I Have Finally Found the Right House

I have wandered this earth many a year & a day, at home in the short run, never having a long run. Well, I believe I have seen enough real estate on my journey to make an objective assessment of the proper place for me.

After climbing another mountain (after all, this is Portugal), I entered a forest & garden that surpassed all others.

                               This one had rivulets & lakes & waterfalls

                          And ancient trees that scraped against the sky

               And intensity of green that make you think you've never seen green before

      Enter here...I know this arch was made for me

A lawn, which I've rarely seen in my travels & at the crest, a stately pink & coral palace restored in 1858 for Sir Francis Cook, an English baronet of King Louis.

                   This one belonged to a regular family, not a king

Therefore it's more approachable, less terrifying, more livable

But no less beautiful. This hall has rooms branching off...a library, a hexagonal music room, a study, visiting rooms. Smooth marble columns. Gorgeous lattice & tilework.

The rooms are watched over by gently glowing women...no images of war or death or conquest

That hallway, I realized, actually stretched from both sides of a central entryway, all the way from one end of the house to the other. You could see the gardens outside at the far distance.

The upstairs was also shaped like a hexagon, with bedrooms circling all the way around the central staircase. The rooms were surprisingly modest...in my deluded condition, I could almost imagine that I was looking over a rental, deciding whether to take it or not.

Goodbye front portico, beautiful little palace of my dreams.

Parques de Sintra - Monte da Lua S.A.
Parque de Monserrate

Sintra, Portugal

That, my dear ones, is the address where you can find me in the next life.