Scintillating Sintra (part 2)

I am obliged to continue from the end of the last post, where, by 4 PM, we had exited the Park and Palace of Pena and made our way to the centre of Sintra. But, I will have to interject a bit of our web search from the previous night. A Google search for 'Things to see in Sintra' provided us with a whole list of palaces and parks. Narrowing our search down to 'Things to see in Sintra IN ONE DAY' gave us subjective compilations of the best things to see. In all the opinions of what is worth it, and what can be skipped, one thing stood out. The 'Quinta da Regaleira'. What is it? Google provided us with this image -

Mild curiosity quickly elevated to intense levels of inquisitiveness mixed with excitement. What IS that? A further web search gave us a list of seemingly melodramatic opinion. Magic, cosmic, mystical, unreal, they all exclaimed. Must see, cannot miss, DO NOT miss, they all stated. But, WHAT IS IT, damn it? In all their hyperbole, none of them had explicitly stated what exactly the Quinta da Regaleira was. Whether my amateur web searching skills are to be blamed, or we just didn't have enough time to spend online, the mild frustration that I was left with that night only fuelled my desire to see the place and find out for myself what it really was.

I will let the cat out of the bag. In a nutshell, the Quinta da Regaleira is an estate that hosts a summer palace in a gorgeous garden. But, that is putting it too mildly.

The travesseiro

After reaching the centre of Sintra at 4 PM, we decided to pick up something to eat at a cafe before walking to the Quinta da Regaleira (henceforth shortened to just 'Quinta'). While figuring out how to get there, we also tried the 'travesseiro', Sintra's pastry specialty. Portuguese for 'pillow' because of its shape, the travesseiro was something I quite enjoyed. The sprinkling of sugar on the top was the icing on the cake, quite literally too!


Getting to the Quinta by walk takes less than ten minutes from the centre. Once on the street leading to the Quinta, one is greeted by a picture of the palace in the distance. Even while on the road, the palace's intricate exterior is visible from afar, something that I have noticed only once before, in the palace hotel of Bucaco, also in Portugal. It turns out, the same architect worked on both palaces.

At the entrance, we were handed a map of the entire estate. We immediately spotted a tiny picture of the same photo that we had come across on Google the previous night. Termed the 'Initiatic well', the structure is a 27 metre tower that sinks into the earth, and is connected to different caves via underground tunnels and walkways. The short description provided on the map sounded so thrilling, my childish whims re-surfaced, and I decided that come what may, I HAD to see this well before leaving the Quinta. With just an hour and a half to spare before catching the last bus back to the Sintra station, that didn't leave us with much time.

After spending very little time gaping at the splendid exterior of the palace, we made our way towards the Initiatic well. And here's where the Quinta quickly managed to highlight my "true" (read abominable) map-reading skills. Heading in the direction of the Initiatic well (or so we thought!) proved fruitless, and winding paths just kept taking us around the same place. In the hour that quickly passed, we managed to cross the extremely ornate chapel, and the Regaleira tower. We also crossed a couple of grottos, cave-like recesses, the most well-known of which has a statue of the Greek mythological figure, Leda.

Before we knew it, the time to depart arrived, and the Initiatic well was nowhere in sight. With heavy hearts, we trudged back to the bus stop. Only after taking a closer look at the bus schedules did we notice that in so long we had been looking at the schedules for 2012. According to 2013's schedule, we still had an hour to go before the last bus. What a lack of attentiveness! This was turning out to be the day to expose flaws that I had managed to artfully conceal so far. In our frustration, we ripped off the previous schedule, so that it wouldn't fool future tourists.

We literally ran back to the Quinta, and decided that in order to waste no further time, we would ask the lady behind the information desk to direct us to the Initiatic well. With a perplexed look, she told us that we just had to walk along the left boundary of the estate, to reach the 'Grotto of the east' which is the entrance to the tunnels leading to the well. By then, it had begun to rain.

We walked briskly and managed to find our way to the entrance of the Eastern Grotto, thankfully, without further ado. What follows is probably going to sound over-the-top, but I will try to pen my emotions down as I felt them. As we entered the caves, my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness that we were quickly engulfed in. Treading carefully, I noticed how the caves had amplified the sound of the rain. Or was it just a heightened auditory sense now that my vision was obscured? I couldn't tell, but it was much like I have heard only in some movies, and imagined when reading books. Amidst the din of the pouring rain, I felt like I was consumed by an empty silence.  

One of the tunnels. My camera seems to have
added much light to the scene.

The first light I spotted emanated from one of the exits of the tunnels, which led to the waterfall in the garden. But, we continued walking in the opposite direction, towards a distant light, where we guessed the Initiatic well lay. When we finally reached the well, I was dumbfounded. The look of wonder in my friend's eyes mirrored my own feeling. We were finally here, standing at the bottom of the well, looking up at a view that people had captured a million times. Looking up at the view that got me excited about visiting the Quinta in the first place. In the hollows of the caves, enveloped in darkness, the stream of light that seeped in from 27 metres above us lent the well an illumination that left me astounded. How beautifully it had been preserved, for over a century, not just the physical structure, but its potency to overwhelm, while taking the tourist from darkness to light. We took the spiral staircase that led to the top of the well. When I finally got out from the top, the feeling that had been generated quickly fell away from me. It was as if it was  meant to be experienced only while within the well. We were back in the outdoors, that suddenly seemed much too ordinary. We walked back to the bus stop, consumed in our own thoughts by this last-minute experience. It had been the perfect way to end our splendid day at Sintra.

