Parede is a seaside town on the Estoril coast west of Lisbon, strung along the Marginal road between Carcavelos and São Pedro do Estoril, with houses climbing the low slope above a small, rocky-edged beach. It is mostly a residential place for people who commute into the city, but it has an old reputation of its own, and it makes a practical, pleasant start and finish point with fuel, coffee and the ocean right there.
The reputation is medical. In the early twentieth century, the beach at Parede was considered especially good for health, thanks to the rocks and seaweed that people believed released extra iodine into the air and water, and doctors sent children with bone diseases and tuberculosis here for treatment. Sanatoriums were built nearby, and some of the grand old buildings from that period still stand above the coast. Today the beach is just a beach, but older Lisboetas still talk about the air of Parede.
The Marginal itself, the coast road from Lisbon to Cascais, is the classic local ride: the sea on one side, palm trees, villas and forts on the other, and a long sequence of gentle bends and roundabouts along the shore. It is beautiful but busy, with buses, cyclists and summer traffic, so it suits an early morning start or an evening return. Beyond Cascais the road climbs past the windswept dunes of Guincho, a famous surf beach where the wind seldom stops, and on into the Sintra hills, where narrow wooded lanes twist up towards Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe.
From Parede, the Douro Valley rides head north, which means a long run on motorways and then into the vineyards along the river, where the terraced hillsides of port wine country are among the most spectacular landscapes in Portugal. It is a big day, so leave early and with a full tank.
Fuel is easy here, with stations along the main roads, and there are pastelarias everywhere for a coffee and a pastel de nata before setting off. On the way back, a walk along the coastal promenade at sunset, from Parede east toward Carcavelos, is the right way to stretch out tired legs, with the light going gold on the water and the lighthouse at Bugio blinking at the mouth of the Tagus.