We could see one of Portugal's "seven wonders" shimmering in the distance almost as soon as we began our short journey to Sintra from the airport after renting an Audi compact SUV. It drove like a dream. Until we had to find parking.
So imagine hiring a hunky young Brazilian to take you the final mile uphill to the Pena Palace in a tuk tuk only to discover that you'd left your camera back in the car. I was pissed, even though Chris lent me his phone to take photos whenever I asked. But Kayo had gone by then.
A monastery occupied the mountaintop aerie prior to its destruction by the 1755 earthquake. Then the husband of Queen Maria II, a German prince who couldn't stand the capital's heat, had the bright (yellow and red!) idea to turn the ruins into a summer residence for the royal family. King Ferdinand II hired a German architect who nearly built a Rhine castle until Maria and Ferdinand put their feet down in 1847. They insisted on some Gothic and Moorish customization. As you do.
Ferdinand's second wife, a Swiss-born American actress, inherited the ungapatchka pile. She sold it back to King Luis, who held on to it until his death in 1889, at which time Portugal's government turned the Pena Palace into a museum of romantic architecture. That didn't stop Queen Amelia from spending her last night there before going into exile after the October 1910 revolution deposed her husband.
"Over the top" comes to mind as you take in the exterior.
Unfortunately the interior looks as if it was lit by Ikea.
This very peculiar alabaster relief depicts a cholera epidemic. Nothing like a little death to cheer up a drawing room.
Antlers decorate the dining hall.
I sheltered from a hailstorm in the palace's small chapel. Both Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama put in appearances on a 19th-century stained glass panel made in Nuremberg. Meanwhile, groups of Russian and Ukrainian tourists loudly confronted each other outside. Leisure travel in wartime had never occurred to me until I realized that's exactly what I had been doing for most of the 21st century.
As they say in real estate, "location, location, location." The monks and the royals could see for miles and miles. I took this shot of Chris and Janet shortly before the clouds behind them burst.
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