Cascais and Sintra

After our morning tour of Lisbon, we have taken the optional tour to Sintra. Dulcie remains our guide and continues to be extremely informative but never in a boring rote learning way. We head along the coastal road towards Cascais which likes to think of itself as a glamorous resort resembling Monte Carlo. The weather is perfect and as it is school holidays there are many holiday programmes for kids ( but nothing that is getting in our way) just that there are heaps of people along the beaches, however most are laying in the sun rather than being in the water so I just hope that they have remembered to slip, slop and slap. As it is a hilltop area there are very pretty views and as it is a tourist Mecca, there are ample hotels, restaurants and shops. We head to an outdoor eatery and ordered the grilled chicken which turns out to be half a chicken with chips, so we tucked into that along with the piri piri sauce. Had a nice wander about and then back on the coach to Sintra. Quick photo stop on the way to see the western most tip of the EEC ( not counting the UK). Sintra is atop a hill and again lovely views of the area. We had a tour through the summer palace and were amazed that one of the rooms had a ceiling that was covered in paintings of magpies(supposedly ordered by the king as this was the room that the ladies in waiting used and they were terrible gossips so he named them magpies. I thought magpies were native to Australia so had better look that up when I get home to work out how they knew about magpies in the 18th century in Portugal...
In free time we wandered up hill and down dale amongst the shops and restaurants. The area is known for its cork products. They have fabulous handbags made of cork, but quite expensive. The mosaic tiles are really big here and in Spain too. The rooster is a symbol of good luck so there are lots of souvenirs with bright colourful roosters on them. Time to get back on the coach and head for home. Back at our hotel about 5ish and just in time for scotch a clock.
We then headed downstairs to meet Shelley and Mark to share a bottle wine in the hotel lobby bar prior to heading off towards liberation Street and the main square where we found a great little outdoor restaurant and had our dinner. My grilled chicken breast and mushroom risotto was yummy. Weather remains perfect and there is a slight breeze so it is probably in the low 20s. Have I already mentioned how perfect it is? A wander back to our hotel and it's time for bed.
Obrigado...
You may have noticed dear armchair traveller that I have added a few photos in an earlier post, however these take ages to do so I will continue to attempt to appease the 'visualisers' amongst you who crave the picture painting 1000 words bit every now and then, but also need to keep up to date with the actual travel itinerary blog. So in other words, suck it up princess.