Monday 9 December 2024 - Lisbon-Nazare-Obidos
A bit of light packing and then down to breakfast, where the dining room was much quieter than yesterday. Our waiter from yesterday beamed when she saw us and applauded my attempt to give the room number in Portuguese oito zero seito (remembering that all the "o" sounds on the end are pronounced "oo"). Gave us a great table by the window and kept checking in on us.
Finished packing and this time knew to accept the offer of having the valet to retrieve the car for us! Loaded up and off we went to Nazare. The city traffic was a bit to contend with, but Mr Seat 0A was equal to the task and soon we were once again on the A8, heading north. The tolls were much more reasonable today - only 2, for a total of EUR 7.50. The scenery was very pretty and the country side very green
It was quite the challenge to find a parking spot once we arrived in Nazare, but we did eventually find one. We both remarked how crazy it must be here in the summer. I don;t really know where all the people from the cars went, because the town itself was a bit sad - very quiet, a number of shops shuttered for the season, and those that were open spruiking for business and trying to hustle the few passers-by inside the shops. I succumbed to pressure and bought some tea towels and aprons in classic Portuguese designs at extremely reasonably prices - much cheaper than in Lisbon, where I had looked at similar items. These will make great gifts.
Took a leisurely walk down towards the main beach and the view was totally spectacular.
Continued on towards the famous big wave site Praia do Norte, the Forte de São Miguel at the base of the cliff and the Instafamous Lighthouse. It's hard to get a sense of how big the waves are, but if you look really hard in the distance of the photo you can see a few tiny specs - surfers walking on the sand. Still, it was not big wave season when we visited, and honestly, these waves were not spectacular. Spent a while watching kit surfers enjoying the very windy conditions.
The old fort houses a little historical museum and a small but interesting museum dedicated to the big wave riders and to explaining the big wave phenomenon. it was quite interesting.
Took the obligatory selfie at the little lighthouse on the point.
It was exceptionally windy on the way down and I was really glad to have my puffer jacket on.
Some of the weathering on the pathway was beautiful
At the top of the hill we treated ourselves to a Big Wave Burger EUR 9.50 ea, which were very tasty but messy to eat.
Then we headed to our next overnight stop of Obidos, about 1 hr south of Nazare. This time, we took the back roads, which were pretty rural, and took us through several very small villages. The roads were like goat tracks, all twists and turns and although it was longer than taking the A8 back, it was much more interesting.
Our hotel for the next 2 nights is Hotel Vila D'Obidos, just on the outskirts of Obidos which is a fully walled town with no cars allowed. Tomorrow we will go to Sintra, and then on Wednesday we will visit the town walls and aqueduct of Obidos.
Our room is quite old fashioned with a lot of very dark furniture, and just one pillow per person. It feels very "off season". I forgot to take a photo.
- BAD IDEA. Quite a newbie mistake. Firstly, it took 10 minutes battling serious traffic to make it to the parking garage which was literally just behind the hotel. The we could not get the ticket machine to give us a ticket to raise the entry gate and I had to walk back to the front desk and ask for the gate to be raised - apparently the valets have a key card, and no-one but no-one chooses to self park, except crazy Australians! Then we slowly inched our way down an extremely steep and narrow ramp, until we found an extremely small car park. Despite both being confident drivers, we were a bit traumatised by the whole experience, and vowed to accept all offers of parking assistance in the future.
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