Obidos: A wonderful day

October 4, 2013

What a lovely day we had today. The wind had dropped a lot and the sun was shining. We started off on N242 which we had become familiar with yesterday. At Sao Martinho we left it for a more coastal route and a smaller road. Sao Martinho is a lovely beach resort set on a wide horse shoe bay with a narrow entrance and looks as if it will have a very dangerous bar. The bay had lots of pleasure boats in it but no commercial boats of any sort. The town itself looks quite new but with only low rise buildings and very spick and span, we had coffee in a bar overlooking the bay. We knew that we would be in for a mighty climb to get up onto the high cliffs and indeed we were. It was well worth it though as it was glorious up there. We were out of the pine forest which we were beginning to get rather sick off. There was small farming and naturally wonderful views out over the ocean. To cap it off at the top viewing point there was a caravan selling coffee and snacks, naturally we couldn’t go past it so we sat there, drank our coffee and ate our custard tarts looking out over the Atlantic towards New York. Up there is where there have been the traditional Portuguese Windmills. We saw a number of these with their complete round towers but none of them had their characteristic sails. It was a fast and furious ride from the top down to the Lagoa de Obidos. From here we should have taken a road away from it to take us first to Caldas de Rainha and then on to Obidos. We chose however to cycle around the lagoon as there was so much activity going on there, lots of old wooden boats and many men wading around in the shallow water I presume they were catching flounders. This took us on a big loop and getting back on track involved many hills as we went up and down through little settlements.

As you get to Obidos you can’t help but be impressed by the intact walls that surround it. As usual our first task was to find accommodation. I went to the Tourist Information and got a list of hotels which all seemed a bit expensive to me. Last night we had met and talked to John and Sharon who were also coming to Obidos today. They told us they were staying at Casa do Relogio which had reasonably priced rooms and is just outside the walls. We hunted this delightful place down and a happily settled here with the bikes enjoying the enclosed garden.

Obidos reminds me of Carcasonne or Mont St Michael but with only a small fraction of the visitors. It is a white town with Bouganvillia and other climbers such as Mandavillia growing up the walls and giving it colour. The main street is naturally wall to wall shops selling tourist trinkets and the bus loads of tours that are dropped here for a couple of hours seem to be buying up large. The most heavily promoted product seeming to be little chocolate cups full of cherry brandy. You drink the liquor then eat the chocolate. I haven’t tried one yet but I am sure I will.

These men were growing sweet potatoes, they looked exactly like kumeras

Ken has no idea what this single cylindar tractor is

Ken's bike waits to go in the green gate to the garden

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 3,354 km (2,083 miles)

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