Cruising across Portugal from Obidos to Nazarè..

 

Obidos

If I have to give a preference to the most delightful place I have seen in Portugal, I can only cite the town of Obidos. Perhaps on the particular day, the contrast between a deep blue sky with immaculate homes and threatening black clouds in the background, the absence or near the tourists, who brought me in front of a painting of the last century. Probably the impression I got change on a cloudy day or with the thousands of tourists who often flock to the site, but nothing remains that the place is truly remarkable, and the town completely surrounded by walls, shows a maze of narrow streets surrounded by white houses with edges colored blue and yellow, with the castle that seems to watch from the country. The old houses are now converted into gift shops and small restaurants, but the bougainvillea and wisteria that descend from the facades, narrow streets that climb towards the walls and small churches offer a suggestion of another era. At the old center is accessed through the majestic main gate tile ceramic tiles, over the door the advice is to go up the steep stairway that leads to the left above the tower where you can admire a breathtaking view. Along one of the two main roads meet women who knit, craftsmen at work, people curious, beautiful details of an unforgettable visit. Part of the castle was transformed into a luxury lodging, but you can still access the old town, climb the tower and walked on the walls. The main church, Santa Maria, is famous because he saw the marriage of Afonso V and Isabel's cousin, respectively, the age of 10 and 8 years. Today it has a beautiful frescoed ceiling and walls entirely covered with beautiful and authentic azulejos.
Obidos is reached with the fast motorway A8 from Lisbon to the north, in less than an hour, a busy road at all.

Alcobaça

Another architectural masterpiece of Portugal is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Cistercian monastery of Santa Maria de Alcobaça, one of the most important in Europe.
Founded in 1153 following the liberation of the city of Santarem by the Moors over the centuries was one of the most powerful of the Iberian Peninsula and came to house 999 monks. In the past, he also became famous because of the sad history between Dom Pedro and Dona Ines, who came from an influential Spanish family, his mistress and murdered for political reasons by his father, whose body was later exhumed and crowned when Pedro came to the throne, after tasted a dreadful revenge. Now their tombs represent one of the most precious treasures of the Church, the largest in the country, and are facing each other so that on the Day of Reckoning can meet immediately. While visiting the church is free to explore the rest of the monastery you must pay an entrance fee of € 4.50 that gives you access to the beautiful cloister of Silence, beautiful space Manueline characterized by perfect arches and the Sala Dos Reis, with all the statues of the real Portugal beautifully frescoed. Spaces are most striking, however, the huge kitchen and the adjacent dining hall. The kitchen comes with a huge fireplace with a high chimney, where they could be cooked whole oxen and a small canal connected to the river for the supply of fresh fish directly inside the monastery. Beautiful and imposing the refectory, with a vaulted ceiling and the pulpit from which the Bible was read during meals.

Nazarè

Once quiet fishing village rich in maritime traditions, is today in a lovely seaside resort that overlooks a beautiful and huge beach lapped by the waves from the Atlantic, in a very suggestive position. However, the narrow streets and no traffic flowing, the summer crowds of the beach, make that to enjoy the place with the atmosphere is perhaps better to visit out of season. The center is developing a series of narrow alleys where the houses of the fishermen have become typical of the excellent fish restaurants serving fresh, trendy shops and craft rooms and rooms for tourists in high season prices are soaring dramatically. The main attraction, however, is on a promontory with steep cliffs surrounding Nazare, where a funicular railway can reach the town of Sitio, where the view across the coast is nothing short of sensational. The large square is dominated by the church of Nossa Senhora, inside which you can see the beautiful ceramic tiles and the statue of the Madonna is carried in procession through the streets of the country. Here one can still observe the local women with the traditional seven-layer skirts, once a busy mending fishing nets, but now engaged in tourism.