Saturday 26 May 2001

We start the day where we left off yesterday: at the university. We take some pictures, which were unable to day yesterday because the sun was i the wrong direction. After that we walk down again towards the centre. We have coffee at "our"café on the Santa Cruz square. There is a folk festival going with the usual music, dances, traditional dresses and home baked cookies. We walk towards the river, cross the bridge an walk towards the ruins of the old Santa Clara monastery.  Little is left of the building. Originally this was the final resting place of Queen Ines and Queen Isabel. Isabel was the wife of King Dinis (1279-1315), who gave a lot of her wealth away to the poor. This to her husbands irritation. She performed her miracle when she was caught smuglling gold out of the palace for the poor. When she was asked what was in her bag, she answered: "flowers". When the bag was opened there indeed flowers in it. Queen Ines was the love of the later King Pedro (1320-1367). Ines was Spanish which for Pedro's father Alfonso was merely unacceptable. The couple did marry though in secret, on which Alfonso had her murdered in Coimbra in 1355. Pedro rose against his father. When Pedro finally did become king he had her murderers executed and personally cut their hearts out. He had Ines' body exhumed and had it put on the throne beside him and forced the courtiers to kiss her decomposing hand.  Ines en Pedro are now buried in Alcobaça. Isabel now lies in the new Santa Clara monastery. That is a short climb from the old one. The monastery itself has been converted in to an army barracks and a military museum. The church is still in working order. Our visit to it was cut short by a wedding. From the square in front of the church we have a delightful view on the city. Back in town we have lunch on the busy Praça de Commerico square, where there is a flea market going on.

In the afternoon we drive to  Lousã a villge south of Coimbra. It is extremely hot and in Lousã we hardly dare to venture outside of the car. We drive uphill to a little castle ruin. It offers nice views on little chapel on a hill further up. We continue our tour through the Mondego valley back to Coimbra.

At night we have dinner at  O Trovador , where a group of fado musicians perfoms between courses. A small supplement is added to our bill for this. The performance is a bit perfunctory, but maybe we were spoilt by the enthusiasm we saw yesterday at Diligência. The food was excellent though and after a good meal we climb up the hill to our guest house.

Sunday 27 May 2001

We leave Coimbra and drive via a number of toll roads to Óbidos. Óbidos is a fully walled town. In a corner of the walled town, is a castle, that at some point served as a royal palace. This is where the Pousadais located, at which we will spend two nights. The location is magnificent. From the castle walls we can look for miles into the surrounding area. We have lunch at the pousada. After lunch we drive to Foz de Arelho, a beach resort, about 15 km from Óbidos. It is very hot and we feel like a swim. We were very disappointed to find that the beach was hidden in fog. Not at all sunny and warm. After an hour we have had with the beach and head back. In Óbidos is still warm and sunny and we enjoy the quiet and the view on the terrace of the Pousada on the castle wall.

We dine at the Pousada, with a view on the country around it and we have a drink afterwards in town where all the tourists are gone.

Monday 28 May 2001

Breakfast is a bit sloppy. The waiter is absent for a while and a bit slow (bad night?) We explore the town. Around 11 the town is flooded with day trippers, brought in by the bus load. The church of Óbidos is worth a brief visit. The rest of town is a collection of souvenir shops and lovely streets and alleys only enjoyable when the tourist groups are gone .

We drjive to Alcobaça. There we visit a former monastry of Santa Maria. The order was disbanded in 1834. The monastry had a reputation with the regard to the luxurious life style of the members. In the church the mass was celebrated constantly, more famous were rich meals and feasts. The abbey church, despite her baroque exterior has been fully restored to Romanesque simplicity, with exception of the Manualine (= decorative portuguese style form the 16^th century) entrance to the sacristy. In the churh are the graves of King Pedro and Queen Isabel (see Saturday), buried with their feet towards each other. That way they will face each other when they rise at judgement day. They enormous kitchen is another sigth. The gigantic chimney takes a central position in the room. The monks had even channelled off the river to the kitchen, so that the fish was automatically delivered into the kitchen. The feasting had one limitation, though. Monks had to enter the refectory through a narrow door. Those who were unable to get through we forced to abstain from eating for a couple of days. In the royal hall we find the statues of all the kings until José who died in 1777. 

After the visit we have lunch on a tree lined square beside the abbey. After that we drive to Nazaré, a beach resort. At one point in time it used to be a picturesque fishing village where fishermen pulled their boats onto the beach. Tourism has altered the character of the place dramatically. We are almost fined for crossing a line with our car (something Portuguese do all the time, but still…). To make matters worse we have not got our rental papers with us, we left them in the hotel. We are allowed to drive on, nevertheless. We take the funicular (a mountain lift) to the top of the mountain overlooking Nazaré. From this altitude the town still looks lovely. The fishing boats have been moved to a new port just south of Nazaré.

