Lisbon and Cascais by train

Heading away from Lagos felt quite sad really. We'd enjoyed our time there and got into the local "groove" quite well, enjoying chatting to the many Americans that had moved in for 10 years and the local folks who tended to the many visitors. However, the wonderful 90 day Brexit limit forced us to head on, and prepare to get the ferry back.

On the way up towards Lisbon, we enjoyed seeing the storks who were busy nesting in the power transmission line pylons. This one only had a few, many were way busier:

We had booked a hotel to the west of Lisbon but on the train line into the city. We needed to cross the big toll bridge so we joined the queue to pay:

and then got promptly confused / lost in the many exits, despite the built in nav system and Google maps on the phone. We ended up going back across the bridge....  Luckily, the toll fee was small so we headed north again, carefully picked the exit and made it to the Hotel Solar Palmerios to find it was wonderfully quiet, despite being next to the main road.  The room was big if a bit tired, the staff and breakfast were excellent as was the parking. Happy to use it again. See their website link for more information.

In need of sustenance, we wandered into the nearby village, gawped at the the lovely tiled buildings:

and enjoyed great food in a newly opened restaurant. Just what was needed after the bridge escapades.

We'd purposefully booked a place close to the Cascais to Lisbon train line. Our first proper excursion was to Lisbon where we happily wandered around enjoying the views:

only to discover we were already running a "straight up" store in the city:

The local shop keepers had a great English sense of humour though:

and the city, bathed in sunlight, showed off all of the beautiful buildings and plazas to their best:

Yes, it is a beautiful place:

even if some of the sales advertising is seriously strange:

One of the iconic things about Lisbon are the trams. they have some old ones to trap the tourists:

and plenty of slightly newer ones that are the backbone of the service:

After a very happy day walking around Lisbon, we opted to head west the following day, to Cascais. We boarded the train and were amazed to find that Donald Trump (only looking a bit less orange) was sitting opposite us:

The expression gave him away although during the train trip he managed to stay awake. Cascais was lovely. Great weather, great place:

In the park, the little lake had one or two turtles that were fighting for space on the rocks to get out of the water:

They sometimes looked like a synchronised not-swimming team:

The local two legged wildlife was unimpressed:

but we found that we had yet another business enterprise here. Our cannabis empire was doing well:

The wander around the town and marina was great. Lovely buildings, lovely weather:

lovely place. We will come back sometime. Has to be done.