Sintra By Tuk-Tuk

The view of the Dali-esque Palácio Nacional da Pena

Everything is closed in Lisbon on Mondays.  So I had the bright idea that this would be the perfect day to travel 45 minutes west of Lisbon and visit the town Sintra, which is teeming with palaces, castles, and museums.  And with everything being closed in Lisbon on "segunda-feira," me and the other 1.3 billion tourists currently visiting Lisbon had the same idea:

I did like the statuary honoring Portugal's bluesy fado music tradition outside Rossio station:

So the tourist hordes were running amok this day in Sintra.

And I was right there with them!

Sintra is a beautiful little mountain town with castles and palaces and tourist shops and tourists by the score.  But how to see it?  My legs are achey-breaky after a few days of climbing the steep-steep hills of Alfama, so I decided that the best way for me to explore Sintra was on wheels.  But what wheels?

Hoofing it was not an option,

So what would it be?  Tourist "train"?

Car?

I don't even know if renting a car was an option but it was not an option.  Big giant red sight-seeing bus?

Volkswagen bug tour?

Handsome cab?

Which, by the way, smelled like a handsome cab when it clopped past us.  Just sayin'

But finally the choice was ...

No no no no.  Not "BMW luxury sedan."

Tuk-tuk.

Yes, tuk-tuk.  Those little motorized carts that tool and toodle around town.  Sorry I don't have pictures of the tuk-tuk I took.  I forgot.  But I do have pictures I took from the tuk-tuk.

Actually, this one was taken in the few minutes I walked around the downtown before coming to the realization I was no mood for hoofing.  You can tell this one is pre-tuk-tuk because it's not shakey.  Tuk-tuks are loud and ride rough, like they came from the era before shock absorbers.

This is a picture of the Moorish castle at the top of the mountain.  Again, snapped pre-tuk-tuk.  And one more from the pre-tuk-tuk era:

The National Palace of Sintra.  Another Dali-esque building that was built pre-Dali.  Not sure why it's got those slimmed down nuclear cooling towers.  Or are they an homage to Madonna's cone-breast era.

OK.  That's enough "still" photography.  Let's climb in the tuk-tuk and see some photos from the "shakey cam":

That's the bust of somebody very important.  How do I know he's very important.  He had a bust made of him and put into a square in Sintra.  That's important.

So far in town we're moving slow and the roads are nicely paved.  So the shakey-cam is not too shakey.  Yet.

Below is rush hour traffic in Sintra.  And all the vehicles are tourist transport!

OK.  So, yes, Sintra is tourist-y.  Shoot me.  Just because a place is tourist-y does not mean it's not worth visiting.  Many times they are worth visiting.  And three quarters of the world population agrees.  Right then and there.

There is a waterfall at this point, but like Yosemite, the water flow is seasonal.  But there's moss there on the wall so you know there's water sometimes.

This is a very important palace.  Or museum.  Or palace-turned-museum:

It's not a castle.  I remember that much.

It's got fancy wrought-iron gates, so you know something big must be behind that gate.

Oh, look.  It's the VW bug-tour bug.

And this is a stone arch.

When you see a stone arch, you always know you're going someplace important.  Where big things happened.  And, yes, we were not disappointed.  Wrought-iron gates!  And you know that means!  Big things happening on the other side.

More rush hour traffic.  More all-tourist vehicle rush hour traffic.  This is the line looking forward.

And this is the line looking backward:

I had time to snap both pictures because we weren't moving.  But because we weren't moving was no reason for some drivers not to get impatient.

The blue tuk-tuk driver must've taken driving tuk-tuk driving lessons in Italy, because was trying to pass a Mercedes sedan.  On a curve.  With -- a what? -- One-half horsepower engine?

And soon the National Palace of Pena was in view.

The viewpoint was actually worth stopping and the exiting the tuk-tuk to see.

This is probably the most complete picture of the tuk-tuk I took.  The back seat.  And here is a picture of a red sightseeing doubledecker bus that is the meat in a tuk-tuk sandwich:

You are going to find this next picture hard to believe.  There was a line to get into the National Palace of Pena.

By the way, I remember that in Spanish "pena" means "shame."  I hope Pena is a family name.

I hope the above is not the National Palace of Shame.

Speaking of national shames:

Me in the back of my tuk-tuk.  I enjoyed myself much more than the expression (or lack thereof) on my face would indicate.

But soon the iron wheels of the passenger were calling me back to Lisbon.

Dinner was at a restaurant with live fado music.  We could not find our first, second, or third in the warren of streets of Alfama, so we gave up and stopped here.

The food was good, not great.  Not enough to remember the name.  But the fado was very good.  We talked with one of the fado singers and she said her brother had a job coaching with the Major League Soccer team known as "Sporting Kansas City," but that he was a Benfica fan!  Much much merriment would follow that comment if you knew Portuguese football.  Lisbon has two teams.  Benfica, the working class team, and "Sporting," the upper class team that is its arch-rival.  So he's a Benfica fan ... and he works for a team named after "Sporting" ... well, when it takes a long paragraph to explain a joke maybe it wasn't worth going there.

So let's end with another picture of a tuk-tuk in Sintra.  Boa noite, Lisboa.