Palace of Pena, Sintra

Our destination today was the summer royal Palace of Pena, built on the site of the former Convent of Our Lady of Pena in the mid 1800s. We drove up and up, and once parked, we walked up and up some more. It is at the top of a mountain, to catch the cooling Atlantic breezes, as it gets hot in Lisbon in the summer, around 105 degrees at the most. The castle is 19th century Portuguese Romanticism style. Even though we had bought tickets in advance to avoid the line to buy them, we still had to stand in line to get into the palace. It was worth it: jaw dropping!Read more