Tom Tom - or the navigator blues

For a few years I was very fortunate to have the task of driving my husband's 100-year+ old grandma through Sintra; from her place to ours and back. She always wanted me to go very slowly, as she rarely traveled in the car, so she could see all the places she used to walk by, live in and work at. She would tell me stories about how Sintra used to be, what it looked like, and of course how it has changed. One of her favorite topics was the traffic. She said she remembered when there was only 1 car in Sintra, when taxis were horse-drawn carriages, when the tram was the major transportation in to the Historical Center (now it no longer comes this far), then called just 'Vila'. She told me how you had to have a license to get into Vila by any form of transportation: there was an area in the entrance to the town, in Lourel, where people had to place their goods in public or hired horse-drawn trucks to bring them into town. Interesting! It still would be nice.

A few years ago there was a movement to block/condition motorized traffic in Vila, but sadly many of the local businessmen were able to stop this movement. Everywhere in the world it seems that the Historical Centers have very limited and conditioned traffic. But not in Sintra! The narrow streets are winding, many of them cobblestone, and many are NOT one-ways even if it is extremely difficult for two cars to pass at once. Sometimes these narrow streets are the only access to a cluster of houses, so that even if it made sense to make them one way for a better fit, it would not be feasible as it is the only access and needs to be both to and fro.


Don't get me wrong - Sintra is charming. It is a blessing that it is built in the mountain the way it is, not having leveled away hills, contouring the valleys. We must remember that Sintra is several hundreds of years old, and it was built for the purposes then. No cars then. And very rarely any frost; so there are cobblestones and ramps steeper than would be feasible if ice were covering the ways. And to add to its charm: no, it is not built the American North-South East-West directions. It is built how the buildings best fit the nature as it was.

The major roads for access to or bypassing Sintra are wide enough for two cars, or are in fact 1 way. It works well, especially if you know where you are going to. Great for locals, but tourists and other visitors mostly don't know where they are going. Sometimes this means, that missing a turn, you have to drive an extra 3kms to come back to where you wanted to turn in the first place but missed it. This is OK too if you are driving when there is very little traffic (noon time in the winter season). And if the parked cars leave you enough space to pass... There have been no major changes in the last 7 years in the traffic directions in Sintra. This is where the great invention of navigators, such as Tom Tom, come in really handy.

Having said this, I have come to notice that many of the navigator programs use maps made a long time ago - where the changes in directions made 7 years ago are still not updated. It is not unusual for us to get a call from a client 500 meters down the road asking what to do when the navigator instructs them to turn right and up and it is a one way street down. Another common problem in the navigators' programs is that it seems that they are missing major roads and places. This last week we had a couple whose navigator did not find a major road (passing the station, where the police is etc) and said that the Sintra station was nearly 4 kms instead of 700 meters away: the last station did not exist at all in the Sintra maps of the machine. If you spend a half an hour to an hour frustrated every time you want to go somewhere, it is bound to weigh negatively in your experiences in this wonderful town! Also, be aware that even if you know the exact address of a restaurant or a place, you may not be able to drive your car to the door, as many of the streets are in fact too narrow for traffic.

I am writing this to tell you that the things that make you fall in love with Sintra are the very same things that make you get frustrated here. The beauty of the nature, the narrow streets, the mountain - wonderful, yet you must be able to move around. So please, please, if you are travelling with a car and plan to bring your navigator: download the latest version of this area. Also, jot down our address Rua da Paderna, lote 2, 2710-604 Sintra and take note of the GPS coordenates N 38.80057º and W 9.39373º, Location Format hddd.dddddº.

Comments

MyriamC said…
From this I learn:
1) that I need to update the maps on my navigator
2) that we'll rent the smallest possible car!
Thanks for the info.
Casa do Valle said…
So right! The smaller the car also the easiest to park! Also, practise your hill driving - stopping in the middle of the hill and then restarting. So important here!
MyriamC said…
The hill driving won't be a problem. We are used to drive in the Alps and other mountainous areas.

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