Lisbon (Sintra) - the Twickenham Connection!
We had a free day so we had to choose between central Lisbon or Sintra. We decided to go to Sintra as it was quite warm and walking around a city would be even hotter. We decided to catch the bus so after a 25 minute walk to the bus station we found that buses were half an hour. We had a nice cold drink in a cafe whilst we waited. The bus arrived and on we got, talk about round the houses, it took an hour and finally we reached the end of the line… Sintra.
Stepping off the bus we found that we had arrived in central Birmingham of the 1970's, it was not the historic town we were expecting. There was noting for it but to follow the signs, they did not look promising. After a couple of streets I spotted a cash machine, I am not sure why we had to walk so far as usually there are cash machines every four paces. We took out cash and shortly afterwards a man in a TukTuk stopped (he must have guessed we were tourists) and offered a one hour tour with his commentary…how could we refuse (because we had never been in a TukTuk before and probably won't go in one again!).
In we went and off he set with his 4-stroke TukTuk singe cylinder engine upon which we were sitting! Oh my what a vibration, this is not the way to travel and yet it was great. He could fit that thing in the most unlikely of places and simply pulled over to the side of the road as though he was on a bicycle where upon he told us about the history and architecture of the building, it was great. Along we went up the hill towards the Palace of Pena and he suddenly pulled over to the left and took us into the woods and said "now this is the best bit of the tour" and through the woods there was an opening and from it we could see the Moorish Castle, the Palace of Pena and the Palace of Sintra.
Our stop in Lisbon was simply not long enough there was so much to see and only having one free day was simply not enough. We got back in the TukTuk and up the hill we went and finally we arrived at the Palace. We had to choose our entry time to get inside the Palace and since it was now two PM we decided that 3:30 was best then we could get something to eat. From the entrance to the Palace is a climb of around 500m so we went straight to the cafe, it was closed. We then walked up the path and there was a picnic area with a booth selling sandwiches but there was a restaurant higher up which Linda preferred so we continued walking. When we reached the palace there was a restaurant on the first floor and a cafe in the roof. When we reached the first floor there was a big queue and Linda joined the end of it. I went in to scout out the food. Well it was worse than motorway food, curried pasta or dried our slices of meat with rice - no thanks. We proceeded to the first floor and again queued up only to find that they had run out of sandwiches. Linda nearly had a sense of humour failure at this point. So I said I would go back down tot he picnic area buy the sandwiches there and she should queue up for some iced tea and I would be back soon. When I returned I was inundated by people wanting to know how we had got sandwiches. Needless to say Linda was a lot happier now.
We decided to chance our arm and try to enter ahead of our time slot and it was fine we went straight in. The history of the palace is that is started as an Abby and then the Royal family acquired it and built it into a palace by Ferdinand II and is a mish-mash of styles. King Carlos of Portugal had married Amelie of Orleans and they had two sons. King Carlos and his elder son were murdered in 1908 and their youngest son became King Manuel II but he and his mother fled the country shortly afterwards. This was as far as the information went. later I discovered that Amelie of Orleans was born in York House in Twickenham so my guess this was the inspiration for Orleans house and gardens and school. She fled to Paris, meanwhile he fled to Twickenham living at Fulwell house this presence lead to the naming of Manoel Road and Lisbon Avenue after his exile from Portugal.
Stepping off the bus we found that we had arrived in central Birmingham of the 1970's, it was not the historic town we were expecting. There was noting for it but to follow the signs, they did not look promising. After a couple of streets I spotted a cash machine, I am not sure why we had to walk so far as usually there are cash machines every four paces. We took out cash and shortly afterwards a man in a TukTuk stopped (he must have guessed we were tourists) and offered a one hour tour with his commentary…how could we refuse (because we had never been in a TukTuk before and probably won't go in one again!).
In we went and off he set with his 4-stroke TukTuk singe cylinder engine upon which we were sitting! Oh my what a vibration, this is not the way to travel and yet it was great. He could fit that thing in the most unlikely of places and simply pulled over to the side of the road as though he was on a bicycle where upon he told us about the history and architecture of the building, it was great. Along we went up the hill towards the Palace of Pena and he suddenly pulled over to the left and took us into the woods and said "now this is the best bit of the tour" and through the woods there was an opening and from it we could see the Moorish Castle, the Palace of Pena and the Palace of Sintra.
Our stop in Lisbon was simply not long enough there was so much to see and only having one free day was simply not enough. We got back in the TukTuk and up the hill we went and finally we arrived at the Palace. We had to choose our entry time to get inside the Palace and since it was now two PM we decided that 3:30 was best then we could get something to eat. From the entrance to the Palace is a climb of around 500m so we went straight to the cafe, it was closed. We then walked up the path and there was a picnic area with a booth selling sandwiches but there was a restaurant higher up which Linda preferred so we continued walking. When we reached the palace there was a restaurant on the first floor and a cafe in the roof. When we reached the first floor there was a big queue and Linda joined the end of it. I went in to scout out the food. Well it was worse than motorway food, curried pasta or dried our slices of meat with rice - no thanks. We proceeded to the first floor and again queued up only to find that they had run out of sandwiches. Linda nearly had a sense of humour failure at this point. So I said I would go back down tot he picnic area buy the sandwiches there and she should queue up for some iced tea and I would be back soon. When I returned I was inundated by people wanting to know how we had got sandwiches. Needless to say Linda was a lot happier now.
We decided to chance our arm and try to enter ahead of our time slot and it was fine we went straight in. The history of the palace is that is started as an Abby and then the Royal family acquired it and built it into a palace by Ferdinand II and is a mish-mash of styles. King Carlos of Portugal had married Amelie of Orleans and they had two sons. King Carlos and his elder son were murdered in 1908 and their youngest son became King Manuel II but he and his mother fled the country shortly afterwards. This was as far as the information went. later I discovered that Amelie of Orleans was born in York House in Twickenham so my guess this was the inspiration for Orleans house and gardens and school. She fled to Paris, meanwhile he fled to Twickenham living at Fulwell house this presence lead to the naming of Manoel Road and Lisbon Avenue after his exile from Portugal.
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Moorish Castle -
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Palace of Queluz -
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