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.
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.
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!
 |
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 |
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. |
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!
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