Last days on the Atlantic Coast

Our last few days on the wild Atlantic coast ..... a surfers paradise ...... We are now back inland, being in Fatima and the Knights Templar region of Tomar, Portugal. Tomorrow we head for Coimbra.

Peniche 

Peniche 

A cute cottage on Baleal Island

Baleal Island, the rock formation is amazing!

Baleal, a surfers paradise

Nazare beachYou need a team of gorillas to row these.
 Definitely hard man's surf boat.

Nazare, where the largest waves in the world
come from. These are generated by the offshore
 Nazare canyon and is over 200m deep

Nazare waves

It was a bit windy on the cliff edge

Fatima, a huge pilgrimage site

Fatima 

Convento de Christo, Tomar - the home of
 the Knights Templa

The Tomar Aquaduct - that's some amazing
water channel

Obidos

Easter in Obidos, Portugal.  There may be no Hot Cross Buns or marshmallow eggs here, but we did experience a traditional Easter celebration without the all too familiar commercialism.  A torch light street procession through the entire Obidos village was a very moving experience.

Entry at the town wall of 
Obidos.
There are heaps of these 
little altars scattered around 
the village.

Town wall, the wall was about 2km and you could
walk right around the whole wall giving you
amazing views of the village and surrounding
areas, including cherry trees and vine yards

Streets of the medieval town of
Obidos. 30 feet tall if you missed
a step and no handrails.  OSH in
NZ would have a fit!

View of our gypsy girl from the wall

Around the village wall 

Obidos at night

Obidos.  This monster vine was about 30cm
at the base.

The torch light procession 

All the street and house lights
were turned off, the only lighting
was torches and houses
with candle lights

Lisbon

The beautiful capital of Portugal.  We visited so many beautiful sights here and in the surrounding towns of Belem, Alfama and Sintra.  Amazing Moorish and Manueline architecture with carvings and ceramic tiles.  Castles, palaces and pastry shops have been visited along with a wee tipple or 2 of their Ginjha (cherry liquor).

View of Lisbon city looking out over the Tejo river

Lisbon

Tiles on all the building fronts

The Lisbon archway and Commercial area

The narrow streets of Alfama

A commercial laundry (still used today) in Alfama

Largo Das Portas do Sol, viewpoint in Alfama

Mosteiro dos Jeronimos (monastery) in Belem.
 The architecture on this building was just
 amazing and the building was huge.

Torre de Belem

Belem

In the queue for the famous Belem
custard pastries

The custard pastry was well
worth queuing for

Castello dos Mouros, Sintra

Views from the Mouros Castle

The Sintra Palace, view from the castle

Sintra Palace

Sintra Palace, once again beautiful
architecture and tiles

The dream kitchen inside the palace!

Quinta de Regaleira, a neo
Manueline mansion and gardens
in Sintra, with grottos, lakes,
fountains and a big well

Looking the part in Regaleira gardens!

Inside the Regaleira well

View from the top of well