Hello, does anybody know Vila Franca de Xira ?

@juliajonesjy

Running bulls through the street

@Strontium Oh yes I have heard about that. Not crazy about it...

Hi Julia,

It is a city very attached to bullfighting traditions, land of bulls and horses. The main festival is the "Colete Encarnado" at the end of June. It is a small but safe town with several km of riverside footpaths, which can be interesting for hiking. It has been chosen by people who are leaving Lisbon, given the exorbitant house prices. It has the advantage of having direct trains to Oriente and Santa Apolónia stations, where there are underground stations. And it is only 25 minutes by train from Parque das Nações in Lisbon, which is good for shopping and seeing shows.

You can find the train timetable here:

https://www.cp.pt/StaticFiles/horarios/ … lisboa.pdf

You have this 2019 article that might be useful:

https://sol.sapo.pt/artigo/664265/vila- … jo-aos-pes

Colete encarnado

https://youtu.be/KJJdLmmUa40

Best Regards

@JohnnyPT Very interesting. Yes indeed, it's an option for people (like me) who can't afford Lisbon right now and there is a train station to go to Oriente if you don't have or don't want to use your car, and then connect to the airport. So I will look into it. And of course, the view of the Tagus river is beautiful. Lots of birds too.

Thanks for the info.

Julia

@juliajonesjy My recommendation would be that you visit Xira on a day trip or even stay for a night. By walking through town you might get a feeling for the "vibe" of the place. We had a good look at Xira (and a number of other places) when we were moving away from Cascais. However, after our visit Xira never made it into the top 5 of future home towns.