Having created a fairy-tale palace, King Ferdinand II needed surroundings to match. He envisioned (and realized) a forest-park fulfilling with the most expansive fantasies of 19th-century German Romanticism – 85 hectares (210 acres) filled with exotic plants from all over the world, cunningly set amongst and around lakes, ponds, streams, waterfalls, fountains, gardens, pavilions and hideaways. The park is crisscrossed by myriad winding pathways, and we took advantage of some of them to walk down from the palace to Sintra village and see some of the park before darkness fell.
Set back from the path in a small clearing we spotted a tumbledown hut half-hidden in the greenery. I half-expected to see a wicked witch or furtive gnome skulking around the place. But instead of a witch or gnome, there were only two scruffy escapees from a penal colony who were using the park as a refuge. Their pictures are displayed below.
The early November twilight was starting to creep over Sintra Praca by the time we reached the village. We enjoyed a relaxing stroll around the square, window-shopping at the the boutiques, which offered exquisite wares at prices geared for tourists far more affluent than us. We observed that local transportation was provided by a cute little tram, disguised as a train, which one might have expected to find in places like Disneyland, and indeed the village had a Disneyland-like atmosphere, though with a more old-world flair. We eventually found a pleasant bistro, the Ale-Hop Shop, where we were able to enjoy an espresso and a pastry before it was time to head back to the bus for the return to Lisbon. It was a restful, low-key end to a thoroughly high-pitched and very full day.
In concluding this segment of my account of this extraordinary tour, I feel obliged to extend some recognition, and much gratitude, to the staff of EF/Go-Ahead Tours and especially to our tour leader, Manuel Sueiras, for their skill in planning and orchestrating the arrangements involved. It was no mean feat to make a selection of enthralling attractions that fit into an extremely tight schedule, and to ensure that the schedule was adhered to punctually and without mishap. In retrospect this appears all the more impressive because I’ve read a profusion of complaints, in the years since then, by people who have visited the same attractions – and especially Pena Palace in Sintra – to the effect that the crowds were stifling, there was no elbow room inside the palace, they had to rush through without really having any time to savor the delights of the place, and so forth. I didn’t find any of that that to be the case on our visit. Maybe part of the reason for our good fortune was the time of year we visited, or the day we were there, or some other reason beyond my ken, but I prefer to believe that most of the credit goes to expert planning and the peerless personal skills of a well-chosen tour guide. And, I should add, this continued throughout the entire tour.