Lisbon and Cascais
In Lisbon, which feels a little bit like a city over-run by tourists. Its easy to see why, the streets are beautiful with lots of brightly painted buildings and ornate places and tiling. We are staying in Graça, which is a neighborhood on a hill east of the central palace and north of the old castle by a few hundred meters. Allegedly its an old factory neighborhood. Our host said that was super safe and it seems to be relatively safe. We are pretty sure that someone came through Audrey’s window in the middle of the night. Similarly to Lagos, the food was excellent.
On Sunday, we rented bikes and rode out by the water to Cascais - seems to be the analog of the Hamptons. The cycling here seems to leave a little bit to be desired - there was literally no shoulder and sections of pedestrian heavy cobbles. But once you clear the city, the coast cuts north and the road follows it and becomes quite pleasant.
We had originally planned to go to Sintra and take a train back, but that proved to be a fools errand when there was a mile of cobbles at a 9% grade. Instead we rode out to the lighthouse - which is perched on a bluff a few hundred feet above the ocean. We stopped there for a snack and I rode back to Guincho while Audrey hitched a ride. We met up and then rode back to Lisbon - stopping in Belem for ice cream and to stare at the tower there.
That evening we took a ferry across the river to Cacilhas. Saw a pretty sunset but had an absolutely awful dinner. It was advertised as being shrimp in rice, which I ordered thinking it was going to be similar to paella. It was instead overcooked rice floating in soup with some unpeeled shrimp sticking out. Definitely not the best example of Portuguese cooking, I am pretty sure I have made better things over a camping stove. Note that if you ever plan to go, there are three restaurants when you get off the boat, do not go to the closest one.
