Ride Day 25: Santa Cruz to Sintra

Friends have said that we need to see Sintra, so today that's our destination.  We'll stay 2 nights, then ride the final day into Lisbon.

Fog and cold again this morning like old friends.  At breakfast at the guest house we had a nice chat with a girl from Lisbon who was in Santa Cruz for some kind of therapy (based on cold and fog, no doubt).  She told us all about Lisbon and what we might want to see, and we told her about our ride.  She warned us that we are in for a big change when we turn inland just north of Sintra, not only from a weather perspective but from a crowdedness perspective.



The route is pretty hilly but shouldn't be too bad.  The fog at the start was thick enough that I again used the headlight so that cars coming toward us could see what they were going to hit.  Seemed wise to me. 

Roundabout art, Santa Cruz style, in the morning fog

We hugged the coastline for many miles, mostly in fog, but sometimes skirting the edge between the fog bank and clear blue skies.  We had arm warmers and vests and Lorie wore her rain cape at first.  In one tiny village, mid morning, we came across a beach where they were having some kind of pro surfing competition.  And it was clearing up quickly (so we dumped the warm clothing).  The road dropped steeply to an inlet with a beautiful beach where the competition was getting going, and then brutally steeply up to an overlook area.  We stopped at the overlook and watched some of the surfers warming up.  The photos are not very good but the surfers were amazing.  I tried to do a video but they were too far out there to get a good shot.

Surf headquarters

Where they'll be surfing

Gearing up for the start of the competition

Heading out to test the waters

Surfer art

Ad for the competition

 We rode onward and stopped for coffee in Ericeira, and pretty little seaside town just south of the surf competition.  We met a Dutch family from Amsterdam who were mid-way through a bike journey and they were fascinated by the tandem.  Mom and Dad were traveling with 2 daughters, probably mid 20s, and they had ridden the Oregon coast a few years ago.  They really wanted to ride in Canada and we told them to go to the Icefields Parkway in Alberta.  They promised to do it next year.  I hope that they do.

From Ericeira we turned generally in a southeasterly direction and the girl from breakfast's prediction about the weather came true rather quickly -- the temperature hit about 35 in just a few km -- when we'd started this morning the temperature was about 14.  It felt entirely different from the cool coastal weather that we'd experienced for the past week and it was a bit of a shock.  And just to remind us that we're in Portugal we rode up some tough hills.  One was 1.5 km long and the lowest grade on my gps was 11%; it maxed out at 16%.  Ouch.

And the prediction about crowds became apparent as the traffic volume increased with each km closer to Sintra we came.  We got pretty lost coming into town, but eventually after riding up another ugly hill that had a lot of cars, most of them going hopelessly (and angrily) slowly behind us, we made it to our AirBnB.

Sintra isn't very big, but it is very picturesque, located on a hillside with lots of ups and downs and lots of interesting old buildings and tons of history going way back.  Here's a few buildings that we walked by on our way to visit the National Palace of Sintra.

The municipal building

The National palace (more on it below)

The town municipal building from another angle

We wanted to visit the National Palace, which originally was a Moorish structure but which was taken over by the Portuguese many hundreds of years ago, after the conquest in 1147.  The Iberian peninsula was occupied by the muslims until about the year 1000 and the palace dates from that time.   After the Portuguese drove the muslims out, they turned it into a palace for Portuguese royalty, particularly as a summer hunting lodge.

Bad photo of beautiful tile

Looking up the 30 m smokestack over the kitchen

Part of the kitchen; the royalty apparently liked to eat well

Relief on the ceiling -- the design is Islamic in origin but the frescos are Christian. 
Funny how one can replace the other; maybe they could one day coexist without conquest?

More Islamic design converted to Christian ideology

Some of the amazing tile on the floors

One of the dining rooms

Woodwork over a dining room -- there is a nautical theme with ships painted all around the ceiling --
Portugal ruled the seas for many centuries

Another of the chapels, again with muslim influenced design

Tiled frescoes in the main dining room

The palace is very interesting and beautiful.  While crowded, it was well worth the visit and we really enjoyed walking around and looking at the amazing art, tile, woodwork, etc.  Lorie and I both wished that there was some mention of the history prior to the Portuguese conquest in 1100, but history is written by the victors so that part has been left off.

We're knackered tonight, so we will get a good sleep tonight and spend the day tomorrow visiting the sites around town -- a Moorish castle high above the city and the Palace of Pena -- one of the 7 wonders of Portugal.  Hmm, I wonder.

Cheers!