The Estoril coast starts in Carcabelos, 15km from Lisbon and stretches as far as Guincho. Estoril and Cascais are the main resorts. We took a drive around Cascais this morning in search of a bank. After much complaint and restraint about going to the bank on a perfectly hot day, Andy left me on a beach while he went to the bank and met me a little later for some relaxing down time.

The beach was called Praia do Guincho and is known to be the best of all Portugal's surfing beaches. Although I wasnt there for any surfing of any kind, the sun was hot and it was a beautiful day. The beach is expansive and with a choice of sand dunes, pine trees, rushes, nooks and crannies, I was out of sight to hide away for a couple of hours (even Andy couldnt find me for a good half an hour) ! Guincho is 5km from Cascais, lying at the foot of the Sintra hills.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the pool at our hotel and only went back to our room as the sun was setting.

That evening we went back to our new-found restaurant, sat outside lapping up the warm air breeze and had the same dinner for a 2nd night running. We also visited the casino and tried our luck with a few coins - However, we didnt leave any richer!