Wandergliding: The Pena Palace & the Nose of Europe

November 15^th, 2025

For today, Naomi booked a full day tour to visit the Pena Palace, the small town of Sintra, Cabo da Roca, which is also known as the Nose of Europe, and finishing off in the seaside city of Cascais.

We met our tour guide, Miguel, at 8:30 am, on the Avenida de Liberdade, a major shopping street with many high-end vendors like Prada and Louis Vuitton. Miguel looked to be in his mid to late 60s with glasses, a grey beard and thinning hair. He was well dressed and carried a distinguished air about him. It turns out that he was a retired clinical psychologist and he joked that after years of listening to people, it was his turn to have people listen to him!

Hopping into a black minivan, we met the other three tourists on the daytrip. There was a 50 something year old Australian/Asian lady named Mavis in the front seat and a Chinese couple in their early 60s from Atlanta, David and Lian. It was a rainy day as we headed out of Lisbon on our way to our first stop.

Arriving in the rain in our minivan, with Miguel pre-apologizing for possibly giving us too much information.

After driving up a windy road through a lush, wet forest, we parked, grabbed our umbrellas and walked to the entrance gate for the Pena Palace.

The Pena Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and its history starts in the Middle Ages. It suffered major damage in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and was rebuilt so there’s quite a mix of architectural styles. It is situated high on a hill with 200 hectares of forest surrounding it.

The Palace in the Mist.

Yup, it's wet out. That's one of the other tourists on our trip, David from Atlanta.

Miguel had a wealth of knowledge about the history of the palace, the royal families, the region, the architecture, the manufacturing of tiles, etc…you name it, he seemed to know about it and took pride in that. Sometimes he maybe dove deeper than any of his captive audience cared for, but you can’t blame the guy for being passionate about his profession.

Our tour guide Miguel explaining the construction of these Portuguese tiles.

On we go...

Reaching the palace, we spent a fair bit of time outside, hiding from the rain under our umbrellas, as Miguel continued to douse us with information. The weather was bad enough that we could not see the Atlantic Ocean, just a few kilometres away.

Miguel was very informative...perhaps at times, a bit too informative.

Getting closer to the entrance.

Miguel telling me something up close and personal. I couldn't help but think that this part of the palace reminded me of Camelot in Las Vegas.

Heading in the main entrance.

It's a nautical theme on this gate.

I can see the Atlantic Ocean from here...not! It reminded me of my English relatives coming to America and they couldn't see the Grand Canyon as it was a white out like this.

This stained glass was amazing...the colours just popped. Supposedly the foggy day outside helps with this, but it was still stunning and unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice.

Back out in the rain, waiting for our time slot to enter the main part of the palace.

Tiles, tiles, and more tiles...

Naomi loves them...

...but here are my feelings about tiles...

They even depict battles on them.

Over and over and over again!

The vista cleared a bit...but we still couldn't quite see the Atlantic which was only a few kilometres away.

Our tickets to enter the inside of the palace were slotted for 10:30 am, but there was a long line-up of other tourists and since it was raining, our group stayed under the cover of a gateway to stay dry. Miguel offered to stand in the line for us once it got shorter but that meant that we were delayed half an hour entering the palace and we also upset some people in the line behind us. We only budded ahead of 7 people, but it did not sit well with me as thanks to my British heritage I knew that it was not proper queuing etiquette. Of course, it was some English folk who pointed out that we were in the wrong, at least in their eyes. Miguel, Naomi and the rest of our group did not seem to see it the way I did.

Anyways, we toured around the inside of the palace, which was not as captivating or impressive as the outside. It reminded me of the Neuschwanstein Castle, the famous fairytale chateau in Bavaria that I visited in 2023.

We finally got into the palace!

The main courtyard. The king and his chamberboy lived on the ground floor while the queen and her servants were on the second.

The main dining hall.

The main clock tower...which didn't seem to function as the time was off.

An ornate ceiling.

Naomi liked this room, but I thought it was butt ugly.

Some fancy plates, and a random turtle.

This chamber was specifically called "The Telephone Room"...oh the days of a simple phone.

This was an interesting ceiling, which Miguel (pictured here) pointed out. The details are just painted on the ceiling but it gives the impression that it is three dimensional.

This lady seemed to like it!

Throughout our tour, Miguel, who is a tour guide for a couple of companies but also does private tours, kept stating that Pena Palace was his least favourite palace in the area. He kept saying this over and over that it kind of took something away from our visit of this palace. We weren’t sure if he was just trying to plug his own private tours, should we ever return to the area, or if he was just genuinely put off by Pena Palace.

Another interesting ceiling, as well as the leafy chandelier made out of fancy green crystal.

The biggest room in the palace.

This was the "man cave" according Miguel, with many deer antlers adorning the wall.

The massive kitchen.

We had a better view of the palace on our way out.

Naomi had a "Canadian moment", finding a nice maple leaf.

Our next stop was the nearby town of Sintra to wander around of an hour. It was a cute town with narrow walkways, cute shops, a view of the Castle of the Moors on the nearby hill and Miguel’s favourite palace, Sintra National Palace.

On the street in Sintra. You can't really see it, but a Moorish Castle is on the top of the hill.

We wandered around the narrow alleyways during our hour we had in Sintra.

We located the pastry shop that Miguel strongly suggested we find in order to try a pastry specific to Sintra, not just the usual Pastel de Nata.

I've got the goods!

We were supposed to be on our break in Sintra, but Miguel met us in the pastry shop and wanted to lead us to this palace behind him, which he told us many times over that he preferred over the Pena Palace.

The spot where we consumed our pastries...not a bad view.

Yum!

We liked the shape of this building.

We're "inta Sintra".

I was a bit tempted to buy this suit!

We hopped back in the minivan and Miguel drove us to Cabo da Roca, also known as the “Nose of Europe”. It is the most western point of continental Europe. For a bit of a geography geek like me, I enjoyed visiting this spot, even though we were pretty much done in 20 minutes after snapping some photos. As a kid, I always remember visiting “Land’s End” in Cornwall, England, the western most point of mainland England, which was close to where my father grew up.

The lighthouse at Cabo da Roca.

Looking north.

It seemed like a different day from the morning, which we were happy about.

Now looking south.

The Nose of Europe - Cabo da Roca

Our last stop of the day was the small, seaside city of Cascais (“kass-kaysh”). Naomi and I found a great little restaurant where we enjoyed a late lunch on their outside patio before wandering around the streets and the harbour.

A lovely sandy beach on our way to Cascais. The promontory in the middle is the Cabo da Roca, where we just came from.