CASA DO VALLE

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how much I enjoyed the dry, cold winter.  Naturally, February was supposed to rain quite a lot, but it didn't.  Not at all.  We enjoyed warm, sunny afternoons, had lunch on the balcony and the garden was blooming.  That was supposed to happen in April - and now we are having the February weather in April.  And it seems like we will in May as well.  Temperatures are below the historical average, and contrary to other years, we are still heating the rooms. Of course there is nothing we can do about the weather. What we can do, is prepare for it so no matter what the weather, there are things to do.  So here are my suggestions to a great holiday in Sintra, for every weather.  1st - Pack accordingly .  Remember that no matter what the weather, Sintra is on the mountain and has a micro climate. Though we have beautiful beaches, Sintra is not primarily a beach destination.  Even in the heat of the summer, the nights are cool.  And it is always a

Continuing on the theme of bike rentals in Sintra, here is another entry written by Fred who is somewhat used to biking and her girlfriend Jess, who is not used to biking: they rented the 'normal' bikes (as in non-electric) for three days to ride around this mountainous terrain.  The bold in the text has been added by me.  Here is what they said: Fred and Jess in front of Quinta da Regaleira  Inside Cycling Rentals My girlfriend and I are students in London. Over our Easter break, we decided to get out of the city and spend part of our holiday in Sintra. Before leaving, we read that to really enjoy Sintra, it's a good idea to explore the area with bicycles. On our second day in Sintra, we found out about Cycling-Rentals (URL: http://www.cycling-rentals.com/ ), a place where we could rent bicycles for a couple days. To preface this, neither my girlfriend nor I have ever done any serious cycling before. However, despite that, Cycling-Rentals was perfe

This blog entry has been written by Pambo Palas , who used to live around here and now is a frequent visitor to Portugal.  Pambo is a skilled mountain bike rider, so taking out the electric bikes for a day was definitely a different experience for him! The bikes were rented from Cycling Rentals in Sintra, a new company here for this business.  Here is what Pambo wrote: Having spent another wonderful week in Sintra, I thought I would write a post about one of the nicest days I spent there and describe the experience I had of cycling in the mountain. This blog entry was written by Pambo Palas I have always been quite passionate about biking; when I used to live in Portugal for the last few years of my high school life I was obsessed with downhill riding – an adrenaline filled sport whereby we would sprint down the mountain (much to our parents’ disapproval) through intricate trails sprinkled with dirt jumps, sharp drops, and other man-made or natural obstacles. However, extr

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how much I enjoyed the dry, cold winter.  Naturally, February was supposed to rain quite a lot, but it didn't.  Not at all.  We enjoyed warm, sunny afternoons, had lunch on the balcony and the garden was blooming.  That was supposed to happen in April - and now we are having the February weather in April.  And it seems like we will in May as well.  Temperatures are below the historical average, and contrary to other years, we are still heating the rooms. Of course there is nothing we can do about the weather. What we can do, is prepare for it so no matter what the weather, there are things to do.  So here are my suggestions to a great holiday in Sintra, for every weather.  1st - Pack accordingly.  Remember that no matter what the weather, Sintra is on the mountain and has a micro climate. Though we have beautiful beaches, Sintra is not primarily a beach destination.  Even in the heat of the summer, the nights are cool.  And it is always a