Originally shared on Instagram on December 17, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
I captured this photograph in Sintra, Portugal in early 2024 while traveling across the country on a trade mission with members of our Realtor Association. I’ve traveled solo many times in my life, but there is something uniquely meaningful about experiencing extraordinary places with people you know. Conversations deepen, shared moments linger longer, and places become tied to friendships rather than just coordinates on a map.
Sintra itself feels like a place pulled from imagination. Long before it became a royal retreat, this forested mountain range was considered sacred by the Moors, and later by Portuguese royalty who built palaces and estates among the clouds. Pena Palace—seen here—was commissioned in the 19th century by King Ferdinand II and designed as a romantic expression of Portugal’s history, blending Gothic, Moorish, Renaissance, and Manueline influences. The result is something that feels less like architecture and more like a dream set into stone.
Standing there, surrounded by mist and shifting light, it was impossible not to feel the weight of history and the quiet magic of the place. What made it even more memorable was sharing that moment with people who, over the course of the trip, became friends I genuinely value.
And then last night, unexpectedly, this place came rushing back to me. I was at International Mall when Paul—my shoe guy at Allen Edmonds—casually mentioned he was from Sintra. Just like that, I was transported back to this hillside, this sky, and this moment in time.
That’s the strange and beautiful thing about travel. You never really leave these places behind. They stay with you, waiting for a name, a memory, or a passing conversation to bring them back into focus.
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