1 Week in Portugal: Day 4 (Cascais)

Even though it was October, because Lisbon is so far south, it was still beach weather so we threw on our suits and headed to the quaint beach town of Cascais. It was a pretty short ride and the view along the way was great. We saw other small beach towns and the ocean looked blue and vast from the train.

This place reminded me a lot of our trip to the French Riviera with its pastel-colored buildings, tiled plazas, and palm trees lining the streets.

PRAIA DE CONCEIÇÃO

We decided to hang out at this beach because it was large, beautiful, and close to the train station.

We hung out in this little cove area for a little while until the tide started coming in. The water was ice cold but it felt great since the sun was so strong.

We walked around a bunch, just being tourists and looking at everything, including the buildings, boats, and even an animal or two.

DOM MANOLO

For lunch, we went to Dom Manolo, as we'd read that they have really good chicken and a spicy piri piri oil.

We started with salads, followed by roast chicken with chips and grilled sardines.

The food totally hit the spot and I fell in love with the piri piri oil. The chicken was great on its own but elevated to extremely delicious when drizzled generously with the spicy oil.

SANTINI

For dessert, we headed across the street to the gelateria. I got nocciola and strawberry. The nocciola tasted like hazelnut and the strawberry tasted like fresh strawberries. "The snozzberries tastes like snozzberries!"

CERVEJARIA RAMIRO

After we finished walking around Cascais, we dipped our feet in the water one last time before hopping on a train back. After we all showered, we headed out for an early dinner. We wanted to go to the famous Cervejaria but we knew it had a reputation for getting really busy so we got there around 17:30.

We were given a giant pile of buttery garlic bread but we held off on eating it until the rest of our order came out, as our main goal was to soak it in some garlicky clam juice.

The first plate that came out was what they called 'edible crab.' It was a giant crab, pre-cracked. There was also a pile of creamy crab bits mixed into the shell. The crab meat was subtly sweet and it was a giant dungeness crab, which meant that there was plenty of meat to pick at.

We also got a few oysters, which were insanely fresh and tasted incredible.

The clams with garlic were delightful. The broth was flavorful and savory and I loved the bits of cilantro speckled through the dish.

We also got a big pile of king prawns. They were salty and tender and humongous.

The four of us killed this meal and then I went to the little sink to wash my hands. I thought it was a great idea to have this little setup.

After dinner, we grabbed a few pastries to have for dessert.

The cakes were kind of dense but somehow they were also light and I really enjoyed it. It was pretty easy to slip into a food coma after that meal.

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xoxo.