Views over this seaside town may remind you of novels from the age of F. Scott Fitzgerald, when people sat on verandas sipping cool drinks and men wore boaters.
Today there’s a focus on shopping, though the town is still lovely. We visited the museum/library house of the Condes de Castro Guimares. The story is probably worthy of a novel. The house was built around 1900 by Jorge O’Neil, titled in both Ireland and Portugal and a good friend of King Carlos I of Spain. He built a fantasy palace that is described as both eclectic and Romantic. It was beautiful and as you might think, packed with beautiful furniture and artworks. It was very much worth the visit. (The present name comes from the count that O’Neill sold the house to in 1910.)
As is essential on a visit to Cascais, we visited the blowhole, Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell, oooooooo!). We ate lunch in a fish restaurant along the beach and had a good day.
A couple of quirky things we saw:
It looks like he’s lost something in his beard.
It’s like a bowsprit coming out of the corner of a building.
Llywindatravels 2022 