We have also been the dumbest tourists ever known to wander unattended. Ìt`s a wonder... On multiple occasions we have left expensive electronic devices behind, dropped or misplaced, only to have them returned. Directions, people on bicycles riding along guiding us, invitations to home stays. We say super thanks to.. Rita, Municipal Camping Coimbra, for plain awesomeness, directions and returning electronic devices, the waitress from St Iris´s bar in Tomar who found and returned to us the next day in a pastelleria our flashcard, the waitress in Siciliano´s in Tomar that returned our entire electronics bag that had been left behind. Henri the Dutch cyclist for advice and the heaps of people from older ladies to taxi drivers that have put us back on the right path that we so frequently wander off of and Pedra Rocha for his map that helps us find our way each day.
The Portugese breakfast is a feast of pastry. Each morning we are fueled by coffee in it's various forms. The Gelao, a large glass of milky coffee, cafe leite, strong and short or espresso, just a shot. Usually it's a combination of the above, accompanied by whatever delightful morsel that looks good and sits behind the glass cases in large varieties. Most times we choose several and go back to try others. Always there are regional delicacies that need our attention.
We headed out of Batalha to more climbing on our way to Alcobaca. Climbing has now become a part of our everyday travel. What goes down must come up and we no longer look at downhills as free miles but as a prelude to another climbing session, often steep, sometimes reaching 10-12%.
Alcobaca, built in the 1100s, is another World Heritage site. Built to honor a vow to St Bernard, this monastery is built in the Cistercian fashion and was also famous for the "perpetual gormandizing of the fat waddling monks". The door into the refectory was made narrow so that any monk who could not pass had to go on a fast.
Alcobaca has an especially interesting history. Dom Pedro, the son of the king, falls in love with his wife's lady in waiting, Ines. After his wife dies, he secretly marries her as his father is afraid of Spanish influence. Unaware of the marriage, his father has her murdered and when Dom Pedro accedes to the throne he rips out and eats the hearts of her murderers, exhumes and crowns her body and makes the entire court kiss the hand of her decomposing body.
Particularly austere, it is the austerity itself that makes it impressive. The tombs of Pedro and Ines are on opposite sides of the church, facing each other, so that they will each be the first thing that they see when they rise up on judgment day.
Continuing on we came to the town of Nazare and the beginning of wind. Lots of wind. Unending wind. Gale force wind. One should probably think "wind" when the hillsides are covered with windmills. We cheat on the way to the camping ground Vale Paraiso (which so far is our winner of the thumbs down due to the expensive and poor working laundry). Going past the detour signs we enter onto the new and so far unused interchange that allows us, and someone on a motorcycle, to cut off multiple kilometers and a entire town. After setting up in windy city, spending €12 euros on ineffective washing and drying that still required a laundry line and left our clothes, well... dirty.. we went off to dinner.
Ah.. the best laid plans of mice and men. Oh yes we really would like to have the paella that we have planned on for 2 days but you are closed. Every restaurant is dedicated to the exact same food. We'll have to take a look at the tourist spots in the states like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and see it it's the same. Same menu, slightly different view, all expensive. And so back on our bicycles we went to our favorite standby, fresh bread and peanut butter and jelly with Super Bock.
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