S and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary in style!
The Easter long weekend presented the perfect opportunity to catch some rays in Portugal. We decided to bypass a stay in Lisbon and headed for Cascais instead - a stunningly gorgeous beach town on the Estoril Coast (not too far from Lisbon).
Cascais is manicured to perfection, colourful, blessed by beautiful weather and entertains a very wealthy set of people. We splurged for our anniversary and stayed in the 5 star Grande Real Villa Italia, the former palace of the last king of Italy (who knew that Italy had a King until as late as the 1940's). Full of marble, electronic curtains, king beds and private terraces, it was a perfect retreat.
Cascais, historically, was a perfect escape for exiled royalty and the high rolling society is very much still alive. The town is full of mansion sized villas painted in pinks and blues and yellows and greens with bright coloured flowers to match. Cascais faces the Atlantic Ocean and outside of its hidden bays are sheer cliff faces that cop some quite strong winds.
We enjoyed four whole days of fresh seafood - gigantic fresh prawns (at Mar do Inferno) and fresh whole fish.
Apart from lazing in the sun, we also ventured into Lisbon. We enjoyed a tram ride up to the old Alfama district which sits high on the hill overlooking the river and the rest of Lisbon's sun laden red roofs. The Alfama district is full of narrow, steep alleys with houses basically on top of each other - our guidebook rightly told us that if we find a street that allows two cars to pass each other then we have left the district.
One of our highlights was a day trip to Sintra - an insanely magical place that seemed like it was straight out of my girlhood dreams. There are approximately 6 palaces in and around Sintra and we opted for the beautiful Pena Palace. This place was INSANE! Right on the top of the mountain, the bus ride up was certainly an experience. We loved the luscious forest, lakes and gardens with gigantic bees mining the pollen from the pretty rhododendrons.
We really wanted to relax and were lucky enough to enjoy romantic strolls along the beach followed by lazing around the pool with a crisp wine. Poor old S got insanely burnt - we forgot that after 6 months of no sun our skin might forget what to do in direct sunlight.
Portugal is a special place - eternally relaxed, soaked in sunlight that shines like a blanket of glitter on the ocean, fresh air, fantastic food and how can we forget, a very very strong sweet tooth. We could never walk past one of those delectable custard tarts.
The forecast predicated rain but instead we had a perfect holiday with clear skies - we'll never forget it.
xoxo
E&S
Cascais lighthouse
Carbo de Roca - the Mouth of Hell
Anniversary gift from the hotel
Sitting in a Miradour in Lisbon
Tram 28 in Lisbon
Pena Palace
The view from Pena Palace - imagine if this was your back deck
Cascais Beach
