Cascais

11 September 2020 – 21 September 2020

We encountered fog for around six hours during our overnight passage from Porto. It wasn’t very pleasant and was rather eerie as we motor sailed not being able to see further than the bow. Luckily there were no fishing boats about and we only encountered one other yacht which came close to us by about 200m at one point as we were both passing between an island and Peniche.

We arrived in the bay of Cascais mid morning and dropped the anchor just out from an unusual shaped apartment building on the foreshore.

Cascais is an affluent coastal region to the west of Lisbon, the municipality is one of the wealthiest in Portugal and is one of the most expensive real estate markets and has one of the highest costs of living in the country.

We lowered the tender and went ashore to the marina where we left the tender at the dingy dock and walked into town.

Sculpture of a mermaid dedicated to the Portuguese seafarers.

The cobbled streets were beautifully laid out in a patterns which gave it a wave effect. It was quite hard to walk along and not think you were just a bit tipsy.

After two days in the anchorage we then moved into the marina to wait out a storm that was coming. Our friends on Favorita also arrived in the marina to stay for a few days and wait out the storm.

A short walk from the marina berths there was a large number of restaurants around the perimeter overlooking the marina.

We decided to check out the seafood restaurant called Marisco which was upstairs with lovely views looking down on the boats in the marina.

We had a wonderful selection of fresh seafood to choose from which was then cooked for us. We decided on tiger prawns with veges and chips as our main.

The largest marina on the Portuguse Riviera and third largest marina in the country with 650 berths. While we were in the marina we got our first service done on our motor.

Day Trip to Sintra

We booked a mini van taxi from the marina which took us and our friends from Favorita up to Sintra which was a 30 minute trip. Sintra is one of Portugal’s most expensive and exclusive real estate markets.

We were dropped off in the middle of the town and we went up the mountain to the Pena Palace by tic tok transport. 5.00 euro each which was well worth while for the experience.

The Palacio da Pena is a Romanticist Castle. The palace is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. Construction took place between 1842 and 1854.

The day we visited Sintra it was somewhat cloudy and overcast which was good in a way as it meant it was a little cooler for all the walking we were doing.

We then headed down walking thru the grounds of the Pena Palace to reach the ruins of Castelo Dos Muros that we then walked the perimeter walls which had wonderful views of the surrounding countyside.

The views were spectacular and you could see for miles.

We then continued walking down through the woods until we reached Quinta da Regaleira built in 1904.

The subterranean tower sinking 27 metres into the earth accessible by a monumental stairway.

We covered a lot of ground on foot that day and it was good to finally rest up back at the boat later that evening.

When the storm arrived we were well sheltered in the marina.

The waves were quite spectacular and would crash and roll along the sea wall of the marina. With the wind there was a fine mist in the air and the boats were covered in salt spray.

Paul celebrated his birthday while we were in the marina.

I baked a delicious chocolate brownie cake and improvised using our silicon butterflys for decoration as we didn’t have any candles on board.

We explored the costal region on our scooters and went as far as beach at Praia da Conceicao.

Another day we went on our scooters along the beach prommenade until the path ended at the bottom of a large flights of steps up to the road. We turned around and headed back into town stopping off for a beer along the beach front.