A short break from the UK winter - and a chance to add another country to my list. Somehow I hadn't managed to get round to visiting Portugal before. I also hadn't realised Estoril's place in English literature - both Graham Greene and Ian Fleming spent time here - and Fleming's Casino Royale was inspired by his espionage activities in and around the casino. I didn't see any evidence of spies, maybe they've moved on to other more glamorous gambling locations, but I definitely did enjoy the chance to have early morning walks along the sea front. Getting up at 06:30 is so much easier if there's a sea front walk on offer before breakfast.
Estoril gets a place on my (long) list of excellent seaside destinations to visit out of season - most of the time I only had sea-birds and the very occasional slow-moving jogger for company.
The real reason for being here was for management meetings linked to the EU-funded
ASPECT project - a follow-up to the workshop in
Budapest last November, but I did take a camera to keep me company on the morning walks.
