Palace of Pena

We had decided to return to Sintra and look at another Palace (there's loads to go around)
Our Viva Viagem cards let us take the train to Sintra, a 50 minute trip for 1.30 euro. On the day we went the station seemed almost deserted.

Sintra however was its touristy busy self, we queued for the bus and got off at the entrance to the Palacio de Pena. the vertiginous trip up the hill made the 5 euro return cost good value and we had our tickets without being too long in the queue. We still had a hill to climb to get to the Palace however which came into sight occasionally through the trees.

The Palace is a fairytale edifice with towers, turrets, and colourful walls in yellow and pink.

Eventually we approached the gate. Even though we were in February the place was crowded with tourists, there was a lot of American accents and French seemed very popular.

The architecture is difficult to nail down if pushed I would have to go for "Disney"

There are elements of Manuelline and Moorish, however the credit apparently goes to Ferdinand Saxe Coburg Gotha the Prince Consort of  Queen Maria II, who personally designed a lot of it. If the name seems familiar he was the cousin of Prince Albert who married Victoria.

The Palace stands on one of the highest hills outside Sintra and the views across the country toward the sea are spectacular.

It is actually quite difficult to stand back and take in the whole as you really are never very far from a precipice!

A very good place to admire the views to the west is Tritons terrace which is arrived at through a spectacular entrance gateway, this is probably the most typically Portugese as it is Manuelline and incredibly elaborate with corals, shells and sea creatures.

Presumably triton himself dominates the entrance.......

 The view was for me surprising, a huge swathe of coastline we had sailed past last year was presented 10 kilometres or so distant.

The terrace is the start of a walk which goes around the Palace.

I persuaded Lynne although to be honest she wasn't that keen, its a bit airy in places.....

The views are worth the exposure. I am not sure Lynne would agree with me there!

The eclectic architecture theme continues everywhere with Arab minarets springing up from the cafe terrace.

 It is possible to walk all around the Palace without paying to go inside, to be honest just exploring the Palace grounds could easily take up a whole day.

However we wanted to look around inside so joined the queue but were held up by a French woman who had managed to lose her ticket. After an age, the staff were very helpful and patient, we were allowed inside.

 The Palace isn't vast inside, in fact it feels quite homely, above is the dining room which only seats 12 (and is a long way from the kitchens) but has a view to die for. Ferdinand apparently was a bit of an artist and his study has some of his work on the walls, he seems to like naked nymphs.........

There is a chapel with some lovely stained glass windows, they threw coloured light over the tiled surfaces

The alterpiece was an extraordinary confection, it has some delicate suspended carved marble pieces on either side I am still at a loss as to how they were created.

There is a good view of another Castle ,The Moors Castle through the window.

As we wandered into the private rooms it became apparent that a lot of the wall decoration was trompe l`oeil.

Ferdinand also liked technology and there is an example in the telephone room.

One of Lynnes favourite rooms was the Arab Room, the "carved "decoration is in fact Trompe L`oeil.
Quite fabulous.........

Even close up its difficult to tell.

We walked out for some fresh air to the Queens terrace, this is a real suntrap and the shades that are normally in place during the summer were not and just the bare frames remained.

The views to the south and Lisbon far in the distance were stunning.

It seemed that Lynne was getting accustomed to living at altitude.

 We continued to explore the Palace and I was struck by this beautiful floral electric light, I suppose it would be classed as art nouveu.

The Grand Hall is beautiful and the windows reflect ( literally ) Ferdinand's love of stained glass as there are many examples from his extensive collection

Again these seem a little eclectic, with no overall theme but they are undoubtedly attractive.

the decoration is a mix of ceramic tiling and Trompe L`oiel.

One of the last rooms we looked in was the Stag room.

This houses yet more examples of stained glass, a lot are German but then again so was Ferdinand.....

Interesting to display them with natural light coming from behind.

We had not finished yet, we still needed lunch and had decided to find somewhere away from the crowds in the gardens...............