We made it back down to the center of Sintra following the narrow roads and our photographic memory. We were on a quest to find Quinta da Regaleira, a place highly rated on Tripadvisor located on the edge of town. Driving to it, we really didn’t know exactly what to expect, and this turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
We were super lucky to find a place to park just yards from the entrance in a tiny parking lot. Our hope was to get a garden/house tour for a more informative visit, but we were not so lucky with timing and would have to wait for forty five minutes for the next tour (that would last an hour and a half). So we decided to explore on our own.
What is this place? Quinta da Regaleira was built in 1904-1910 when Portuguese monarchy was on the decline. It formerly belonged to Viscondess da Regaleira but then bought and enlarged by Antonio Monteiro who put in a ton of work in redesigning its territory. This was his favorite country estate, and we could see why.
Although I posted a picture of me next to the estate house above, that building was not the main attraction here. It’s the gardens with its numerous secret coves and tunnels, fountains and towers that attract visitors.
Some caves were completely dark! They were marked on our garden map and they were not off limits to regular people, but we had to use our cell phone flashlight to make it out there alive safely.
Other tunnels had an illuminated string that guided us through the dark passages.
One of the coolest places in the garden was this Unfinished Well. It was dug out but not filled with water or anything. Instead, it had a stairwell carved out to make it possible to walk up and down into tunnels and outside.
Robert’s training for his Snowdonia marathon by walking up the stairs.
Just simply cool. And unique.
We wondered around a few other beautiful spots.
Saw some pretty fountains, although some were dry.
Almost fell into the water that was knee deep high.
And asked some South Korean girls to take the picture of us together.
Otherwise, we were stuck with selfies.
And apparently Robert didn’t want to be stuck with me after all.
So…if you are ever in Portugal’s Sintra, this is a must see. A very different place and fun for all ages (except not for people who have come here with strollers). We did visit the house but it was not anything special to us as we couldn’t understand all the significant architectural nuances it presented…and we were getting hungry-hehe.
We drove back to our hotel, saw that the storm was coming, and ran over to the Guincho beach that was next door to us.
It was a beautiful sight to see. Waves were wild, cold and threatening. So we didn’t try to go into the water or anything:), the kids would. We just took a long walk talking about where we want to live someday (I think we talk about it like once a week for sure).
The storm was definitely on its way.
That’s our hotel looking over the ocean.
We were grateful that we had such wonderful weather all day long, but we knew that rain and wind was in the forecast for the evening.
We had a couple of hours to spare between the beach and going to dinner (as the restaurant was not even opening till 1900!). It was great to just relax, eat our fresh fruit, watch TV and listen to the rainstorm. By the time we left the hotel, it was pitch dark, gusty windy and rainy, but we managed to find the place our friend recommended and were warmly welcomed there at exactly 7 o’clock. The place was empty on such a stormy night (it was just us and another party of three most of the time), but the food was fabulous—great steak with lots of mushrooms and salad. No pictures from dinner as sometimes you have to just turn off any electronics and enjoy life at its present moment
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Our great first full day in Portugal was over.
Wow! So cool!
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