Weather: 35º C sunny (except for 15 minutes)

The area is called Cascais and it is pronounced kashkiees. It was the area of Portugal where royalty and nobles from Portugal and around Europe used to spend their holidays. It is now a popular holiday spot for both overseas and Portuguese tourists and the beaches are full of them. It is the area where the rich live hence the blog title CashCash.

Today we got a 48 hour ticket for the hop-on/hop-off bus. There were 3 different bus companies but only one of them went out to Cascais. All of them had 4 routes that could be travelled in this time. They all need to differentiate themselves somehow so the routes varied a bit.

Our route took us out through Cascais, along the coast road to the Campismo Orbitur National Park. Talk about being exposed on the top of the bus. It was windy and cold – temperature must have dropped 10 degrees C with a chill factor from the wind. Out to sea there was an eerie sea fog. Along the way there were two complexes, one of which was the Michelin Star Star Restaurant Fortaleza do Guincho – last place you would expect to see one.

We did not get off the bus out there but came back to Cascais to wander around for a while. The town was interesting but no great sites; it was really a tourist town with lots of eating places. The buildings were of course very interesting. Many of the boats in the harbour were fishing boats and there were many cray pots on the wharves. It was either the wrong time of year for fishing for them or there were other issues such as quotas, the economy etc. Our guess is the wrong time of year to be fishing for them.

We got back onto one of the buses and headed for Belem which we had always planned to stop at. There are a number of sites that we wanted to have a look at including the Belem Tower, the Jeronimos Monastery and the Padrao dos Descobrimentos. We did not get down to the Belem Tower but did visit the others.

The Padrao dos Descobrimentos was interesting. The person on the bow is Henry the Navigator with 33 other figures of discoverers. Many of the great Portuguese explorers left from Belem; Bartholomeu Dias, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus who stopped here on his way back to Europe after discovering the New World. Many of the others we had not heard of although they may have been brought up in our history classes a few years ago. Of interest was Henry the Navigator who was described at length in the museum of the structure. He was a very wealthy influential Portuguese noble who promoted exploration amongst other things. We do not think he actually participated in exploration activities.

After an Italian style lunch we went to the Jeronimos Monastery which appears to be quite ornate for a monastery and was built by Henry the Navigator. The church became the place where explorers prayed before and after their journeys. Vasco da Gama is buried there. The monastery has been modified and added to over the years.

Then it was over to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. A very large art gallery with an unbelievable number of artists having works on display. Although we broke the back of it we could not get through it all mainly because there was nowhere to sit. Standing for 2-3 hours can be painful. Not sure they would have appreciated us doing stretching exercises on the floor of the gallery although we are old enough to have been mistaken for a 1960’s exhibit!

Back to the bus stop for a loooong wait to get on to one of the different bus routes. This route took us around an older part of the city with several museums and the zoo. We were fairly tired at this time and not sure how much we really took in. We got off at the final stop which is near to our hotel. Back in the hotel we opened one of the bottles of wine we purchased in Evora and after cooling it off had it for dinner. We are going to seriously start tackling the food thing tomorrow as we only have 3 more days here and know we are missing out on something.