We meet Mattea and Sam at the train station. Cait heads off to Cascais to do some work and wait for us. We will run from Sintra.
I love trains. What an incredible mode of transport. We take a connection and arrive in Sintra. It’s a heavy tourist town in a hilly forested area with a big castle towering over the town from the hill above.
An obligatory pasteis and espresso. It scores a rating of 6.7 (probably still overshadowed by Belem). And head off. Mattea has sketched out a rough route on Strava and we head off into the unknown.
We begin by running up towards the castle, trees providing shade from the impending midday heat.
We take a single track to avoid the tar road and hike up an old water pipe. Delicious single tracks wind us back and forth. Onto the tar road again and after about an hour we see the path back up to the same water pipe. Haha. Lost.
We eventually break out of the fortress hill and can see Cascais in the distance. The tree cover opens and we follow kilometers of jeep and mountain bike trails mostly at a slight decline through a plantation.
Running through a completely unknown landscape is amazing: if you never know where you are you can’t get lost, and you whatever you come across is a true discovery.
Like children we jog through the new world in wonder.
It starts to get hot and we eat a peach under a freeway bridge. Then descent down into the suburbs of Cascais where we run down a quaint path that follows a river. Luckily this green belt continues right into the town and allows us to stay off the roads.
We say hello to Cait and head straight to the beach for a swim.
A beer and sandwich follows. Sam, who has just got off a plane from America is torched. We overhear an interesting collection of humans sitting at the table next to us talk about blood transfusions with a Jehovah’s Witness’ lens.
One more swim. This time punctuated by a young girl playing with a silicon doll, completely lifelike and terrifying.
Then it’s back into the car and off to the Algarve.