We follow the coast to San Martinho do Porto, where, according to our Rough Guide, there should be a quiet beach close to the hamlet of Gralha . It takes some trouble finding it, but we do find it in the end. And yes, it is practically deserted. Swimming is not recommended as the Atlantic has a dangerous undercurrent here.

At night we have dinner at Estalegem do Convento a fine restaurant, on a par with the   Pousada.

Tuesday 29 May 2001

We drive to Leiria. Although it is only 60 km from Óbidos, it takes us 2 hours to get there. The roads are narrow and overcrowded. It also takes some trouble finding a room. Two addresses are booked up, a third is out of business. At last we find a room in the hotel Eurosol, a business hotel, that has difficulties shaking of the trappings of the 1970s. The receptionist is confused when the double bed is booked for two men, but he gives in without much of a fight. The bell boy is more disturbed and goes out of his way avoiding us for the rest of our stay. We have lunch in the hotel restaurant, on the top floor with a beautiful view over town and its castle. In the afternoon I ask at reception where I can access the Internet. The receptionist immediately takes me to the back office, sends his collegue away from her desk and offers me her computer. What a service! But I do feel a bit embarrassed and go about my mail quickly. Later we find an internet café downtown in a bookshop. After that we only briefly visit the castle of Leiria (the only sight around here), because Erik has a 4pm appointment for a massage at the hotel. I take a dive in the pool. The cooling off is badly needed as temperatures have risen to over 38�‹ C.

At night we have a very simple dinner in a neighbourhood restaurant. Nice and dirt cheap.

Wednesday 30 may 2001

Leiria may not be over endowed with sights itself, it is strategically placed for visiting the sights around it. We start our tour of today in Fatima. It is the most obvious target around. In 1917 the virgin Mary appeared in Fatima in an oak trea to three sheperd kids. Two of them did live very long to tell the tale, as the succumbed to the flue epidemic of 1919. The miracle was greated with scepticism The anti-religious government accused the church of a publicity stunt to polish up its reputation. The church was afraid for a "hoax". But at the third apparition 70.000 witnesses saw "the miracle of the sun". After that nothing was the same. The sick were cured, the blind could see, the crippled could walk, the mute could speak: there was simply no end to miracles. Odly enough only the children we able to see and hear Mary and only Lucia, the oldest and only survivor could talk with her. To her the 3 secrets of Fatima were revealed. The first was about imminent peace (this was during world war I), the second was about Russia being converted and living in peace. If that would not happen Russia would spread its errors over the world and prosecute the church. This was a couple of weeks before the October revolution. The third secret remained a secret kept in a drawer of the pope’s desk.

The basilica dates back to the 1950s and more than anything else just big. The façade is adorned by to gigantic portraits of the Shepard kids. There is always a mass going on. The square in front is big enough to land a Boeing 747. Twice a year it is the scene for enormous gatherings of pelgrmims. Around the basilica a traffic ciculation plan has been developed to deal with traffic including a huge number of parking spaces. In front of the basilica is the chapel of apparition full of devout pilgrims. The original oak trea has been replaced, as the old one was consumed by hords of pilgrims. A fair number of them walks to the chapel on their knees (as penance), some even on their bare knees – and that under a burning sun. In a way we are impressed by so much devotion. In the village itself you stumble over souvernirshops selling kitch in any form of shape, exploring areas of bad taste hitherto unknown.

After Fatima we drive to Batalha. Here is a grand (former) monastery and and cathedral in honou of the battle of Aljubarotta (1386), at which the Portugues, supported by English bow archers expelled the Spanish out of Portugal. The treaty of Windsor of the same year joins the two country in alliance until the present day. The church has strong influences from English architectural styles. Immediately to your right is a chapel for a fair number of kings and princes of the Avis dynasty among whom, Henry the Navigator. The prince, not a sailor himself, inspired the development of Portuguese navigation and the great explorers. In the monastery soldiers stand guard over the graves of unknown soldiers. One from world war one and one killed in the colonial wars in Afrika. Behind the monastery are the Capelas Imperfeitas (unfinished chapels). A separate building started under king Duarte in 1437. It was supposed to become a mausoleum, but the design was altered by the architects of King Manuel I. The entrance is 15 metres high and every centimetre is worked on with sculpted twisted imimages of plants and leaves. King Duarte and his wife are buried here, but the construction of the building was deserted a few years after.

After Batalha we drive to Mira de Aire. Here are a number of caves. We descend, escorted by a guide with some rudimentary knowledge of German, some 110 metres under the surface. Steps have been cut in beautiful spaces with colourful stalagmites and stalactites. The caves were discovered in 1947.

At night we eat in eiria at Aquario, a simple but restataurant with fine food. We drink a nice cocktail (Caiparinha) at a side walk café on Largo Cándido dos Reis, where quite a number of bars are concentrated.