Thursday and Friday were days for the local areas - Sintras and Cascais.

Sintras is the mountain area outside of Lisbon where the rich and famous went, especially in the summer. So there is the palace and large state houses with very large estates.The castle looks quite something from the outside with its tall columns of coloured walls set amongst the bush. We took an hour in the bus to drive around it through the large park to give some idea of size of teh land set aside. Just outside the park boundaries to the West was teh westernmost lighthouse on mainland Europe.

Cascais headland is tyopical of headlands in control of the navy - large fortifications, thick stone walls, and the requisite statue of some admiral or other. Nearby are spceialist shipbuilding facilities of the 18th century ship buildiing style. Now the area is occupioed by a five star hotel/apartments overlooking a specialist shopping centre and mariner.

At least the maintenance of the walled fortifications is a nodd to history

All in all our short stay in Portugal was very pleasant. Now for Andelucia.

Kerry