Nazare, Portugal

We ended our Portugal adventure with another beach stop at the coastal town of Nazare.  Nazare is known for their big wave surfing during the winter months.  The surfing and town have become more popular in recent years due to the HBO show 100 foot wave.  The town was surprisingly busy because they were holding the Euro beach handball championships.  If you have never seen a match, pull one up on the internet for a good laugh.  The sport is so embarrassing, the Ocho won't even cover it.  

From our base in Nazare, we also visited Fatima, Batalha and Alcobaca.  Batalha features the Monastery of Santa Maria, Alcobaca also has a Monastery of Santa Maria and Fatima is world famous for the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima.  The Basilica in Fatima was a very powerful and moving experience.

Besides the amazaing beach, we drove up to the cliffs overlooking the beach and visited the big wave surf museum at the light house.  

If you visit Portugal, spend a few days in Nazare.  This was my favorite stop of our vacation.

Evora, Portugal

We had a quick stop in Evora, which is in the central part of Portugal.  Evora displays history and architecture from its 2000 year long history.  Romans, Moors and the Europeans all held Evora at various times and you can see traces of those cultures while visiting the sites in the city.  

The highlight for me was the Church of St. Francis and the Chapel of Bones.  The pillars, arches and walls are all packed with the skulls and bones of the monks that were buried here.  There are over 5000 bodies.  Creepy.  

We also stoped at the Almendres Cromlech site.  This is the Stonehenge of Portugal and is even 2000 years older.  The drive to the site took us through several cork groves which gave us a view of the trees and how they harvest the cork bark.

Salema, Portugal

No vacation is complete without some good beach days.  Salema was the perfect beach stop.  The town is a tiny fishing village and there were very few tourists in town during our stay.  We had some great seafood, relaxed on the beach, and took several long walks up and down the beach.  Ok, I was the one taking the walks...

We split up our beach days with a day visiting Sagres, which is the SW most point of Portugal and Lagos, which is a larger town on the Algarve coast.  Sagres is not worth the time to visit, even with the great views from the fort built up on the cliff.  Lagos is a fun side trip for some shopping and people/tourist watching.

We had a great apartment with a view of the beach just a short walk away.  Definitely a great stop and just what we needed.

Lisbon, Portugal

We started our Portugal adventure in Lisbon.  Lisbon is a busy city with several different neighborhoods built up along the hills offering great view points of the city.  We visited the Sao Jorge castle and walked through the historic old town areas.  Just outside of town is Belem where we visited the Monastery of Jeronimos and the National Coach museum.  How in the world did they collect all of those coaches???

We also took a day trip to Sintra to visit the Pena Palace, National Palace and the Moorish castle.   Sintra is cool town that is extremely popular as a destination for both the locals and tourists.  Make time in your schedule to visit Sintra.