Pena Castle

A day trip to too many places. Cake for breakfast, but Sintra pillow cake this time. My heart belongs to tge Pastel still.

We opted not to buy tickets for this ridiculously over crowded cartoon like castle, but visited the gardens instead. They were perfect, such a strong moorish influence with obelisks and tiled rooms. Low ferns and mosses were flanked by tall palms and waterfalls.

Our guide took us to an authentic Portuguese restaurant where the octopus and rice stew was heavenly.

The tour over ran by 3 hours..... most of it was very good, but there were bits of unease as our guide shared a little too much of his own troubled history.

We needed several cocktails and beers to recover. 26,000 steps!