Nazare to Obidos to Peniche

     As usual we started off with a triple of coffee and a triple of pastries. The roads have change quite a bit from the north and it is rare to see a shoulder. The majority of the day is spent route finding which can often add in kilometers in return for safety and hopefully views, always with more climbing.
     The streets of the small villages that we travel through, usually 10 or more a day, are often tiny, and frequently very steep. Inclines of 10% or more, multiple times per day is now the norm. Often we must ride them in sections, often we are cheered by the locals.

     Riding from Nazare to Obidos we had to negotiate Caldas de Rainha and it is here were we met our guide for the morning, Leonel Santos Nazare. Leonel had ridden so far that morning what had taken us two days to ride. Full of energy and obviously in racing shape, Leonel, who rides with a team, would ride ahead at full speed and then drop back to chat with each one of us and repeat. Racing up hills he would loop around and ride up again. Down shaded byways of overhanging trees, no traffic in sight, we rode together. Finally at the the split to Obidos he pointed us in the right direction instructing us siga frente, always straight ahead, and off he went to his house in Alcobaca.

     And so in a timely manner and full of energy ourselves we arrived in Obidos, a hilltown completely surrounded by fortress walls with no cars allowed in the tiny cobblestone streets. Whitewashed houses trimmed in blue and yellow paint, flower boxes abounding, medieval bars, a hilltops castle make it a visual treat. Obidos was a gift of the king, Dom Dinis to his wife Dona Isable in the 1200s. Apparently she liked it as much as we did.
At the bottom is a Roman aqueduct and we rode our way up into the fortress for the proverbial Super Bock Break.We chatted with a man from Connecticut who said that he had been following our progress, arriving at each town before us with his car and brother, we eventually would show up in the evening.
    Our camp of the night was Peniche. A port town, it has a bit of an edge to it and the fortress there was used for 30 years by the Salazar regime to house political prisoners. We are always so grateful to arrive to a camp we often just plopp down in the first place we come to but on this night we decided to move on after seeing the first campground. 
    Deep in sand, no shade, lots of wind and full of hm...shady characters it seemed, the Municipal Camp was not for us and we headed another 3.5 K further onto the point. LM! again. Our choice of Campismo got us out of the wind with super friendly staff , free internet and a great sunset view. We had a lovely evening talking about Portugal and the US with the staff. It was enlightening to say the least and the overriding thought presented was that it was important for the US to consider other cultures and countries when making their decisions as it effects everyone.
     The staff went off to their going away party for their colleague and we went off to bed with the dreams of the "English Breakfast" to be had a the campismo restaurant in the morning. We were evening delaying our start time to wait for the restaurant to open.
    We guess it had to be a heck of going away party as we saw everyone but the cook arrive as we were waiting and so eventually hit the road for the closest pastelleria / paderia.