Cascais 2012 - Outbound 3

For the first time, we headed west towards the coast from Viseu, stopped briefly for cold drinks at Figuera da Foz for cold drinks and saw the first groups of other Harleys making their way to the rally since Bilbao.  Then, it was down the coast to our next stop at Nazare, where we found the hotel located in some very tight and difficult cobbled streets.  When trying to check in, I was told that we were in another part, a short ride away.  After a bit more tricky cobbled riding, we found the main hotel overlooking a marina and the coast, rather isolated but delightful.

Miserable rain returned the next day and, after a tricky exit from Nazare, we got separated into two groups - John & Sue and Wayne with Jean and me.  We wouldn't meet again until Cascais later in the day.  Wayne and I followed the designed route and found ourselves in some hills near the coast in thick cloud/fog with almost no visibility.  We also had to negotiate some difficult turns and gradients to get down onto the coast road that we would follow south.  We passed through the first place I had intended to stop because it was so wet and the road to the sea front was closed, and headed on to Peniche. Here we found a large beach, divers getting ready in the car park, the smell of sardines in the air, some decent coffee and ice cream during our stop.

From Peniche, it was further down the coast, passing through Gibralter and Benfica, not the originals, to a stop for lunch in a typical Portuguese restaurant, which was full of men enjoying large lunches and carafes of wine.  We settled for a light option and a cold soft drink before heading on for Sintra and Cascais.  In hilly Sintra, satnav caught me out again and took me off a roundabout one exit early.  After a u-turn, we then had to rejoin the roundabout from a very steep incline and execute a 160deg turn onto the next exit, which was very demanding with two up.  Into the hills on the last leg, it was twisty and hilly and a small bus in front of us was having to pupp across the road to see round the bends.  Six Italians on Harleys, however, were to live up to their reputation and roar past us and the bus on the outside on a blind bend!

Finally, we rode some very pretty coast road to arrive in Cascais in bright sunshine under blue skies.  I had been here once before when on the Carcavelos Reunion with others from C&W just under two years ago.