Joe wanted to visit the Pena Palace. Me I had no real plans this was one trip I really never expected to take so I was just going with the flow. The Palacio National de Pena is located in the city of Sintra. Sintra is a very popular destination in its own right.
So popular in fact that the heir to the Portuguese throne the Duke of Braganza has his home here. And thanks to Victor Emmanuel we were able to get a very good look at that home. Okay we were royal peeping Toms and yes we took great photos and we loved it.
I have to say Victor Emmanuel was quite shocked that we wanted to visit the Pena Palace and not The Sintra National Palace which is located in downtown Sintra and we also didn’t want to walk around the town and go shopping. Just driving through this overcrowded town was an effort, no indeed we had no desire to get involved in that.
Can I say visiting the Pena Palace is a challenge and a very expensive challenge? It is located on the top of a high hill. You have to park at the bottom of the hill. If you are the athletic kind you can walk up, since that epithet in no way describes any of us we paid for the trolley ride up the hill. Oh yes, in addition to your outrageously expensive entrance fee you have to pay additionally to get there.
To describe the ride up as bone chilling is to underestimate it. The seats have no padding, the road is excessively steep, the gears grind, the trolley jolts and it is nerve wracking to say the least. Not for the faint of heart or those with any back problems.
Finally you arrive and with a sigh of relief disembark. You still need to be a mountain goat to climb into the palace. It is a very steep driveway. When you get up you would assume you would be welcomed for having made the effort, think again. This was the only place in Portugal where it seems everyone has an attitude, and gratitude isn’t one of their attributes. Rude would be the word that comes to mind and it has stuck with me.
I was really appalled at the attitude here. It left a bad taste in my mouth or maybe it was the sandwich I had at their pathetic little café. It was the most disgusting thing I have every eaten. I tried to return it, no that wasn’t possible it just needs to be warmed up to make it better. Yes that’s right a soggy warm disgusting sandwich is much better, I refused to eat it and would have gone hungry if my trusty companions hadn’t insisted on buying me a different tolerable sandwich.
Now we all know I will eat almost anything so it had to be pretty bad for me to refuse and it was, it makes my stomach turn even thinking about it. Obviously making a customer happy was not a big priority here.
As we were touring the palace one of the guards yelled and I mean yelled at someone taking the tour for having a small pack on her back, It was somehow her fault that the people who let us in hadn’t told her they weren’t allowed, and believe me we had to go through more security here than anywhere else we went.
It was also way too crowded in the room and if you had paid the additional price for the audio guide you were going to be very hard pressed to stay still long enough to listen to the commentary.
On the positive side the views are awesome. Would I pay the price we paid for that view? No. For me it was a big waste of time and money. Architecturally very interesting but it obvious isn’t what has stuck in my memory from this visit. These people need to consider a job in another field; they should not be dealing with the public especially the public who has paid an outrageous price to visit.
In spite of them, we had a wonderful time just being there with our small group of friends.
To be continued