Óbidos to Lamego – Portugal Road Trip Part II

After two nights in Lisbon, we started making our way north toward the Douro River, Portugal’s wine country.

One of the most precious towns we visited in Portugal was Óbidos. This perfectly preserved village, an hour north of Lisbon, is something straight out of the middle ages. 

Óbidos is a tiny fortified town that got its name into the history books by hanging out with ancient Romans, the Visigoths, Moors and eventually the royals of Portugal.

We walked along the fortified wall and through the tiny winding paths.

Ripping ourselves away from this perfect little town, we got back on the road to hit up Nazaré for lunch. 

Before Nazaré, though, we decided to pop over to Alcobaça and visit it’s famous monastery.

I love the creepy statues housed by ancient European churches, and these ones in particular reminded me of the clock tower dolls that M and I scoped out in Romania.

I mean…they’re a little creepy, right?

I am not particularly religious, but I am fascinated by the artistry behind churches and cathedrals. It’s definitely awe-inspiring.

I took my time poking around.

G took his time to pray that I hurry up so we could finally feast on some fresh seafood for lunch.

Having gotten my fix of creepy-cool tourism for the day, we were finally en-route to Nazaré.

Nazare is a beautiful, blindingly white seaside town.

You can sneak around the clifftop lighthouse and test your wits against the blasting waves.

We found the perfect clifftop lunch spot near the lighthouse.

We feasted on the freshest fishes, sipped on rosé, and gazed out over the expanse of the Atlantic.

With full happy bellies, we zipped off to Aveiro, a canal-packed town just south of Porto.

Aveiro would be our home for the night.

We arrived in the early evening, and wandered the quiet streets before calling it a night.

We found some friendly faces to hang out with for a while, in a plaza overseen by a gorgeous azulejo-covered church.

The next day we left Aveiro early to get to Porto.

We went straight to Taylor’s Port House to scope out their cellars and sniff their nectars.

I am not a big fan of sweet wines, but learning about the process of port production, and then tasting just enough variety to understand the differences, completely converted me.

After Tayler’s, we crossed the bridge Ponte Luís I. 

This nice piece of wrought iron was built by Monsieur Eiffel’s disciple.

We did not stay long in Porto; just enough time to tour Taylor’s and stroll around the center for a short while.

We were eager to start driving along the Douro River and stay the night in a sleepier town before having to drive all the way back to France the next day.

We wound our way east along the river for some hours, a while; drinking in the nature and terraced farmland, and deciding eventually to stop for the night in Lamego.

There may not be much to do in Lamego, but we fell madly in love with the insane Santuário de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios.

This sanctuary is propped up on a hill, and has a series of steps and statues leading up to it.

At the top you get treated to quite a view.

We walked around the church, lit some candles, and found our shelter for the night in the inn next door.

We had the sanctuary all to ourselves, and it took all the willpower I could muster not to run around pretending to be Link from the The Legends of Zelda.

Riiiiight.

The roads of Portugal had come to an end, but we still had a long long long stretch ahead of us taking us back to Biarritz.

This was my second new year’s adventure with G. The first was the night that we met in Miami. The one that followed was back in Biarritz with his family and mine. And this past year I got to enjoy the holidays back in my Miami.

Very much looking forward to all that is to come from this crazy life.