Sintra and Cascasi (“Kashkai”)

We left the urban sprawl of Lisbon on Saturday morning for the towns of Sintra and Cascasi. Both towns were used by the Portuguese royalty and wealthy during the summer to escape the heat of Lisbon. Sintra is located in the mountains. It is a breathtaking village that has a perfect Mediterranean climate - cool and sunny with a nice breeze. The views are spectacular! And the architecture expresses both the Moorish and Spanish influences. We visited a 14th century palace in Sintra. The walls were tiled in beautiful colors and patterns and many were tiled in the blue and white style and depicted life during that time. The intricacy of the handwork was amazing! One of the most interesting things in this particular palace were the ceilings in various rooms. One room has a ceiling painted with 27 birds to celebrate the marriage of the king’s daughter at age 27 – very old for that time. Another was painted with 136 magpies depicting the queen’s 136 ladies in waiting – magpies representing old gossips. Another was painted with several different types of ships – the Portuguese were great sailors and explorers and finally one was painted with the heads of big game, depictions of the important lords and their coat of arms. The palaces in Portugal are no where near as elaborate as some of those we’ve visited in Great Britain and Scandinavia but beautiful in their own right.

We left Sintra for Cascasi – a visit I was looking forward to! Cascais is about 30 minutes from Sintra and is on the Atlantic Ocean. Cascasi is considered a fishing village but is, in addition, a resort town with shopping and restaurants. The drive in was stunning! Bright blue sky blended with bright blue ocean all lit up by a perfect sunny day! It’s the kind of place that just feels good! A few of us decided to stay behind and have lunch. We found a beautiful outdoor café and had a great lunch of local rose, garlic shrimp, salad and bread. After a walk we made our way to the train station, fumbled around buying tickets ($1 euro bought us some help from a local teenager) and made our way back to Lisbon to enjoy a night of local culture. Oh, and for those of you who know us…we did buy a bottle of Port for the remainder of the trip! Our favorite after dinner drink. The hotel charged an outrageous $25 euro for 2 drinks!!

So far we seem to only have one a**hole in the group. The guy is a short little loudmouth who thinks he knows more than he does. The worst part being his constant comments about how bored he is and his sarcastic, demeaning comments to his wife. She just seems to be able to put up with it. Other than that it’s a really fun group and we’re enjoying traveling with the people we met from Great Britain last year.