Foz do Arelho, Óbidos, Nazaré
Pastéis, sardines and cousins.
Nazaré selfie
Foz do Arelho has the biggest expanse of beach I think I’ve ever seen. Huge waves crash behind dunes on one side and then the 6.9 square kilometres of the Óbidos lagoon extends almost to the sea on the other. There are lots of spots for kite surfing, and important 9-year-old ‘marine biology’.
This was also a great spot for running, which we did a lot of: perfect flat conditions along bird-watching trails with fishing boats bobbing in the brackish waters.
Óbidos itself is full of colourful Bougainvillea and intricate Azulejos, the tile work that makes even a drab corner look so pretty.
The lower third of the white houses are painted in a vibrant blue. This is apparently called ‘Moorish blue’ and is the same hue as the blue of the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech. I obsess about recreating this colour, but plant pots and house paint always seems slightly anaemic compared to whatever magic is in this special tint.
There is a special fanatical glint in my eye when confronted with mountains of tinned anchovy pastes and a treasure trove of cans of sardines in every form, but I am no mug. My brother, on the other hand, blithely handed over the best part of 40€ for two tins of fish. Daylight robbery.
Caldas da Rainha was another fun visit. The Park D. Carlos is overlooked by the spooky abandoned buildings of the old thermal hospital. This is a wealthy spa town which is famous for its daily fruit and vegetable market.
We really got into our stride with the shopping: everything was such good quality and so cheap.
Even the somewhat underwhelming fish market came up with the goods and we managed to buy 1.5kgs of sardines for around 10€. The fishmonger with perfect English filleted them for us.
Nazaré is a lively town with exceptional seafood restaurants and one of the most famous surfing spots in the world.
Despite being about 2 millimetres away from every passing car, we all had a brilliant lunch at a seafood restaurant before hopping on the Nazaré funicular to take in the sweeping edge-of-the-world type views at the top.
The Praia do Norte has a lookout point by the old fort where people gather to watch the surfers. The world record for surfing the biggest (26 metre!) waves have been made here and, even when the sea is somewhat calmer, this is still very much grown up surfing. They are towed in on jet skis and it is very impressive to watch.
The only world records we broke were for Pastéis de Nata and salami sandwich eating. Both awards went to Benji who excelled himself, as ever.
It was time to hop back down the funicular and back home for a swim with the gang!