Cascais, Portugal...A Slow Travel Winter Destination from Boston

 Planning has begun on my 4th trip back to Cascais during the cold winter months of February and March. 

The first time was in 2022 on my own to recover from a tragic loss and give my mind and body a much needed reboot. There was not much planning involved, more of a knee jerk reaction to feeling so low and miserable during the short, cold and dark days of January. Turns out it was just what I needed! 

In 2025 I am once again returning to the seaside town of my younger days, my family lived in the next town of Estoril and I went to school in Cascais when I was 6 to 12 years old at the English school St Geroge's. Even though it was a completely different world as a child than as a traveling adult, I was right at home with the patterns of the cobblestones, the ocean and the lovely people.

First off, how do you pronounce Cascais? My friends mostly avoid saying it, but like most things, it's easy once you know. 

Cascais 

• kash-KAI: This is a more accurate phonetic representation of the European Portuguese pronunciation.
• The 's' at the end of "Cascais" is pronounced like the 'sh' in "shoe"

Cascais is the premier holiday destination of the Portuguese Riviera, as well as being a fascinating, charming, refined seaside town, half an hour from Lisbon.

Where I like to stay: 

I've looked at AirBnB rentals and similar options, but always come back to Hotel Baia.

The location is superb, overlooking the main beach and walking distance to everything I enjoy, breakfast is included, the rooms and bathrooms are lovely if a bit small, but they suit me well and having my own balcony overlooking the sea is priceless! 

https://www.hotelbaia.com/en/

Restaurants and walks along the sea are abundant, as is the welcoming and safe atmosphere everywhere  you go. English is spoken everywhere, the British love to visit and have been vacationing here since being royalty was a thing. 

Here is some more information and other hotels to consider if you want more luxury.

https://youshouldgohere.com/2020/02/perfect-long-weekend-in-cascais/

Welcome to India!

Welcome to India!

For the next 20 days or so I am very fortunate to be traveling in India, starting off in New Delhi.

I'm traveling solo for the first 5 days, then meeting up with a VegNews India tour that will take us to places around Northern India. So excited to actually be here after it being a bucket list destination for many years. The place I am staying, Bungalow 99 is lovely, so beautifully designed and comfortable, the owner has been very gracious showing me around the neighborhood personally and arranging for a driver to take me around to the sights.

Here are a few of my images from my very first morning here, February 28th, walking on foot in the Defense Colony area where I am staying!

This is the Defense Colony market area, which is really a lot of small shops all gathered around a park. There is an ATM here and people are very helpful. 

I am finding that the English spoken here is unlike any English I know, and I think the people who live here feel the same way about my English!

 Another street scene, I love the clothing worn by the women. My goal is to find something similar to buy here so I can blend in a little more.

 The ubiquitous auto rickshaw ... they are everywhere and keep up with larger cars in traffic, maybe even better as they are smaller to maneuver. The yellow and green color looks great and makes them easy to spot.

 Just a haircut in the street.

He doesn't look friendly in this photo, but he gave me a big smile and was happy to let me take photographs, I just missed the one with the smile.... 

Taken from the window in my hotel, I loved the simplify of it and the camaraderie these people seemed to have.

The challenge I'm putting out to my photo club for the month of March is Feet. Took this one while the floors were being cleaned this morning and loved it!

Lucca through a Lensbaby Lens

Joe and I are now 3 weeks into our 6 week stay in Lucca, and I'm still in love with this beautiful city! I'm now up to 22 days of making my way everywhere on foot without the use of any cars, or even bicycles, my feet are in great condition, and maybe even I am, too :-)  

The weather has been excellent, warm days for eating lunch al fresco, and plenty of sunshine. Around 70's the last few days and always a treat walking around with my camera taking it all in.

These blog post images were taken with my Lensbaby Composer lens attached to my Fotasy adapter that fits my new Fujifilm X-T2... this way I didn't have to buy a new Lensbaby for my Fujifilm, as it was originally designed to work on my Canon dslr.  The Lensbaby works fine with the adapter, as it's a manual focus lens anyway. The trick is the get the focus on the right part of the image!

The outdoor market just outside of town is full of photo opportunities, as is the walk there. The Italians are very fond of their flowers and so am I!

The iconic Vespa, full size.

The shopping street, Via Fillungo.

Working on getting little hearts as my aperture shape on the points of light. Nice looking dessert, too.

The top of the Church at Piazza San Michele. Note that each column has a different design.

At the music school piazza.

Benches are liberally distributed throughout town.

Shopping at the outdoor market flowers.

Taking a break from mowing the extensive grassy area outside the walls.

Very active population here, especially on the wall.

A beer at lunch on the wall.

Panini are very popular... I found out panini is plural and panino is singular, now you know, too :-) And they are not always grilled.

First visit to Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

Jerez de la Frontera will be our home for nearly 3 weeks when we leave Seville. We'll meet friends there for photography and good times and wanted to see what will be our home while we're there. Even though I wasn't focused on finding images, we were visiting with our landlord and getting a feel for the town, I'm still happy with what I captured. Lots of possibilities in Jerez!

Plaza del Arenal in Jerez with 3 textures applied in Photoshop.

We just ran into these men waiting to get into their church, nice scene!

The church across the street from where we will be living.

Our gracious host, Jose, invited us for a dram of sherry in what will soon be our temporary home.

Jose walked us through the streets to a restaurant for lunch.

Plaza in Jerez.

Getting set up for lunch.

We had a great lunch here!

So did these locals.

 Bring your dogs, bring the children....

...playing hide and seek while the parents linger over lunch.

Another recommended place for later.

The Jerez Cathedral.

 Tio Pepe. Jerez is famous for it's sherry, flamenco and white horses.

Our first Pueblo Blanco! Arcos de la Frontera, Spain.

Not really our first white hilltop town ever, but Arcos de la Frontera is our first one on this trip to Spain. Always a treat to see a village that is predominantly painted white, these white hilltop villages are a part of the Andalusian culture and bring many people to the southern area of Spain to enjoy their uniqueness. Like us!

If you visit, be prepared for walking on steep narrow streets, and driving is very challenging, remember to turn in your side mirrors or risk breaking them off. The town was built for horses, donkeys and carts, dating back to 1011... imagine that!...the streets are in great shape considering how long they've been here.

 The beautiful town of Arcos de la Frontera.

The resolution isn't that good on these images, I make them smaller so they load faster for people with all kinds of internet speed. For a more detailed sharper version see my Flicker page here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/amydav/25475680845/in/photostream/

You'll be able to see the sheep there!

 The church on Plaza de Cabildo, the main square at the top of the hill.

If you come for a stay here, instead of a day trip like we did, the Parador is the place to settle in. Beautiful dining room and other public areas as seen here. Open to all.

The less formal place to eat at the Parador.

Nice view!

The Parador patio here is the only place in town we found where you can eat outside with a view. Great spot for photos, too.

Taken from the patio.

 

We drove to this parking lot at the very top, not easy, but saved a lot of steep walking.

Sunning spot.

Caught with it's tongue out!

A beautiful day to be here.

She was walking up the hill, so I asked her if she needed any help, maybe I could carry something? But as she settled into the doorway, she said she was waiting for someone to come pick her up. 

Loved the light.

Dogs, cats, babies... I have a soft spot for photographing them all!

Down at the river bed near where the sheep were grazing.

Just another narrow white street.

Spanish word of the day....Bathrooms are called Aseos here in Spain. Good to know.

Wanting a bit of color I added a texture and came up with this 'painted' version of a photo.