Magical Pena National Palace

Over the past few months, we have quickly become castle experts.  I think we have visited 20 castles across the UK, France, and Germany and we've seen some truly magnificent buildings.  Pena Palace - outside of Sintra Portugal - quickly became my favorite of all that we've seen.  It looks exactly as one would envision a castle - with turrets, bright colors, intricate archways, and fabulous nooks and crannies.  I LOVED it.

It was a solid day trip to get up to Pena including a train ride and a harrowing bus ride up to the top of the mountain.  Mountain hint: castles are rarely on flat land and normally require both a steep uphill climb + other trekking.  But - they are worth it.

Pena National Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site (as it should be) and was originally built as a monastery, then as a simple castle, and then later - as a modern palace.  Enjoy a few of our photos from this fabulous excursion:

A panorama that attempted to capture the splendor of Pena National Palace:

You could climb around the castle for some really cool pictures and because we went in January, there weren't TOO many tourists there:

An amazing turret (it looks to me like the Bowser character on Super Mario Brothers)

 The view of another (Moorish style) castle from the top - both were of strategic importance because the view went all the way out to sea:

Just incredible architecture: