A Lady in London

My journey from northern to southern Portugal continued for another day in Lisbon, during which my boyfriend and I traveled out to Lisbon’s Belem district. There we came face to face with the crazy Manueline Mosterio dos Jeronimos. The church was decorated from dome to kneeler with nautical-themed decor, and housed the tomb of Vasco da Gama. Although smaller than I had anticipated (the last church I saw in England had the longest nave in Europe, after all), all of the uniquely Portuguese aspects of the design were fascinating.

From the Mosterio we walked west to see the Torre de Belem. On the way we noticed a bridge that bore an uncannily striking resemblance to a certain famous bridge in San Francisco, as well as a statue of an open-armed Jesus that bore a similarly striking resemblance to one in Rio. We later found out that the same person designed both bridges, and that Portugal couldn’t let Brazil have a Jesus-is-watching-you statue if it couldn’t. Bizarre.

Our afternoon consisted of eating custard tarts at the very Parisian pastelaria Versailles, where ceiling frescoes gave way to chandeliers and crown molding, which were themselves watching over a long pastry case packed with every kind of baked good imaginable. After eating our fill and getting some more to take with us on the road, we headed up to the castle for sunset views from the ramparts.

On Sunday our adventures took us to Wonderland, also known as Sintra. A small town about 40 minutes by train from Lisbon, Sintra was straight out of a fairytale. From the giant kitchen chimneys and Manueline windows of the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, the city’s tiny cobbled streets wound their way up the base of a high wooded hill.

At the top of the hill rested the ruins of the Castelo dos Mouros. The climb was steep, but our walk up to the top was beautiful. We climbed ancient stone steps through rocky hillsides covered in violet flowers. As we progressed the sun went behind a cloud and we felt like we were walking through a foggy, mystical Wonderland.

Across from the castle was Sintra’s Palacio Nacional da Pena, a pink and yellow Romantic palace perched at the top of an even higher forested hill. We stopped for lunch in the gardens below the palace, then headed deep into the forest to the home of the Seven Dwarfs.

The home of the Seven Dwarfs was actually Sintra’s Convento dos Capuchos, designed by a person that took the Bible verse “the way to heaven is sinuous and its doors low and narrow” quite literally. The end result was a dwarf-like construction with tiny cork-lined doors leading into miniature rooms and narrow hallways. It was a truly bizarre place.

On Monday I once again found myself alone (my boyfriend had to head back to London on Sunday), and I once again traveled south. Destination: Faro. The three hour train journey saw clusters of tall pine trees give way to fields of cork trees, then orchards of orange trees. I saw sheep stampeding down hills, chased by dogs and farmers, then at last the coastline with the deep blue water of the sea.

There was not much to see in Faro aside from an old walled city with a cathedral. I had expected to find a Nice-like city, as Faro is a similar jumping-off point for people visiting the Algarve. However, Faro was much smaller than its French counterpart, and didn’t have as much to offer. As such, I hopped on a train to Tavira, a pretty town about 40 minutes east. I spent the afternoon exploring the ruins of the Moorish castle, walking through the narrow streets and along the riverfront promenade, and reading in a sunny park. On the way back my eyes were glued to the windows as we passed by the beautiful wetlands of the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa.

On Tuesday I took an early morning walk in Faro before heading to the airport for my return trip to London. It was sad to say good-bye to Portugal after such a great travel adventure, but I felt like I got to see a lot of the country in the short time I had there. My next stop is Dubai, which will be Wonderland in an entirely different way.