Casa das Senhoras Rainhas Obidos

We were going to head to Lisbon but decided to stop in Nazare first. Nazare is a pretty ocean town that is very busy in the summer with tourists and beach goers. We arrived to a slightly overcast day and an empty beach. We stopped at a small restaurant for lunch and got some yummy soup (again) and seafood before making ...

We arrived to the sound of the fog horn blasting through the gloom. Having set up we explored along the coast from the campsite. Even with very poor visibility, about twenty yards, it was clear that this part of the coast was something special. Although there was no mention of it in guide books it is a landscape of eroded limestone pavements, stacks, caves and archways towering a 100 feet above the ...

In the morning we went to Obidos, an old castle/city. There was a medieval festival the day before (just ended the day before or we would have seen people dressed in Medieval clothings!). Because of the end of the festival, we couldn't really go anywhere. So we ended up just climbing up a wall, took ...

... 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 alone for a mile in each direction. In the five nights and days we spent along the Obidos area coast we sat by the pool and the osean, read books, napped, drank beer and wine and took the occasional evening trip to one of the local villages for ...

... 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 ...

... is called Super Bock. Mono Loco now has his own camera that has a viewfinder filled with European images. We are not so much into the food in Portugal, lots of people eat hotdogs and pastries. Nazare has one fantastic store where a crazy haired artist woman has a studio from which she produces gorgeous sculptures made from driftwood and other found, organic materials. We bought a CD by Mariza Fado who is a fantastic Portugese singer. We are heading down the coast tomorrow.

... For those of you that know some of the scientists I am with, lets just say that Tom Shenk got the dancing going-it was hilarious! Everyone had a great time and its always nice to see people letting loose after a week of scientific arguments and intense schedules. On a semi scary side note, while we were sitting outside with a number of people from the conference after dinner two nights ago, we saw many fire trucks, emergency vehicles, and ...

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 ...

... hmmmmm Soon drove off to Porto (second largest city in portugal and the origin of port wine). Now at this point I got my first experience on a motorway. This first hand expereicne, plus my experience in Italy and what reliable sources tell me about german motorways, there seems to be an EU standard (other than UK) for driving and the following rules/observations should be remembered: * a sign with 120 with a red circle around it does not mean as you would think a ...