Hospedaria Pinhalmar Peniche

... a dedicated band saw in one supermarket for cutting up the larger slabs of the stuff. Sue has offered to cook some for me but the smell is sufficiently disgusting to deter me.<br><br>The British are few and far between. We are a bit of a novelty around this part of Portugal but we did meet a young couple who were as pleased as we were to do a book exchange. <br><br>We found a leaflet advertising ...

... pictures, and headed to the souvenir shops for some shopping. I bought a few things, including... chicken? OH right, we are in Portugal!<br><br>So this castle was King Afonso's gift to his wife. <br><br>It was a little disappointing to not getta see much here.. beside shopping for souvenirs...<br>

... 8211; Obidos being the highlight. Obidos is an incredibly well preserved medieval walled village full of character. Definitely worth a visit if you&#8217;re in the area.<br><br>And while Lisbon was one of the nicest surprises of our travels yet, the enjoyment from the rest and relaxation along the coast was not far behind. Yes, even I was able to sit and enjoy the sun and quiet.<br><br>For more photos check out Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27086162@N 04/sets/72157621594823972/ <br>

Day 5 &#8211; 26/12/08<br><br>COIMBRA-FIGUEIRA DA FOZ-NAZARE<br><br>We moved our luggage out &amp; kept it at the reception. Then we set out on foot for the Coimbra University. It was a steep climb uphill lined by pretty shops selling famous Portuguese painted tiles among other artefacts around the cobbles streets. The huge University complex is 700 yrs old &amp; has many arms like Medicine, Law, Zoology ...

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 ...

... had one excursion to the supermercado and i put some photos onto the blog. We have sorted our packs so we can post the excess home and i am busy researching Morocco so we know the deal. There is a party called Song Of Tingma on near Marrakesh for Earthdance that we hope to make it to then tail it to Ibiza off Spain for September closing parties and DJ Tiesto.. Whoops! We just realised that the freaky werewolf guy lives in a tent and performs at the Universal Portugese ...

... drive up right across the street from us (at the train station). As it turns out, one of the senior scientists at the conference had been hit by a train. Thankfully, after a trip to the hospital he was ok, and had not been hit very hard. It was definitely an eye-opening experience. None of the train crossings are very well marked, and they certainly don't have them exactly fool-proof. Aside from that, Estoril and Caiscais were beautiful ...

... add it here when my Dory brain decides to revive its name), we toured a cathedral which has an unfinshed wing (financial difficulties = halt in construction...) so there's just this wing that has remained half-way done - it's actually really cool, and you can see the Moorish influence! as you can see from the pictures, the horseshoe shaped arch (pinched in), which are quite ...

... and looked at the room with her.  My gosh we thought weºd found heaven after our hostel.  The hostel was $40E-night with a shared washroom and limited hot water.  She was offering us a 2 bedroom self-contained suite c/w full kitchen and washing machine and unlimited hot water for $35E/night and only 2 blocks from the beach.  We accepted and finally had our first good night sleep in 7 days as this location is soooo quiet and the bed is not ...

... 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 ...