Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Day 10 - Cascais Lighthouse Museum, The Inferno, and Time at the Beach

Day 10 - Sept. 10, 2013

Well, we went back to our favorite little town of Cascais today to see a few of the interesting sights around there.  It is so picturesque and bright and only a 1/2 hour by train from Lisbon.
Our day consisted of going to the lighthouse museum, the Boca do Inferno, noted for it's grand crashing waves when the weather is more menacing, and then back to our spot on the beach for a couple of hours.  It will be more walking and our legs are getting in shape.  The tile streets everywhere are a bit hard on the feet.  You have to be watching where you're walking otherwise you hit a corner tile sticking up and then trip.  We don't need any accidents!

Starting to make our way along the docks by the beach, we're able to get some good photos of some unique hotels, private boats in the bay, and sand sculptures before we reach the area around the lighthouse museum.








Winding our way, again uphill, to the lighthouse, we get a view of the Casa de Santa Marta, located next to the lighthouse and on the street going to the Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell).


Casa de Santa Marta
Outside of the Lighthouse Museum

Along the way, we get a beautiful look at a rocky inlet.  There is a secluded area to the left where locals can lay in the sun on huge flat rocks under a palm tree.






It was a bit confusing finding our way into the lighthouse museum.  After a tour of the five star Farol Hotel parking lot, we realized we needed to go through the entrance to Casa de Santa Marta to get to it.  So back we went.  Once inside the museum, there was nothing really impressive about it.



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The interior of the the lighthouse museum. Not much of a museum per se, except for the actual lighthouse that you can climb to the top and get views all around


Again with my fear of heights, I didn't go up.  Terry went with two other people from D.C. who were on their honeymoon.  Once to the top, it was single file around the lighthouse, having to back up when people were ready to go down.


 



We left there and continued our walk uphill on the tile streets and finally reached the area of Boca do Inferno.  Magnificent views of the rocky cliffs on the sea, and another lighthouse lining the coast in the distance. 









When we got back to the beach, we just laid down and relaxed.  Our legs were sore from walking so much, it was a pleasure to just lay in the sun, Terry in the shade.  After a couple of hours, we checked out the big supermarket in town, Jumbo, to see what they had to offer and if the prices were more favorable.  They had just about anything you could want in there, sort of set up like a Super Walmart.  The prices were about the same as El Corte Ingles, a bit on the high side.  However, we grabbed some iced tea, sparkling water, tortellini with spinach, and some butter beans.  We happened upon the beans when we stopped for a quick drink at a little cafe on our way back down from Cristo Rei in Cacilhas.  They are so flavorful and kind of addicting.  Good news is they're not fattening.

Back at the apartment, it was my night to cook dinner, so I prepared a Portuguese pork tenderloin dish.  It was tasty and tender, but for all the preparation and time it took to cook, it wasn't anything spectacular.  At least it gave me another method of cooking pork tenderloin that I can elaborate on the recipe in the future. 

It was Terry's night to crash out early.  We both had our fill of sun and walking.  On to the next adventure.



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