Today, we retraced our steps and returned back to Obidos and Peniche in search of city wall walks, alcoholic beverages and desserts.
Morning in Sandoreia
Our check-out was at 11, we took it easy waking up, having breakfast, before starting the packing and clean-up of the house. Still, we were out by 10:30am. The trunk was packed very tight - despite the car being an SUV.
Obidos - our old AirBnb.
It took us about an hour and a half to get to Obidos. Saturdays are pretty busy there - as we learned last time, with excursion buses flooding in, and the souvenir vendors lining up the approach to the city wall. We parked at the same parking lot we used last year - right below the house we rented, and next door to a cafe called A Canastra, which we finally visited this time for some coffee and pasteis de nata.
A Canastra
We then walked up to the city walls, passing through the aforementioned souvenir market (and not buying anything). The week before, the town had their Medieval Festival with all sorts of entertainment, which apparently included a "Medieval Brothel":
Mancebia/Medieval Brothel.
Went inside the town of Obidos. I immediately tried to get a cup of ginja, but had a miscommunication with with the sales lady and got a cup of chocolate liquor in a glass that I got to keep. Eh, well.
Obidos from just above the main city gate.
As a year ago, we went up the steep stairwell leading from the main gate to the city wall, and spent the next hour circumnavigating the wall, which was just as fun this time as last year. I took fewer photos this time, on the account of having taken close to a 1000 last year. But there are still some cool pictures to share.
I really enjoy the consistent nature of Obidos architecture inside the city walls.
Also Obidos.
This is Obidos too.
Obidios, but from the western wall.
Same as above but with a better horizon line.
My favorite house in Obidos: it is located on the south end of town and goes wall-to-wall spanning the width of the walled town in this location.
After completing we wall walk, we went to the main shopping street of the town for some souvenir shopping and coffee and sangria. I completed my gestalt and purchased a liter jar of ginjinha cherries, together with another bottle of ginjinha, and two smaller bottles of cherries. This year we won't take much Portuguese wine back home (I still have plenty from previous trips), so we'll use our alcohol allottment on ginja.
Olga and Tanya caught up with me and we revisited the pasteleria we went to last year (Pasteleria D. Alfonso, apparently) to get sangria, coffee and some pastries.
Pasteleria D. Alfonso.
Their sangria.
We walked a bit more, did some more shopping, and eventually, around 4pm, went back to the car.
A side terrace in Obidos.
Feels nice to be back here.
We returned back to our car and, after a short discussion, decided that our next step is to check into our AirBnB located in Ribamar - about 20 mins south of Peniche (with traffic, this can get to be 30 mins). We had decent instructions from the landlord on how to get to our rental, and we able to find it and check in with no trouble. I don't have pictures of the place yet, but our apartment is in a small, curiously shaped apartment building, on the second floor. It consists of an ante-room (cannot really call it anything else, followed by a kitchen, from which a door opens into a square-shaped hallway, that leads to three rooms: two bedrooms, and a third room converted into a living room/bedroom combo, and a spacious bathroom. Plenty of space, interesting floor plan. Parking was on the street and not obvious, although it seems like I did a decent parking job each time I needed to park on the street.
First attempt at parking.
After we checked in and unpacked, we went back to the car and took a drive to Peniche. First we stopped by Lidl and Intermarche in Lourinha - a small town just north of Ribamar, bought some food and drinks. Then, onto Peniche.
Peniche. We got 100%, in fact, probably 200% lucky in Peniche. Driving up to the historic part of town, I noticed more traffic than I thought would be called for - even on a Saturday night. The road to the pier - and the large parking lot next to it was blocked. All parking lots we passed were totally filled, people were streaming into town. We got rerouted through the narrow streets of the historic center of Peniche, but by chance (a) we passed by Cale II - s local psteleria and our real destination in Peniche, and (b) Olga, upon getting out of the car in front of it spotted someone leaving a small parking lot right next to the cafe, rushed there to grab us a spot and allowed me to park right were we needed.
