Somebody Feed Denise & Nancy
A day in Cacilhas
Last Wednesday we were thinking about how to spend our day away from home. We thought about a return trip to Sintra or Belém but instead headed to Cacilhas.
A Short Ferry Ride
If you are visiting Lisbon and want to take one of the ferries you see in the river, head to this website. It is a great way to understand what is available. In our case, we took the Cascais train to downtown Lisbon (Cais do Sodré) walked across the street, and jumped on a small ferry that runs every 15 minutes. You’ll want to be waiting when the ferry arrives because these guys don’t fool around. They dock, tie off, unload/load passengers, and take off in under 5 minutes. If you work in downtown Lisbon but can’t afford rent in the city, your commute from Cacilhas would be a short one. Unfortunately, the waterfront we observed was deserted, dilapidated buildings. I would hope that a smart developer would rehab these former factories into apartment lofts with unbelievable views of Lisbon across the water.
I Think Phil Ate Here
As we were waiting for the ferry Denise said, “I think Phil ate in Cacilhas”, referring to the Netflix series Somebody Feed Phil. I quickly used my “Google machine” and found she was right. If we turned right off the ferry and walked about 800 meters along the river we would find Restaurante Ponte Final. As we had gotten a late start this morning, it was nearly time for lunch.
We arrived at the restaurant shortly after noon. As they did not open until 1230 they asked us to take a seat and wait. Of course! Shortly before they let others inside, they offered Denise her pick of the tables. She chose a table, like Phil’s that had we moved 3” to one side would have landed us in the river. We don’t need “no stinkin’ railings in Portugal”.
Denise ordered grilled bass and I ordered cod cakes with rice and beans. Of course, we also ordered Sagres. I liked my cod cakes but have had better ones. I loved my rice and beans and Denise loved her fish (as you can see in the photo below). As the prices were higher than one would expect, we assume they bumped up their prices after Phil’s visit. We hope, they won’t raise them further after finding out we were there.😊
Naval Museum & a Frigette
I had done some research before we left home and learned there was a Naval Museum and frigette in Cacilhas. The museum was literally steps from the restaurant, so we went there next. We learned that “naval museum” can have a different meaning in Portugal than we are accustomed to. We expected a military museum. In this case, we found a small museum about what was the primary employer (Lisnave) in Cacilhas from 1967 to 2000 building and refurbishing ships. We wouldn’t recommend you go out of your way to visit this one-room museum. But at just ,68€ (that’s 68/100s of 1€) for both of us (with our 50% senior discount); it was a sweet tribute.
We then walked back to the ferry station and strolled up the main street of town filled with el fresco diners. Our final stop was the Fragata D. Fernando II e Glória which was originally built in 1843 in Portuguese India. She was the last sailing warship built and remained in service until 1878 having traveled more than 100,000 miles.
Unfortunately, the 50 guns, nearly 87-meter ship was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1963, and its hull remained on mud-flats of the river for the next 29 years. In 1990 the Portuguese Navy decided to restore the ship and displayed her during the 1998 World Exhibition in Lisbon. She was moved to her current location in 2008 where she remains open to visitors today. I will post additional photos of the town, its church, and the ship on my Facebook page.
Finally, since so many people commented on the survey and on Facebook that you wanted to see me…I asked Denise to take this photo. Cheers!
Finally….you really are there!
Finally we see you r not an avatar😉🍷