We climbed on the train this morning and headed for Cascais and Estoril. The train follows the coast West from Lisboa. We stopped at Estoril and walked along the Oceanside “boardwalk” (it’s actually made of stone pavers) for about 25 minutes until we arrived at Cascais.
It’s a vert pretty, small town with many beautiful homes and hotels. We walked down the narrow streets and past numerous shops and café’s.
We stopped for a light lunch at one of the café’s…Tyler had McDonalds ;) , then headed for the central square to catch a taxi to Boca de Enfierno. It’s a spot on the ocean front where the ocean comes up between some very large rocks and crashes against the sides. We couldn’t get a taxi, so we rode out on bicycles instead. In Cascais you can “rent” bicycles for free by leaving your driver’s license information at the booth. So, off we went on some very old “bicas” for a ride along the waterfront.
There is a paved trail along the way past lots of very large, expensive homes on the waterfront. There is no beach in Cascais, only big rocks, but it’s very beautiful.
The tide was out at Boca de Enfierno so there wasn’t a lot of wave crashing going on, but we hiked down closer to the water and took some fun pictures.
We did find a spot in the rocks, up above the surf where the water forced its way up and down through a small hole. Each time the water came up through the hole it would spray. It sounded like Darth Vader breathing.
We rode a little farther along the road and took some pictures of the lighthouse, then returned to Cascais.
On our train ride back, we stopped in Belem again and toured the Monastery that was closed on Monday. It was massive inside with lots of ornate carvings and paintings. Probably the most notable thing we saw was the tomb of Vasco de Gama, a very famous Portuguese explorer who discovered the trade route from Portugal to India.
There were many other famous and important historic figures entombed there. Afterwards, we made another stop across the street at Pasteis de Belem for dinner, …..and pastries, of course.
When we got back into town, we rode the metro up to the Colombo Mall and Ty played some video games at the big arcade. We’d been promising all week we’d go there when we got a chance.
We got back to the room about 10:00 and crashed out for the night. Early morning tomorrow as we ride another train to Sintra, a city of castles, museums and fountains.
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