Atlantico Golfe Hotel Peniche

... pictures, and headed to the souvenir shops for some shopping. I bought a few things, including... chicken? OH right, we are in Portugal!

So this castle was King Afonso's gift to his wife.

It was a little disappointing to not getta see much here.. beside shopping for souvenirs...

... open several bottles and drink what until you are finished."

And though we could have continued sitting and drinking, we had a beach to get to. And what a beach it was. The Praia del Rey hotel is situated on a beautiful stretch of coast lined with cliffs on the edge of incredible beaches that were almost always empty. Each time we went out to sand we were almost ...

... corner with one side facing the beach across the main street & other side facing the well-lit Sitio hill. There was a lively square just on the doorstep of the hotel lined with resturants having sitting tables on the square itself.

We searched for an Indian restaurant as directed by the hotel receptionist but found none. Therefore, we retired to our room & had some lovely bhel with sandwiches.

After the gruelling bus journey we arrived in the small seaside tourist town of Penich. Known for its awesome surf and pretty vistas Peniche has a population of about 20,000 people and has a delightful town centre filled with narrow streets, tasty patisseries and all of it is within a stones throw of the cold blue atlantic. We checked into our hostel which was very cosy and rather like an apartment. We ...

... Portugal´s only cloudy day of the entire Summer. We watched the end of the Beijing Olympics on a communal tv then we hit the caravan park kiosk to buy some peach iced tea, Portugese coffee and another tin of octopus legs (polvo em caldeirada). Next we settled into some interesting people watching amid the fascinating world of European caravan park action. We have come to a good conclusion and that is that all things happen for a reason as we knew before and always for our ...

... in Portugal: They serve potato chips with everything! We thought they were perhaps mocking Americans when they set them out at our welcome reception, but as it turns out they have chips (called "crisps" here) with all meals! Quite interesting. We have sampled many of the port wines from the region. They are all good, some are amazing, and each has a very unique flavor. My favorite so far is called a porto-verde ("green port") in which they ...

For our last day in Portugal, our group headed off to two medieval towns - Obidos is a nice little city, famous for producing tiles (also part of the Moorish legacy) they are particularly known for a type of cherry liquor that they produce - the special thing is that they serve it in chocolate cups! delicious. At our second stop (ughh for the life of me can't remember the name ...

... most people are friendly except Tourist Information Offices!!, transportation system is efficient, weather has been good for March between 18 and 22 degrees, safe to walk just about everywhere downtown area - but as in any city apply caution at night, and we enjoyed the overall ambience of the prominades. Anyone needing orthotics? - Lisbon is the place to buy them!!  There were shoes stores everywhere - but after hiking castles and ...

I am not going anymore to Mauritania... The conditions are not safe enough and the company with whom I was planning to do the trek decided to cancel the trip. I am staying instead in Portugal. It is a rare occasion to stay a full month in such a beautiful country. This also means the end of my posts and in a way the end of this 'Heading East...' blog. Nevertheless other trips will certainly happen. I will keep you posted! :-)

... Lisbon. The old castle sits above the harbour and has an excellent (if depressing) museum telling the story of the political prisoners of the fascist Salazar regime which was ended with a quiet coup in 1974. Portugal has certainly moved on since then - long live democracy! We also got friendly with a number of Brit yachties who were passing through and have, with their advice, now decided that we will winter in Lagos (in the Algarve) until February when we will ...