, we were sure to be outside with our arms waving. The lesson to be learned is this: when in Portugal, always wait for your bus outside, and always signal to the driver that you want him to stop.
It was another hour back from Cabo da Roca to Sintra. We got off at the old train station wet, tired, and a little hungry. It was around 4 PM. We then did something that I can’t say I’m proud of. We walked in to the Pizza Hut next to the train station, ordered a cheese pizza to go, and took it back to our room. I don’t even like Pizza Hut. We just needed some kind of comfort food, and pizza fit the bill.
Back at the hotel, things calmed down considerably. We read for a bit, and then went to the living room to watch a little CNN. (CNN was the only English-language news channel available, so we watched it when we got a chance.) At around 8 PM we debated whether or not we should make the trek
into town or just give up on the day and go to sleep. We weren’t really hungry, but we decided that we needed to do something to salvage the evening. The rain had stopped, so we had a pleasant walk up the hill and returned to the restaurant we had dinner in the previous night. We had some soup and a salad and called it a night.
When we returned to the hotel, Frederic told us we were the only people staying there that night and asked when we wanted breakfast the
next morning. We had decided to leave pretty early so that we could make a connection to an early bus in Lisbon leaving for Peniche. We told him thanks, but we’d be leaving before 8:30 which is when breakfast usually started. He looked a little disapointed, and then puttered off for a while. He returned with some computer printouts and a triumphant look. He offered us an alternative plan, suggesting we take the train not all the way to Lisbon, but only to Calem. We could then get another train to Caldas da Rainha, and get a bus from there to Peniche. His suggested route would get us into Peniche about twenty minutes later than ours, but it involved more trains than buses (a plus in our book), and less of a walk from the train to the bus in Caldas da Rainha than in Lisbon. He also offered to serve breakfast at 8:20 so that we could make our connections. In addition, the train to Caldas da Rainha stopped at Obidos, so we could get off and look around for a while if we wanted. We agreed and went to bed.