As you know I don’t like stairs. I don’t like going uphill. I huff and I puff but somehow I don’t fall down. Just as well as today we were going to go to the top of Sintra Mountain to see the old castle, but we left it too late (we’d booked lunch yesterday, but our massive breakfast took a long time today.)

Anyway the weather had improved so we decided to go somewhere nearer. The palace of Biester, a privately owned palace built in the early 20th century. Not far from our hotel as the crow flies, but we thought we’d be quicker by Uber. Once again we were wrong. Lots of road closures and then to add insult to injury the driver dumped us in the middle of town and vaguely pointed us in the direction we should go. We could have got to this point easily on foot.

From here we had to climb. Luckily it was a cool and windy day so we didn’t get too hot marching up the hill to the ticket office. Once there we looked for signs of the palace but there were one. Instead we had to climb a very twisty turny path for about half an hour when we were suddenly confronted by a building. Very very high up. The views were spectacular. Trees, camellias, ferns. Waterfalls on the way. Stunning.

But at the palace doors we were handed plastic foot coverings. Bending down and balancing on one foot to put them on wasn’t an easy option for me. Fortunately the proferror of these Manolos was kind enough to help me slip them on and then we were allowed to view the rather beautiful elements of the art nouveau house. Not very big as palaces go, but enormous for a private house.

Enjoy the pictures!