Days 7 and 8 (August 2022)

Cascais, Portugal

 This was a lovely seaport town that felt like being at a resort. When booked the hotel from the photos online she had no idea how far it was from the city center.

 The first night we had a horrible room in a beautiful hotel. It was built as a fortress in 1642 and converted to a hotel.

 The room has two issues:

1.      1. It has one small window that looked out to a pile of stored patio furniture.

2.      2. The Wi-Fi was not dependable.

 The Wi-Fi was important to Dianne because she had to still work. When it was 11 PM in Portugal, it was 9 AM in Los Angeles. She needed to communicate with a loan officer, an escrow company, and a real estate agent to get a home she sold to close on time. And she could not do the work in the room. She had to sit out in the lobby in her bathrobe to use Internet that worked.

 She was prepared to leave and find a room in a hotel in the city center. The manager said a room opened up that she is sure we would like. It turns out it was a junior suite with a large bathroom, fireplace, veranda and balcony.

 It was on the corner of the hotel with one view to the south where we could watch people on the beach, others surfing, and others with sail-boards. To the north we could watch people flying on kites. The winds there were very strong. It was a fabulous room for the same rate as the horrible room because we were ready to leave.

 During our stay we walked over to a restaurant and hotel that was next door. The owner had photos of himself with political dignitaries and movie stars. His name was Tony Muchaxo and he was with famous people from ambassadors to kings and queens.

 While Dianne and I were walking around the restaurant admiring the architecture, I notice a man sitting alone at a table who looked like the man in the photos. I walked over and asked if he spoke English, which it did perfectly.

 It was Tony Muchaxo and he proceeded to have Dianne and I sit with him. He ordered wine for us and we chatted for over 30 minutes. He is 92 and comes to the restaurant every day. The man who served us has been working there for 40 years.

We came back that evening and had a lovely dinner while overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

On our last day in Cascais we took an Uber into the city center. They have a lovely small beach and we walked all around. As I passed a small bookstore I noticed used books were for sale in a stand on the sidewalk. And one book caught my eye; The Death of Kings by Rennie Airth.

I could likely finish all four books that I brought and having one more for insurance was a good idea. Here was a mystery murder with my name on the cover and it was only 5 Euro. Turns out I did read all the books I brought, and it was great that I had this one too.

After two days in Cascais we headed back to Lisbon to board the cruise ship to see the Canary Islands, Gibraltar, Morocco and Spain.