The Cliffs on Cascais

Room for everyone

The train from Lisbon to Cascais was crowded, so crowded that at one stop people could not get on our car. Many of the people on the train were carrying coolers, beach chairs and umbrellas, and as we travelled along the coast many got off at stops along the way. I figured they were making day trips to the many beaches along this strip of the Portuguese coast. Cascais also has beaches but they are usually framed by steep rocky cliffs.

Today we left the apartment and rather than going down to the historic town centre, we turned right and walked out to the coast. We found a spectacular visitor friendly area. There is a road that meanders up the coast, and running beside it is a nice two way bike lane and a sidewalk. There were actually more bicycles on the route today than cars, and many people out walking. The route is flat and an easy walk or bike. We may rent bikes and explore further up the coast on another day.

The spectacular cliffs at Cascais

The views all along are spectacular. There are no beaches here, just jagged black stone cliffs. In places there are large fissures in the rock bringing the waves crashing in closer, sometimes actually under the roadways through curved bridges. The sidewalk is separated from the cliff edge by a short stone wall, but you can see where many visitors are tempted to climb over the wall to get a view from the cliff edge, ignoring the “Unstable Cliff” signs. I did climb over the wall to take a picture at a spot that looked pretty safe, and while composing the shot, I noticed a pin and carabiner in the rock. I then noticed that a rope attached was moving and suddenly a helmeted head came into view; a rock climber. I guess those cliffs are not actually so unstable. Fortunately

An unexpected arrival

strategically positioned along the route are designated view points where you can get closer to the action. At one point the rocks sloped gently down towards the water and you could get close enough to watch the water thunder into a cavity and blow mist up through a hole in the rock. If you stood close enough you would get misted every time a wave crashed. It was a warm day, but I was not hot enough to be tempted by this natural cooling spray.

On one of these cliffs overlooking the harbour to the town of Cascais there was a large fort built at one time obviously to protect the harbour from attack. Instead of restoring this fort, and making it a park, it has been turned into a hotel. Now you might say “How unfortunate!”, but in fact it seemed to work very well. The hotel has retained all of the old fortress outer walls and

The old and the new

the arched entry. They have converted some of the original inner fort buildings to Hotel use and added many modern hotel buildings to the site, but the modern sections do not reach much above the old walls, so the effect is quite nice. In addition, the fort courtyard has been converted to an art centre with galleries and studios all around. There were many large art installations throughout the complex, so the mixture of the old and new made for an interesting visit.

We also found a great restaurant among the art galleries. Surprisingly it was quite reasonable and unlike the many busy, noisy cafes downtown this one was quiet and peaceful, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch of Portuguese food.

All in all, it was a great day, although when Regis checked her fitbit we had walked 12 km and she is supposed to limit her walks to 3 km.

A cooling mist from the blowhole

Beat you to the top!

Rugged Rocky Coastline

Going to Gallipoli

The Train to Gallipoli

This area of Italy is really not that wide, and although Lecce is close to the western coast, an hour train ride will get you to the East coast, so we decided to take a train and visit Gallipoli.

Castello di Gallipoli

The Italian train system is a good one, the trains get you almost anywhere you want to go, and they appear to run on time. There is a big difference however between the big shiny inter-city trains and the local trains. The intercity trains are long, clean, shiny and fast. The local trains are only two cars long, grubby and not so fast. Yup, it was a local train that was taking us to Gallipoli.

No Wonder the seafood is good!

Gallipoli is a town that was originally completely on an island just a short distance from the coast. Of course the town has spread, and now the island is connected by a convenient bridge, and the train station is a short walk from the old town.

Crossing the bridge, you are confronted with an imposing fortress, obviously needed to protect the town; so vulnerable to invasion by those troublesome Turks of old. In fact the entire old town is built on a raised sea wall which surrounds it all. We started our self-guided tour by walking the perimeter, following the wall around the city as we looked for a place to eat. We had been told that the seafood was amazing in Gallipoli, so we wanted to sample some.

Wandering the streets of Gallipoli

Not sure what this is about

Finding a restaurant suggested by our guide the previous day, we stopped and examined the menu. It looked delicious, but when we requested a table we were ushered to one by the back door. We said we wanted a table out front by the ocean, but were told the were all "full". When I pointed out that the restaurant was completely empty, he pointed to his watch, indicating that it was 1:50 pm. I had forgotten about that 2:00 to 4:00 thing again. Now I know what everyone does during their "break"; reserve the best tables in town. A bit annoyed, we elected to try elsewhere.
Once you leave the sea wall walk, the town is much like the other small town in the area, with narrow winding streets and whitewashed stone buildings. We were a bit disappointed that none of the churches were open, but, it was Easter Weekend and many places were closed.
The castle however was open, and we spent an hour or so exploring this attraction. The castle/Fort has been partially restored, although in some places it was very confusing, and one spot had a display about a gate and chain bridge, but it was difficult to even picture this in its present configuration. Unlike the castle in Bari, which we were disappointed in because so much of it was closed or blocked off, here we were free to explore much of the old castle.

A fort colliding with a castle

Arriving back at the train station for the ride home to Lecce, we were pleasantly surprised to find a sleek red modern train waiting, but part way home we were told we would have to change trains, and at that point we were shuffled back onto the little local train, which was already mostly full with a wide variety of passengers, from a Justin Bieber "wannabe", young girls dressed for a night on the town, or a friendly group of North African street vendors, one of whom got off at each town. The last of them knew I was going to Lecce, and made a point of telling me that my stop had come, for at that point it was dark, and you could hardly see out of the grimy windows to see the dimly lit station platforms.