The second half of the day, after our lunch, was spent at the Pena Palace, a stunning building that sits atop a small mountain over Sintra. It is an eye-catching Romanticist collection of towers and walls, with huge sections painted school bus yellow or rich, carmine red. Ornate carvings cover the walls, incorporating nautical themes and creatures that mark the power and pride of colonial-era Portugal.
The castle started out as a chapel, which later became a monastery in the 1500s. It was of course nearly obliterated in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, like much of Lisbon itself. The ruins remained for a while, then in 1838, Ferdinand II acquired much of the land in this area, including the monastery. A few years later, the palace was constructed, partly using the remaining pieces of the monastery. The red towers and walls are from the original buildings, and the yellow areas are new.
Fes and I had a sort of comedy of errors at Pena Palace. When we entered with our group, we misunderstood where the ticket check was to get into the palace, so we veered off to find bathrooms first. By the time that was done, our group and guide were gone and we couldn’t go inside. Luckily, we were able to sneak into the chapel, which was undamaged in the earthquake, so we saw that.
Also lucky was the fact that the exterior parts of the palace were free to wander, so we found many stunning views of the countryside. The wind was so strong that day, though, that it literally blew my earrings off. Twice.
Once we tired of pinnacles, we decided to spend our remaining half hour wandering the extensive, densely-wooded grounds. The paths through the woods were gorgeous and peaceful, leading to little palace buildings and picturesque vistas. We even spied some recent downed trees, evidence of the four storms that ravaged Portugal a few weeks prior to our visit.
Anyway, we got a little lost in the woods.
While our remaining time ticked by, we made several conflicting decisions regarding a photo of a map, our GPS location on Google Maps, where Pokemon Go said the paths were, what the signposts said, and of course where were we supposed to meet our guide anyway? Messages started to appear in WhatsApp from Jeff, the main cat-wrangler of our group.
Thankfully, we finally blundered our way out of the woods at the tour bus pickup point, slightly less than five minutes late. We did not have to walk back to Lisbon.
Anyway, getting back to Pena Palace: Fes and I wanted a lot more time there. I would have loved to have gotten inside to see the rooms, and we both wanted more time to hike in the woods. A one-hour visit is by far not enough.
