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Connected International Meeting
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Estoril and Cascais
We spend the last two days of this trip in Estoril, a
trendy resort town on the Atlantic Ocean, just south of Lisbon.
From the Lisbon airport to Estoril takes either 30 minutes or two hours
depending on the hour of the day. Estoril
and Cascais were the first pieces of homeland that Portuguese explorers saw upon
returning from their voyages. Today
both towns are big in golfing and fishing, and the places to be for those who
have made it. We stay at Palacio National de Estoril, an elegant and
storied hotel with luxurious marble everywhere. We are greeted by a doorman who has been on the job for 51
years. This hotel has some of the
friendliest and most helpful staff you will ever meet.
The power adapter for my laptop computer would not fit properly, and
before I could finish a beer, one of the fellows had fashioned a whole new
adapter for me. Natives tell us the hotel was the favorite haunt of spies from
both sides during World War II, a war Portugal sat out as a neutral country.
I tell my friends some of the
We take a leisurely walk along the coast to Cascais.
The concierge says it should take no more than 30 minutes; it takes us 75
minutes instead. No matter. The view of the coast and luxurious properties
that look out to the ocean are worth the time.
We stop at the railway station to check out schedules and discover a
train runs between Estoril/Cascais and Lisbon about every 15 minutes and the
trip to Lisbon takes about 20 minutes. There
is serious shopping at Cascais. This
day the town is full of American tourists furiously spending their
grandchildren’s inheritance. It
is also full of street vendors aggressively hawking lacework from Madeira. We stop at a restaurant overlooking the coast that today is dotted with sailboats. The waiter speaks fluent English and helps us with the menu. I order monkfish (“poor man’s lobster”), which I learn soon enough comes in portions that would serve an army. Cascais has its share of palaces but we won’t get to see any today as the rain starts going again.
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rooms
are still bugged.