The early bird catches the worm and the early Herkeys caught a tuk-tuk up to the Quinta da Regaleira.

Right on time, Ana arrived to whisk us up to our first tour site. There was an early chill in the as we made our way around town on our way to the Quinta da Regaleira. As it was a Monday morning, there was a goodly amount of traffic as the residents attended to their work and daily activities.

We arrived a little early for our tour time, but not having to walk or climb endless steps was great. We bid Ana goodbye and then found a shady spot to wait. They let in a certain number of people at timed intervals to avoid overcrowding, which I applaud them for. When our time came around, we were able to casually walk through and take photos without getting jostled.

Our guide for the tour was Jorge and he was excellent. There were sixteen people in our group and everyone was pleasant and stayed together.

We started by just taking a walk through the garden paths while Jorge gave us some background information. Construction began in 1895 and it was completed in 1912. It was built as a personal home for António Monteiro and his family. Unfortunately, his wife died in 1913 and he died in 1920. The family wealth was divided between their two children, with the daughter getting the Lison property and the son getting the Sintra property.

The son ended up losing everything gambling in Monte Carlo, including the house. The guy who won it from him was going to turn it into a hotel and the town of Sintra said “No”. Sintra ended up going into debt buying the property and it wasn’t completely paid off until 1993. At that time it became a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Back to the tour…

The gardens were beautiful, filling the air with fresh natural scents. There were many places that contained fountains or other water features that gave the grounds a very tranquil feeling.

We continued on until we arrived at the Torre da Regaleira (the tower). It’s a beautiful place with a center sculpture that is symbolic of a woman’s womb and represents the rebirth. Each sculpture throughout the grounds is beautiful and holds a symbolic meaning as we saw here.

One of the highlights of the grounds that tied the Quinta to the Templar Knights was the Initiation Well. Think of it as a nine story tower built underground. It is a physical representation of Dante’s Nine levels of Hell. It was known that Mr. Monteiro had connections with the Templars and Freemasons and it was rumored that certain rituals and meetings were held on the property.

At the bottom of the well is a labyrinth of tunnels that lead to the gardens, with each path going a different direction.

Our group next got together at the Fountain of Abundance. It was called that because the water continually flows there every day of the year.

From there we made our way to the chapel. The Templar connection was strong here with the design elements and myriad of Templar crosses.

The final stop on our tour was a visit to the main house. It’s not one of the most beautiful interiors we’ve seen, but there were a few items that stood out.

The ceiling was made out of Brazilian woods and was all hand carved. There were many pieces of furniture on display, including the “throne” used by the man of the house. Ewww!

All in all, it was an excellent tour. Jorge did a great job leading the group and sharing his insights.

Afterwards, it was time to head for a bite of lunch. We came across a restaurant that I had looked at for dinner called Fatto. It serves Italian cuisine and was a great choice for a little nosh. We split a pizza and bottle of wine, then still had room for a little dessert.

Lunch was excellent, but we still had to hike back to the hotel. Up, down or sideways, the hills and steps were nobody’s friend.

Two-thirds of the way through the trip and I finally found a hat that I liked. Photos are upcoming.

When we got back to the hotel, it felt good to just relax for a while. It probably sounds like we do a lot of relaxing, but the hills, cobblestones and steps are taking a toll on these old bones. Factor in my little stumble back in Tomar and the rests are a necessity.

When dinner time arrived, we were happy to be going back to Incomum across the street from the hotel. They were quite busy tonight, but our favorites still made a point of saying hello, and Joana was once again our waitress.

We both had a bowl of soup – vegetable and crab & lobster – that were delicious. For mains, Sue went with the oxtail, while I had the octopus.

We also had a bottle of Douro red wine that paired up well. We finished up by sharing a molten chocolate cake with a scoop of raspberry sorbet.

We thanked everyone and bid them farewell before toddling back to the room.

It was a wonderful day. We are really enjoying our time in Sintra. Tomorrow we have an off day, so we’ll just scope out a little more of town.

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After a good night’s sleep, we cleaned up and went down to breakfast. You pre-order the day before, so it is nice to sit down and have them come right out with your food.

Since we knew we’d have the bigger evening meal yesterday, we went light. My favorite part is the bread basket – I admit, I’m a carb lover. It has three different types of bread, some croissants and pain au chocolates and they are all fresh and saying “eat me”.

A couple hard boiled eggs, some yogurt and a few slices of bacon and Voila….a breakfast of champions.

We dashed back to the room for our sunglasses and off we went. We headed towards the train station to find our meeting spot for tomorrow’s tour and to find our restaurant for dinner.

We found them both, but alas, it started to drizzle. That was unexpected; it was supposed to just be cloudy. We headed back to the hotel to come up with a new plan.

The new plan turned out to be relaxing for a little while and then going to a little wine bar we passed for some wine and snacks. It is called DizTinto Restaurant Wine Bar and it is just 100 feet from our hotel.

We were the first ones there, so we got lots of attention from the waiters and the chef. We ordered a bottle of white wine, a cheese and sausage board and a goat cheese gratin. It was a perfect way to spend a drizzly afternoon.

Why didn’t we just get an umbrella and continue to walk around? Two reasons: first, wet cobblestones are slippery and I’m already limping, and second, it was a wine bar with good food and wine – Hello…

When we finished it was still drizzly, so we just ended up going back up to the room to chill and listen to music.

My part of the chilling included going through the photos and then catching up on the baseball playoffs. There should be some good games. We can’t watch from here, but I was watching the highlights. Personally, I’m pulling for a Yankees vs Dodgers World Series.

We went to a small restaurant a short walk away from the hotel. It’s called ‘Taberna Criativa’ and it was magnificent. The two young women servers were incredibly nice. When we asked for one English and one Portuguese menu, our waitress was delighted. She took Sue’s order and then was surprised when I also ordered in Portuguese with only a bit of help needed.

Sue started with a bowl of vegetable soup, then followed it up with the grilled Salmon special. I started with vegetable dumplings and then had the Tiger shrimp with jasmine rice and coconut curry. We finished off by sharing a Creme brûlée with raspberry sorbet.

Trust me, it was all delicious!

While we were eating, the rain had stopped. However, it began again for our walk home.

It was a very low-key day, but resting up felt good. Tomorrow we have another tour planned so we’ll get our ‘steps’ in.