Praia do Guincho

Here is a full transcript with some photos to add color. Helpful links along with more photos at the bottom.

[00:00:00] joseph: Hey, let's talk about this place Praia do Guincho and, bring you another moment from the farm. So the farm is where we cultivate ideas about life, right? The products, the people, the things, the places, the trips that we've been. And the ahas that we bump into along the way where we're bringing more joy to the world.

[00:00:25] Kelly: And this time we are in Western Europe, again on the coast of Portugal, we've been a number of times and we love it specifically. We're west of Lisbon on a little beach. Actually, not that little, but a little beach. That's very special to us. It's Praia do Guincho, and we wanna share these moments. We've had over a number of years, but to frame it up for you, it's west of Lisbon, just a little bit north of Cascais.

[00:00:52] We'll give you the pins. You can Google your way there. Couple of things that are important for us, it's a wonderful drive to the, to the town of Cascais. It's also a lovely bike ride from Cascais up to Praia do Guincho. When you get there, you're gonna find on the South end, there's a Fort built in 1640. That's now become a, hotel and there's a ocean pool there. We'll put some photos.

[00:01:15] There's also a nicer hotel where we stumbled in for dinner. On the North side, there's some, some rocks that lead to a trail that keeps going and a very special little restaurant bar called, uh, bar du Guincho two, that we're gonna, that we're gonna talk through. So that's a little bit of the scene.

[00:01:33] It's a wonderful, wonderful place. Joe, when you, when you think about this beach, what, what jumps out for you? If you were to pick a couple things, what would you, what would you say? What would you share?

[00:01:47] joseph: I first think about, um, stumbling on it in the dark, the kind of glow of the hotel and us running in there with our dirty camera bags and asking for food, it was empty. And we had just had that incredible experience at Cabo da Roca. The first time. Flying drones out on the Atlantic, and just wanting to come back.

[00:02:12] Right. You can kind of sense that it was a special place there. It was windy. It was flat, there were other hotels, but not too many, right. There's a real obvious kind of sense of sparseness that, that is about this place, even in the dark. And so that would be my first- super special wanting to come back.

[00:02:34] The second was, when we turned to the north side, we're like, wait, what? What's what's to the north of this. It looks like there's some roads on the map as we typically do and played the bumpy, bumpy to the North and then landed at that bar. And I remember like, it's not straw. On the roof, but, you know, keep the car in the shade and that painted van and, walking down the path and learning that it was both a bar restaurant surf school mush together in that tiny, it's not like a cave, but like, you know, hidden from the wind rock formation. That is that bar. And getting a sense of that vibe.

[00:03:18] And then the third time was when we went back and, and shared it, shared it with C . Those are my three key moments.

[00:03:25] Kelly: Well, well, first we unpack, unpack that first time.

[00:03:29] I, know what you're talking about with the hotel that was lit up, but maybe emotionally, like, what was that like? We just got back from Cabo da Roca, saw these lights talk me through that.

[00:03:40] joseph: Yeah

[00:03:45] well, we were hungry and I thought it was wonderful to know that we could get some food. I think that hotel is actually a nice one.

[00:03:54] Kelly: Fortaleza do Guincho.

[00:03:56] joseph: Contrast of us stumbling in there. Yeah. Was, was fun. I think again I wanted to go back. It is wonderful to be there. And can see it during the

[00:04:08] day. Right.

[00:04:09] Kelly: I remember on that in a future visit, we didn't realize that whole thing was there. We just saw this in the hotel and we'll put some photos in it's. So it's just this beacon out on this point.

[00:04:27] joseph: Well, when we came back the next day, um, to fly drones at sunset with friends, the colors were just absolutely stunning on the hotel, just to the north, though, the one we ate at. With this crazy pool. And, and that's where you started to get a sense of how special the place was. At least I started to get a sense of that.

[00:04:49] With how far the, the beach ran to the north, right. It was like, Ooh, okay, we're coming back again. So it's two times in two days and we're coming back again.

[00:04:59] Kelly: And that, that pool that you mentioned is it's built into a Fort that was built in the 1640s, which we figured out after subsequent research.

[00:05:09] And I remember to your point about the colors, and we'll share some overheads, the, the paint of the pool is yellow. The water is ocean water in the pool. The breakers are breaking against the pool. You're feeling this mist in the spray, in the air. It's blowing about 20 knots. You're flying a drone. You're getting these photos.

[00:05:30] There's humans down there in the, in the aquarium, that is the pool. And the colors were just, just popping. And there was people out surfing and there's wait, and there's a surf school and you see the kids in their half wetsuits. And in that time it was January. And it was just incredible.

[00:05:48] Now on bar do Guincho, which you talked about, you go around the loop there, you grabbed a photo of that painted van. And you just talked a little bit about the culture. What did that, can you gimme a little more, how you felt, what was, what makes that really special?

