Portugal Part 2: Cascais

Pergola House

We arrived in Cascais around 4 on Saturday afternoon. The sun was out and it was just warm enough to walk around without a jacket on. We dropped our bags off at the Pergola House and then spent a few hours exploring town, which had shopping downtown, and lots of little cobblestone alleyways. As an aside, Pergola house is an old manor house, with a lovely garden. According to reviews we'd read, the manager of the hotel grew up in the house. While our room was clean and well-appointed, and the staff was friendly, noise travels throughout the house, so we did hear quite a few people coming home throughout the night.

It really was a lovely day. For dinner, we went to B&B, which stands for bom and baratoa, meaning good and cheap in Portuguese. Unfortunately, while the atmosphere was cozy, my food was really bland, and a bit disappointing after the amazing seafood we'd had in Lisbon.

The next morning we rented a car downtown, and began driving up the coast to Peniche. The views were quite stunning, and at one point we came across this lovely roadside farmer's market, where we picked up snacks for lunch. The people in Portugal were lovely. After buying a few apples, we asked another vendor for 2 oranges. She replied: that's it? Take them. Free!

 

After a few hours, we realized the trip along the coast would take quite a long time, so we cut inland and took a slightly faster road to Peniche, which we'd heard was a laid back surfing town. While the town had some cute buildings and the cliffs were stunning, I think perhaps staying at a surf lodge outside of town might be a bit more appealing, as the town itself only has Pansions and two typical 3 star hotels on the outskirts of town, near chicken factories and a sardine factory. While the area was nice, the town itself was a weird place. We found the woman at the tourist information stop pretty unhelpful! Regardless, we grabbed our books and read on the beach for a few hours, which, after London weather, was a real treat.

More on Porto tomorrow...