Up early next morning, we readied ourselves to leave Cascais. Breakfast was a simple affair - tea & coffee, juice, some rolls with butter and jam. The brouhaha that occurred in the next few hours could have been totally avoided, had it not been for the mess up that the ALAMO car rental company had created. I had booked my car over 2 months earlier through the Alamo US office. I got a a confirmation #. Prior to leaving for Portugal, on a hunch, I called up the Cascais office to check if they had received my booking request. They denied having any knowledge of it. I called up Alamo US, and was assured that the car would be waiting for me in Cascais, and I shouldn't really be bothering myself about it, since they were an internationally known company, and were doing rental bookings for tourists not only in Portugal but in other mega-countries in Europe. Well, so I didn't bother to pursue the matter. Naturally there was no car waiting for me at the pick-up office. The Alamo agent, Ricardo Ribiero was one of the most helpful people we met on our trip. Seeing that our entire trip in Portugal depended on the car, and that we were clearly stranded, he arranged for a car from rival company Hertz. Yes, Alamo agreed to pick up the tab, which incidentally turned out to be two and a half times Alamo's quote to us.

Before we left Cascais, the owner of our guest house gave us the keys to this magnificent in-house chapel that stood off the main corridor in the house. Covered with tiles dating back to 1713, it was once the parish chapel for a while. Also was used by the King himself (Dom Carlos) for his prayers. Now isn't that something? Imagine taking a visitor for a tour of your house - 'here's the living room, that's the kitchen, and oh - to your left is the chapel .... '