Alentejo, Cascais, Lisbon & our engagement!
Alentejo
Our second week started with a stay at Casas Caiadas Boutique Home in Alentejo. The property includes three guest houses and a shared kitchen/living house, all converted from old water mills. We were very lucky to learn upon arrival that we were the only guests for the duration of our stay! We got to run around and treat the grounds as our personal compound for three days. It was the perfect setting for a surprise PROPOSAL from Diogo!
Arraiolos
A short drive from our stay was the city of Arraiolos. We spent a day there exploring the Centro Interpretativo do Tapete de Arraiolos (Tapestry Museum), the Arraiolos Castle and a number of whitewashed churches. In general, this region of Portugal reminded me of the high desert in California and Nevada — lush but dry and very beautiful.
Cascais
Next was Cascais and Sintra, located on the coast. This was the first time during our stay in Portugal that we sat down at a restaurant where the people seated on either side of us were also speaking in English. While a bit more touristy than the rest of our trip, we enjoyed a bit of retail therapy (as I was having withdrawals) and saw beautiful views from the cliffs.
We tried to drive up to the National Palace of Pena (the famous colorful castle in Sintra) but realized once we reached the castle that we were expressly instructed by Diogo’s parents NOT to drive there because the roads up are treacherous and there is no parking! We watched as the buses we’d forgotten to look into drove past us full of eager tourists. We didn’t mind though as we were hungry for lunch. We drove back down the roads that were supposedly intended as two-way, praying that we wouldn’t encounter any vehicles coming in the opposite direction. We eventually reached Sintra where we stopped at a very cool family-run vegetarian restaurant for lunch. Once back in Cascais, we got dinner, packed for Lisbon, and went to bed early.
The waterfront in Cascais.
Boca do Inferno, “Hell’s Mouth.”
A man chillin and fishing on slippery, very tall cliffs.
View from lunch.
Cliffs in Cascais.
And then we watched a cat climb down the cliffs with this other man.
View of Sintra.
Lisbon
Last but not least, we went to Lisbon. Admittedly, by this point in the trip, we were quite tired having already been traveling for two weeks and experiencing all the emotions of the engagement but we tried our best to be good tourists! We started things off with a football game — Sporting vs. Gil Vicente. It was really fun to experience the Portuguese soccer energy first-hand. We ended the trip exploring the city with Diogo’s parents and pigging out on Sea Bass at their friend’s restaurant. Overall, we had a great trip!
Eu sou Sporting!