[00:06:04] joseph: Yeah. Well, there's a sense of chill.

[00:06:09] Maybe it's just surfing. Maybe it's Portugal. Maybe it's both, but there's an authentic kind of rawness that, you can sense people are. Being present with just sit in it, either up at the bar itself or like we did go get our, get our feet in the sand and feel the elements. It feels like a very authentic, [I agree] place.

[00:06:37] And the, the the way to see the, the, you know, I think we would've put up a. Lifeguarding stand. And like stuck it in the middle. All of California. And like had. I dunno, people hired by the government to oversee the place. That doesn't happen here, though. the way they keep watch over each other is they climb the rocks to the north and they stand there.

[00:07:00] With a flag that could be replaced because it's flown in the wind for so long. And those kinds of decisions to not kind of overly Polish the place, you can get everywhere about, about this place.

[00:07:15] Kelly: Also at that restaurant was the staff. What kind of feelings was that for you?

[00:07:24] joseph: This was the, maybe the first, this might have been our first trip, right. Where we started to learn that we had, a future of adventuring together. It's interacting with the staff. Very bright future right. I was just interacting with the staff. They were, full of joy and happiness and, it could have been forgettable.

[00:07:49] But this is where I started to learn about your camera skills. There's some photos here that we'll share that. That show that happiness that you snapped from the side, which, really happy that you did remember the staff being, you know, just very, yeah, happy, joyful, eager to be there, eager to, help.

[00:08:13] And now it was, it was calm. Yeah. We've always been there when it's calm. I think, I think this place absolutely goes off.

[00:08:19] Kelly: No doubt, dear. I, I agree with you. It's a really. Could I bet you it's just rocking. When I think about that restaurant, you, you nailed the description, the authenticity, the, the calm, it reminds me in some ways, some places in California, to an extent, but also very diverse, culturally all kinds of.

[00:08:39] People from Europe, different languages, all being spoken, the staff, wasn't just nice, just a genuine amount of joy when they were doing. Smiles were real. And I felt that I could just sit there and relax for an entire day. Do nothing, no stress. Don't have to be anywhere. And, and that's a little bit of beach stuff, but not beach.

[00:09:00] It's been a beautiful, you've been beautiful beaches, just silly beaches. Screensaver beaches. And this is one by the way, but not in the Palm tree way in the you're experiencing Portugal and you're experiencing the surf culture. That's real. And most people don't realize that Portugal is one of the best surf places on the, on the planet.

[00:09:18] And I just, some I mentioned before, but I just loved the six year old running down the sand in, in, in their wetsuit, the, the guy dragging his windsurfer down this little, this little strip of sand and that's all it is, is a strip of sand that leads out to this big beach, this big beach, where On Her Majesty Secret Service for those James Bond fans out there was also recorded here.

[00:09:40] So it's a real place. And we grabbed, we grabbed ourselves and we just walked down out this little path. We sat down on, on that trip. We just sat down shoes off and I think was wonderful. We came back, we came back with my middle son and a little bit more experienced and just. An amazing day because clouds are coming up over the Atlantic.

[00:10:05] I have this photo of this, this surf troop. I don't know what they're called, but felt like a surf troop walking out together towards where they were gonna go. And. It's it's worth every, every minute

[00:10:20] Hey, tips and tricks for me. I would, it depends on where you're going. It can be windy. It can be lots of sand.

[00:10:27] It can also be dead, calm and wonderful. You can, you can stop. You don't have to go all the way to, to Bar Do Guincho. You can stop at the top. There's some, there's some boardwalks that run throughout. You can walk down on the sand dunes, put down a blanket for five minutes. You know, we'd been there on three trips.

[00:10:40] We've probably been there, you know, almost a dozen times back and forth through. It's a, it's a special place. It's a cool place. And you can finish up your day and you're a hot second from Cascais. Go have dinner and it's, it's wonderful.

[00:10:54] joseph: And it was fantastic to have found it together. Been back so many times and then to have shared it with, yeah, with your middle child.

[00:11:07] When you all go there, if you choose to or have the opportunity to, we look forward to hearing what you find different times of year, the people you went, the memories you made and hit us up with those photos, stories and the like, as, as it comes along, we'll.

[00:11:25] Kelly: Yeah, we'd love to update. If you have any more tips for us, we'll, we'll include them and, you know, check us out anywhere you can. We're we're on all the socials and share this. And, and our motivation here is really to, as ourselves and our families is to journey the world and try and find moments to slow down and recognize them and recognize that it's all right there and you don't have to be in Portugal to find your moment.

[00:11:48] You can find it right here and for you and I, Joe, I know we found a lot of moments here on this. But, you know, our, our, our hope is you find some joy in enjoying this with us. Maybe you get to go and if not, hug your humans and find your moments today. So here's another one from the farm. Hope you enjoyed it.

[00:12:05] Take care out there.