KO and the Turk: Exploring the west coast of Portugal and a BIG HIKE

Our drive took us to some small towns. Nazare (Portuguese for Nazareth) is a coastal fishing town, now know to the world for having the largest surfing waves in the world. This was a clever marketing idea by a city worker who wanted to bring in more tourism. While surfing this gigantic waves had been done since the sixties, this area was not well known. The city worker contacted big wave expert Garrett 'GMAC' McNamara in the US to come over to try the waves. After 6 years of communicating, he finally did and documented surfing 100+ foot waves. Videos and press made this big news and the doors opened to winter surfing in Nazare.

fishing boats displayed on Nazare beach

We visited the Saturday market where we got our picnic food for lunch, took the funicular over the hill (seen in the distance below) to see the beach where the big waves hit in February, and walked around the laid back but busy community.

Saturday market-which we loved visiting

fish drying on beach

looking down on Nazare beach from tiny town of O Sitio

combine Elk miracle with Surfing + Turk

singer busking on hill overlooking big wave beach

Nazare church - see Moor, camels..!

Church painting of the miracle

We took the funicular up to the top of the hill to the town of O Sitio. This is where the big waves are AND where the miracle of the elk and the Virgin Mary took place. In the early morning of September 12, 1182 the king (the lead character is always a King) was hunting an elk. The elk ran off the cliff and the king thought -oh no, I'm next. He called out to the Virgin Mary (Portuguese love the Virgin Mary and she is everywhere) to save him.

The King's horse stopped at the edge of the cliff (smart horse) and the King was saved.

He built a church (also common), this church, Our Lady of Nazare!

We stopped in Alcobaca to see the 12th century Gothic monastery. Very beautiful and peaceful, tho maybe a bit far away from oversite. It was finally closed when they could no longer hide the fact that the monks were spending huge amounts of money on their lavish lifestyles. Hmmmm.....

peaceful monastery

Queens tomb-heads of assasins hold up the tomb

Kings tomb

2 intricate tombs in the monastery church with such a story! The man was the son of the king, and was married. He had long term affair with his wife's lady in waiting (and they had 3 kids). His wife died and he wanted to marry his mistress. The King had the mistress assassinated, not knowing that his son and the mistress were secretly married!

Later, the King died and the son became king. Son had his dead mistress exhumed and made everyone kiss her decaying hand. He announced her as queen, and had her assassins killed. His and her tombs are foot to foot facing so when they rise, they will see one another.

We then made it to our last destination for a couple nights - Aveiro (we actually stayed in Ilhavo outside Aveiro). Such a pretty area near the sea and beaches. Aveiro has a port and mashland full of birds and fish. Because the area is relatively flat, there is a lot of bicycling on the numerous bike trails we saw.

We stayed at a pottery/dish factory site that has been converted to a hotel/spa and headquarters of Vista Alegre, largest tableware company in Portugal; 6th largest in world. Lots of beautiful dishes, pottery, flatware, glasses in their factory outlet shop. I could have bought a LOT of beautiful things, but thankfully couldnt fit them in my luggage.

typical wall art, considering the location

one of numerous sitting areas-all with porcelain art

stork babies everywhere!

every chimney had nest, and babies

outstanding restaurant-bacalhau a bras

orange yolked eggs! every time in Portugal

Our goal of being in this area was not the dish factory, or the storks, or the wonderful dinners. It was to cross the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in Europe (until recently, the world) and hike the Paiva Walkway (until recently considered one of the most dangerous hikes in the world). We were ready to test our stamina and the Turk's bravery since he is afraid of heights.

Getting to Arouca 516 (516 meters long) was not easy. One would think there was a parking lot and you just crossed the bridge. Nope! You had to hike to the bridge on a path taken by pilgrims since the middle ages. But no one told us that. That is how we found our rental car sandwiched between two stone walls which we realized, too late, were the sides of a WALKING path. Thankfully the town showed up. Turk crawled out of the drivers window. A townsperson crawled in and somehow backed the car out enough so we could escape to an actual roadway. And we still managed to get to our destination.

entry point, the edge of a canyon

Turk gets his guts together

the bridge is open only certain times, requires reservations

yipee!

a long way down

we were met by goats at the other side

walkway built hanging off rock walls sometimes

no longer unsafe, just challenging 2 hour hike!

fun surprises along the way

time to cool those feet

We found a wonderful family owned restaurant in town near our hotel. The wife knew some English and willingly started to explain every possible dish that they could make us. When we realized what she was doing, we agreed to the last ones she described, knowing all would be delicious. And we were right! Maradentro was wonderful.

Lamb Stew!

fell in love with vinho verde: green wine

Leaving Llhavo for Porto, we stopped in a cute seaside town of Praia da Costa Nova. This beach and fishing community (now a tourist beach town) is known for its brightly painted fisherman shacks. These small shacks, located on the beach, were where the fishermen would spend the night when they were fishing. These shacks are now expanded into homes, restaurants, inns. The fisherman now have much smaller one room huts on the beach for their needs since the original structures are priced too high for them.