I wish I had more time to spend in the Quinta. If a quick trip to the Initiatic well could leave me feeling so intoxicated, I can only imagine how it would've felt to spend an entire day there. To understand the complexity of the palace in all its resplendent beauty. To walk at leisure along the garden's winding paths, without having to keep a check on the time. To discover, and allow myself to be carried away by stories of mysticism. To appreciate the whole of the Quinta as it was meant to be. It truly deserves more than just a hurried visit!

Scintillating Sintra (part 1)

Our day trip to Sintra began at 9 AM at the Lisboa railway station. We were pleasantly surprised by the animated employee behind the counter, who was very eager to sell us train tickets! After taking the 'Linha de Sintra' from Lisboa, we reached on a favourably rainy day. Rain has never been welcome, especially when spending the day outdoors. But, apart from providing a mystical touch to Sintra, our pleas for propitious weather were answered, and heavy rain was contained to times spent at bus stops or cafes.

Sintra, a town located at the foot of the Sintra mountain range (Serra de Sintra in Portuguese), is around 30 kilometres away from Lisboa. For the sheer number of monuments, gardens and parks, that together provide a potpourri of multifarious historical elements amidst natural beauty, the landscape of Sintra was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.

After getting to Sintra, we caught bus 434 that departs from right outside the railway station. It takes a circular route past the parks of Sintra. My friend and I decided that our visit would begin at the Park and Palace of Pena. The first time I came across a picture of this colourful palace was on my Windows desktop background two years back. It is one of the palaces in the 'Castles of Europe' theme. What struck me was how it stood out in the surrounding greenery, like a reckless dash of colour left on a hopeless canvas. Ever since I set foot in Portugal, a visit to the Pena palace was on my checklist.

View of the Pena palace

The original chapel

As we approached the palace, I noticed how drastically different it is on either side. The history of the palace provides an enlightening account of how it came to be, and helps merge a variety of elements into a single, albeit intricate, architectural entity. Beginning as a chapel (the northern most, red portion of the palace) in the 12th century, an earthquake in the 18th century left the monastery in pieces. King Don Fernando II acquired what remained of the monastery in 1838, and while reconstructing it, also constructed a larger wing in ochre, called 'New Palace'.

We spent a long time walking around the large palace, discovering and taking in its various towers, turrets, tiles and ornate designs. The most intricate of them all seemed to be the vicious looking Triton, a half-man half-fish structure, at an archway. The walls of the arches and facades were covered with very pretty tiles, some extremely exquisite. We also paid a quick visit to the museum, whose extravagant interior has been well preserved.

Since it is located on one of the highest peaks in Sintra, the palace provides for panoramas in all directions. Walking along its perimeter, the Moorish castle (another of Sintra's gems, that we didn't have the time to visit) can be seen in close proximity, while a view of the Atlantic looms in the distance. An intangible horizon leaves you wondering where exactly blue sky meets bluer ocean.

I have always thought there is something special about horizons. They hold a charm that I can't quite put a finger on. Platform for some of nature's best gifts, they stand steadfast in an ever-changing time. Whether you're hoping a fleeting sunset would last longer, or aspiring for endless possibilities, a horizon can signify anything you want it to.

Clockwise from left: Triton, the turret's dome, archway's tiles 

Apart from housing the Pena palace, the park is a remarkable landscape of beauty. Even from the map provided at the entrance, it is evident that it is teeming with treasures to be discovered. Amidst walking circuits, and recommended view points, exotically named spots provided an enchanting touch that only fuelled further my existing excitement. Very keen on viewing the palace from different vantage positions, we headed in the direction of the 'Cruz Alta', the highest point of the hills in Sintra. A Cross carved in stone stands at the apex. Along the way, we crossed the 'statue of the warrior', a bronze statue of the King, also visible from the palace. The Cruz Alta provides the best view of the landscape of the palace and its surroundings. When we reached the top, passing clouds concealed the palace from sunlight. So we hung around for a while, impatiently waiting for the taunting shadow games to end and allow for some rays of light to fall on the palace. Oh, it shone like a jewel when they finally did!

Other elements in the park that are worth a visit include the 'fountain of the small birds', an Islamic style monument with an Arabic inscription on its dome, 'Saint Catherine's heights', the favourite viewpoint of the Queen, with yet another magnificent view of the palace, and the 'Valley of the lakes', one lake after another, with little duck-houses right in the middle, making the spot more scenic. One of the things that I missed visiting was the 'Chalet of the Countess of Edla', which is a house built by the king for his second-wife Edla, who apparently shared the same love for nature as he did. The house is said to have been built to blend in with the surroundings.

By the time we got out of the park and made our way to the centre of Sintra, it was 4 PM. Even though the palace left me feeling extremely pleased, little did I know that the best part of the day was yet to come. Entitled to its own separate post, an account of the rest of our day shall soon follow.