Sintra and Cascais

 Incredible day. We signed up for a day tour to Sintra and Cascais. Sintra is a hill town about 30 mins outside Lisbon. It used to be where the royals went for their downtime. Now, it is a very popular tourist town. We were in a small group of 8 people and our guide, Patrik, was fantastic!

After a quick coffee stop in Sintra town, we headed up the hills to Quinta da Regeleira. The house and grounds were designed by a leading architect for Antonio Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro. He was a private citizen who was a Free Mason. The design of the estate has loads of references to masonry and spiritualism. Weird but a beautiful estate. Then, we moved onto Pena Palace which is three very distinctive colours reflecting the three different buildings that were created there and joined together.

After lots of walking and learning about the history of the area and the palaces, Patrik took us to lunch at a family owned restaurant which he described as a hidden gem. The family has run the restaurant for 50 years and they serve classic Portuguese food. The food was incredible even if Ian and I couldn't quite make ourselves try the barnacles. We had a great time getting to know the other people on the tour.

We then headed to the western most point of continental Europe, Cape de Roca. Staring out into the Atlantic ocean, I realised we were as far away from home as we could possibly be. If we moved any further west, our fastest route home would be to keep going, not turn back.

Finally, we headed to Cascais, a lovely seaside town with nice sandy beaches. To be honest, we were pretty tired by this point, so we didn't do a whole lot more than sit and admire the beach, the sun and all the happy people enjoying their summer holidays.

Guided tours aren't for everyone but, every so often, it is nice to hand the reins of organisation over to someone else. Today was a hit, not just because of the fabulous locations we visited but because our tour guide was the best. Easy going, informative and helpful, Patrik made our day so special.










































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