My new favorite bathroom sign.
Our first full day in Cascais. (Pronounced Cash-Kiz.) We were picked up at 10am by a local ReMax agent to see 3 apartments for sale in the area that matched our budget. Marisa was very sweet in spite of the fact that we were probably looking much below the budget of her typical client. (Professional courtesy.) You see, many Europeans are coming here and taking advantage of the “Golden Visa” program. With that, if you spend 500,000 Euros (today about $586,000) on real estate, you get an automatic visa to live here. That is Not us. But she was generous and kind like all Portuguese and gave of her time driving us around. We saw 3 apartments. Only the first one was a possibility. This area is probably too expensive for our budget. The weird part was being on the other side of showing properties! Especially since everything here is so odd. There is no multiple listing service. There is no such thing as a buyers’ agent. The listing agent holds the key to each of their listings and must meet you & your agent at the property. Even if they work for the same office. We only saw ReMax listed properties. A big day would be seeing 5 or 6 properties when we have routinely showed 20-25. Incredibly inefficient. But, here, agents are not licensed at all so sellers require their agent to be present at all showings to keep the riff-raff out.
The most embarrassing part of the day was when Marisa hit a light just as it was turning red and just as I was drinking some bottled water. She gunned the engine (if you can do that in an electric car) and made my water go down the wrong pipe. I choked and sprayed water on her windshield! OMG! She just laughed and went with the flow.
After Marisa dropped us off, we had lunch at a cozy little tapas place (photos below.) Then we walked to the marina and found a cute little place to sit and watch people renting various mini vehicles. While sipping wine, of course. Dinner was at a casual authentic Portuguese restaurant mentioned on TripAdvisor.
My favorite part of the day is after about 6:00 pm when the temperatures drop to the 60’s and the ocean breeze picks up. It is so nice walking around. The city comes to life in the evening. Restaurants are busy and shops stay open late. It is a great time to wander around. The whole town twinkles.
