Hospedaria Pinhalmar 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...

... 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 dinner – Obidos being the highlight. Obidos is an incredibly well preserved medieval walled village full of character. Definitely ...

Day 5 – 26/12/08

COIMBRA-FIGUEIRA DA FOZ-NAZARE


We moved our luggage out & 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 & has many arms like Medicine, Law, Zoology ...

... the afternoon walking around the old fort near the sea and noticed how perfect the diving conditions were around the bay (also noting how poor the surf conditions were at the same time). As the sun went down we headed back to the hostel and had a chilled out night filled with jamming out on the back patio. Two memorable songs infusions were "Pigeon in the tower" and "The Sex Panther." The next day ...

... to Greece, Egypt, Turkey and maybe Israel. We are going to lighten our packs up considerably by going down to bare basics so we are much more mobile and able to go anywhere without the weight on our backs. Then..... India. Plans could change again after another tin of octopus. We did a photo shoot around the park highlighting its many attributes. Mono Loco accquired a new tail because i re-stuffed it with some old Hemp fabric and he is good as new. Plus, the ipod is ...

Wow, how can I begin! The last few days have been quite a whirlwind, but fun and amazing all the same. The conference finished yesterday (at 3 in the morning...) with a lovely banquet in an old castle (Sintra, Portugal) overlooking the beach. The food was wonderful (a type of seafood paella with curry, local port wine, all kinds of interesting appetizers, etc). Following dinner there was a reception with dancing, which is always interesting and ...

... from any other style, is uniquely Moorish - plus you can see the intricate details carved into the stone.. haha just a taste of Moorish architectural styles. :) This town is also very important to Portugal, for it symbolizes their independence from Spain. The architect had been living in England for a while, so his design for this church and its cloisters were heavily ...

... Castle.  We played King & Queen Menu amongst all the opulence at the Pena Fantasyland Palace and Henry was imagining protecting the coast of Portugal against invaders at the Moorish Castle.  Both sites were very interesting.  Best part was the walk down from the Castle into Sintra (about an hour) through the countryside, wine and chocolate cake as our reward at a little cafe while people watching in the warm sunshine. It was also fun ...

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! :-)

Prima di partire facciamo un giretto per Sintra, che merita la visita. Non vediamo i dintorni, il Palacio da Pena e il Castelo dos Mouros, che ci porterebbero troppo fuori strada. In compenso in Pasteleria proviamo Queijadas e Travesseiros: straordinari. Ripartiamo verso il mare, tagliando fuori Mafra: il monastero lo vediamo da lontano, passando con la bicicletta. La strada, poco trafficata, ci conduce al mare, all'altezza di Foz do ...