Cale II: the legendary in our family pasteleria in Peniche.
We then went to Cale II for the one true reason for our return to Peniche - the cake that our family lore calls "карамелевик" ("caramelevik", i.e., something akin to "caramel cake"). In reality, this is a walnut-apricot cake with apricot-caramel filling. Olga ordered it last year when we visited Peniche on a hunch (it looked interesting to her), and we spent the rest of our Portugal trip looking for it everywhere we went only to come empty-handed. So, back to Peniche we are, and lo-and-behold - they had the cake!
Карамелевик. We bought half of it.
We priced the entire cake above, but upon further recknoning, elected to buy only one half of it (15 euro), which wound up being good for six hefty slices (but we are getting ahead of ourselves).
With the whatever it was going on in Peniche at the time still apparently happening all around us (judging by all the people and cars arriving), we got out of the parking spot making someone a REALLY HAPPY person, and drove to our second destination, a seafood restaurant called Profresco, located in the western part of Peniche, in what otherwise looked like industrial zone. The restaurant overlooked the northern short of the Peniche peninsula, and by the time we got there, it started to get somewhat chilly.
Profesco's parking lot: pretty full and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
We went inside to check in. A nice lady told us that while the seats inside were all reserved (45 min wait), she could seat us outside. We agreed. It was on the colder side, although we were protected from the wind. This is where this place could borrow a play from Calfironia restaurants and have open space heaters installed near tables, but bygones. The best part was that the restaurant runs some of the best service I encountered in ANY travels. We were able to order within 5 minutes of sitting down, the food (my seafood soup) started arriving less than 3 minutes after that, and 10 minutes in we had all our appetizers on the table, with main dishes following very shortly after. We probably spent a total of 40 mins in the restaurant, but it felt like we were there less than 30 - the service was so fast.
Our table at Profesco.
I ordered cream of seafood soup (which was excellent, but also hot, so it kept me warm-ish). We then ordered our standard fair of bread and olives, some oysters, a dish of boiled cockles and an octopus salad. I had a grilled seabream, while Olga went with a grilled seabass. Both dishes had a full fish grilled, and came with potatoes and a salad.
My seabream.
Oh, and of course we had a pitcher of sangria, although because of how cold it was outside, we took our time drinking it.
Sangria, olives, bread, soup.
Verdict: excellent food, even better service, and a nice place - would totally go back if we ever visit Peniche again (which, I am sure, we will).
After the meal, we got into the car and went back to Ribamar, just as the stream of people wanting to get into Peniche turned into a flood - we were among 3-4 cars trying to leave. The opposite traffic was jammed. On the way out we saw that there was a week-long festival in Peniche (I understand it is loosely aligned with the Pope's visit to Portugal, but only loosely), which explained the crowds. We missed the opportunity to participate in the festival, but eh, well. Instead we got what we came for, plus had a great meal in a cool restaurant.
When we got home, I used some of the things we bought (white sangria, diet 7up, fruit, ice) to create a pitcher (actually, a couple, as the actual pitcher we have in the apartment is small) of sangria, which everyone seemed to like.
Called it a night then.
Steps: 14,444 according to the watch. Google Fit agrees at 14,881 steps. Both numbers sound inflated to me, but I'll take them.
Alcohol. Three sangrias. The Pasteleria D. Alfonso one in Obidos has ginja in it, it is red, not fizzy, and is very refreshing, especially, since a glass of their sangria is quite literally a 350 ml glass filled only with the liquid (no ice, they keep ice in their sangria pot, but pour it from the spigot).
The sangria at Profresco was also flat, not fizzy, and was fruity and tasty, but because it was cold outside, we probably did not appreciate it as much.
I made a white fizzy sangria with organes and peaches as the fruit filling. It turned out to be ok, but I think the one I made the next day was better.
Next: "A day at the beach".
No comments:
Post a Comment