Cascais—October 20-25, 2018

Caught a noon train from Coimbra to Lisbon's Oriente train station, and it is a really slick transportation hub. You can catch a train, the metro, and bus anywhere in Portugal from Oriente. We stepped off our train and took three escalators down to the metro and purchased our Viva cards and loaded them with enough to get us to Cascais, and just like that, were on our way in no time.

Again, one of the things we love about Lisbon's transportation is how it's all integrated. You purchase a card with a magnetic strip for 50 cents and load it with money and then use the Viva card on trains, trams, busses, and the metro. It's so smart and inexpensive. I put $12.00 on both our cards and that gets us from Oriente train station on the metro onto the intercity train to Cascais, 40 minutes from Lisbon and back. And the best part is each connection is seamless. You walk off the metro and follow the signs to the intercity train. It's all easy and pedestrian friendly.

We booked a room with a private bathroom and a shared balcony through Airbnb and it's okay. It's clean, the shower (although missing one of the glass panels) has plenty of hot water, and we're about a seven minute walk to the heart of Cascais. With a little effort though this place could be quite charming. Doesn't matter; it's inexpensive and we have access to a kitchen if we feel like cooking and the the apartment is in a quiet residential neighborhood.

Last night we got oriented, walking into Cascais city center and picking up a map at the tourist information office. Then we enjoyed watching some college kids play beach volleyball, some children running in and out of the water, and hordes of cub scouts marching around the narrow streets and eventually gathering on the main square. We strolled along the harbor and then found a place that served fish and chips for dinner. All the menus in the city center are in French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Cascais is tourist central and you can click here for information.

Sunday morning we went looking for a cafe the property manager who met us said was in the neighborhood, and after asking someone walking her dog, we managed to find it in the basement of one of the apartment buildings within this labyrinth of apartments. We enjoyed our usual coffee and a pastry with residents and that was nice, but without help, we never would have found the cafe.

Afterward we headed out to get lost, and 7 miles later, had hit the highlights of Cascais. Tomorrow we'll walk the promenade to Estoril and check out what this harbor town has to offer, but for now, here's what we saw today and last night.

Cub scouts in city center.

Does this look like October 20th to you?

See what I mean about putting in
a little effort? This is our overhead
light and there's only one reading
lamp. The balcony off our bedroom
is spacious and has three plastic
chairs. Yep, no table and umbrella.

The view from the large balcony is lovely. Yes, that's the
Atlantic in the background.

  

On our walk this morning, we headed in
the direction of the harbor and found
Marachal Carmona Park. Lots of roosters
and chickens wandering this expansive
park. That goes for children, too.

Turtles and ducks were quite at home in this pond.

Santa Maria built in 1914 for George O'Neil, an Irish aristocrat
who made his money in tobacco. Cascais turned into the place
for a summer home among the rich and famous after King Luis I
of Portugal made it his preferred summer retreat.

Santa Maria with Santa Marta
Lighthouse in the background.

Coast along walk to Boca do Inferno (i.e. Hell's Mouth).

These commercial fisherman were 

dividing their catch. They could

have had about 300 pounds of fish

between them. 

It was caught right off the cliffs we

were walking along on our way to

Boca do Inferno. I'm sure all of it

will end up on tourists' plates in

town tonight.

This section of Boco do Inferno collapsed, leaving a little bay.

Boco do Inferno is a rock formation chiseled from the constant
bashing of the Atlantic. This is the "cave" that allows water to
fill the little bay shown above. It's quite pretty.

Cliff face. You can see in the background where the Atlantic
is carving our another cave.

Cascais Citadel was built in 1488
to protect the harbor & Tejo River
estuary leading to Lisbon. This guy
walking by provides some scale.

Sailboat announcing you are about to enter the
marina, a kind of Monaco wannabe for the 1%.

Cascais Harbor from Cascais Fort.

 

Cascais central square with statue of Peter I.
(1320-1367) The love story between Peter I
and Inez de Castro is worth checking out.

Loved the name of this store.

Pretty nice mall next to train station.

We discovered it by looking for Pingo

Doce, our favorite grocery store.

And every mall has a food court on the
top floor and Portugal is no different.
We decided on this place. Check out the
spelling of noodle. In Portuguese "nudle"
means nudge. We didn't need much of
that, because we were hungry.

Marie had a beer and I had a mango/basil drink that was a bit
sweet but looked like I was drinking tadpoles. Not joking.

Here's a close up.

I ordered the seafood and fried rice dish.

Marie had tofu with ramen noodles. (aka nudles)

We passed by this flea market in
the parking lot of the fish market
on our way home after linner.

Lots of good stuff to be had.

We've noticed these flowers in
bloom growing like weeds along
fences and up telephone pole wires.