Somewhere in Portugal

 Monday after the race, we took a vacation day and decided to explore the surrounding area in search of a potential beach community.  We knew that this wouldn't work for Chase and Carly since they speak Portuguese here rather than Spanish, but it was still fun to explore.  We found Cascais, which is a resort community on the coast.

We did a little shopping and mostly took pictures of the town.  They have a Clube Naval (yacht club) and apparently do a good bit of lobster and other sea creature trappings here.  Note the Atlantic and the huge ships in the distance!

"This must be a beautiful place in nice weather"  (again)...  The long winter in Europe continues and even on the coast of Portugal today we had some chilly rain showers.

The town of Cascais really is a lovely town made popular by the Portuguese Royal Family in the 19th century.  Now, it is one of the most wealthy areas of Portugal.  By the looks of it, the school children don't have it too bad either.  Can you imagine sitting in class in a circle on the beach?  Maybe Chase and Carly will come afterall?

 There was an old castle dating from the 12th Century at the edge of the water which we found very enchanting.  Cascais is about 30K West of Lisbon and served a strategic defense position for many years.  Over the years, there were several invaders who decided to settle down and make improvements to the castle eventually turning it into a traditional citadel.  

A citadel, in case you have forgotten, is typically a star shaped walled fortress. This picture of the old fisherman is probably the most amazing graffiti that I have ever seen.  I guess you call this graffiti? Whatever it is, it is worthy of a picture.  Too bad that someone less artistic had to add the caption.

 So, I have mentioned the beautiful white tiles on the sidewalks in Lisbon.  They have those here also but additionally these amazing mosaics all over town in different patterns.  I really love this look.

 

 Of course, I'm still collecting doors for Sherry.  This one was interesting and seemed to match the color scheme of the city as well as the graffiti theme of the blog post!

 The city has stately buildings, beautiful squares, palm trees, Royalty, beaches and sunshine (we hear).  I really think this would be an amazing place to visit in the summer.  The English tend to vacation to the Algarve which is on the very south coast of Portugal.  Traveling in and out of Lisbon and visiting both Cascais and the Algarve area would make a GREAT vacation.  We might just do this with Suzanne and Corrine some day.  They were the first to turn us on to this area.

Here are some more beautiful nameless buildings and scenes in Cascais, Portugal...

Peek View

Houses hugging the road

A tiny park with a view