"Our job is beach"
We decided to stay at a costal town so that we could spend one day of our trip at the beach. Well, this was today.
Woke up late, as we did not have any pressures. Had a breakfast and finished off the карамелевик we purchased yesterday.
My slice of карамелевик.
After breakfast, took some time to prepare for the beach, so we left the house only around noon. Fortunately, the beach we went to, Praia da Valmitao is less than 2km from our house, pretty much down the street we live on. The parking lot for the beach was pretty packed, but we did find a space. The beach was excellent. While the weather was on the cooler side - with a cool breeze blowing from the ocean, and the water - at something about 18 degrees Celcius, we had a great time there.
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We were at somehwat of a low tide judging by the difference between the reach of the waves when we were there, and the how water marks. The descent into the water is very gradual. I did not go to far (got my swimming trunks barely wet), but it did not look like one would hit depth there easily. Very few people were in the water - but a lot sat on the beach - making it very similar to the Pacific Coast beaches in California, we are used to.
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The Beach!
Olga and Tatiana took walks towards both ends of the beach. I stayed with our stuff for the first walk, and accompanied them on the second - towards the northern end of the beach. Took a lot of pictures of them posing, but otherwise, it was just walking. At the end of the beach there were some rocks and tidepools, but overall, the sand is among the best I've seen on the beach - the wet send was very sturdy and solid - no slippage at all - easy to walk on.
The Beach.
We spent about 2 hours on the beach, then went home, changed quickly, and Olga, Tatiana, and I went back to Peniche. We chose the lighthouse on the western tip of the Peniche peninsula as our destination (everyone wanted ocean, rocky beach, and some walking). So, about 40 mins later we arrived at Cabo Coroveiro, where the lighthouse, not very creatively called Farrol de Cabo Coroveiro was located. We were able to find a spot at a small parking lot next to the lighthouse - there were quite a few people there.
Farol de Cabo Coroveiro
The first surprise we got was that the Berlingas Islands, including the island we visited last year were very much visible from the coast. I was able to take some pictures, with my telephoto lens, with the island filling pretty much the entire shot. With the humidity in the air, there is a bit of a curtain around the island, but it is still pretty visible, and in fact, I could make the Berlingas lighthouse pretty well.
Main Berlingas Island with a telephoto lens.
Rock formations at Cabo Coroveiro.
The lighthouse itself was closed, but as expected, it stands on a rocky outcropping above the sea (we knew that - as we passed this place on our way to Berlingas last year), with some trails stretching on both sides. We chose to walk north of the lighthouse, and went out for about 500-700 meters, hitting two spots along the way - a stairwell leading to a small "grotto"/overlook, and a cross placed at a location where someone found an 11th century statue of Virgin Mary with baby Jesus that Christians apparently hid from the Arabs during the Arab conquest times. Took some pictures, went back.
Walking towards the Cruz de los Remedios.
Somewhere in the middle of this walk, as I was changing the lenses on my camera, my main 18-55mm lens was not recognized by the camera body. I took a few tries, but could not get it to work. At first I thought that the body may have become defective, but I was able to attach my telephoto lens w/o problem - wound up having to take all subsequent camera shots with it, while switching to using phone as the main camera. I did not have time today to look at it again - will wait until we are in Lisbon to see if we can recover the use of the lens. If not - on the grand scheme of things - not a big problem - this is a stock Sony lens that came with the camera, cheap and easy to replace. It would make it inconvenient taking further pictures during the trip though. I have a backup Sony large-body (mirrored) camera that I can use for 18-55mm pictures, so I will have to switch to it, but I prefer to use the mirrorless camera - it is less bulky, and is newer. Eh, well...
One of the last photos I took with the lens. It is gone now )-:
After walking back to the lighthouse, we got into the car and went into Peniche proper. The road to the central part of town was blocked, I drove around the blocked part a bit, saw someone leaving a parking space right on the edge of the historic part of town, and took it. We got out, walked a block towards the center, and stumbled across the reason for the road closures - a street was lined up with people, and some sort of parade or procession was taking place. We couldn't gather much, but it looked like something religious.
TA celebration of something important in Peniche.
We crossed the street in the break between the parade participants, and two blocks down found Cale II again, where we bought a sampling of their desserts: the карамелевик, an apple cake, and a passionfruit cheescake. Olga appreciated the cheesecake as much as she did карамелевик - in fact, the cheesecake Portuguese style is arguably better than the US-style cheesecake. The filling is different - smoother, tastier, creamier.
Our dessert order.
After finishing our desserts, we spent around an hour walking around Peniche and doing some light shopping. We can across two different stores selling Chinese homegoods. In one I bought a couple of backup plug converters. In another - I got a mouse and a USB wall charger.
Right after 6pm we got out of the last store, got into our car and drove home. On the way home we got into traffic a few times, so we wound up getting home at 7pm.
Made our first real homemade dinner on the trip. Boiled bratwurst. Fried a mix of Portuguese sausages and bacon. Boiled some potatoes. Made a salad with an improvised dressing (we did not have any plant-based oil in the house), and a salad with a can of calimari. Made a pitcher of sangria - this one wound up being better (see below). Ate it all.
Dinner is ready.
Called it a day.
Steps. 11,144 on the watch. Phone was a bit more generous, at 12,570. So far, we are managing more than 10,000 steps every day.
Alcohol. Yesterday, I dropped some ice into the narrow opening of our pitcher, then poured diced fruit, then added sangria and topped with 7up. This resulted in only part of the liquid reaching the ice. This time, the order was: fruit (and mash it up a bit), then sangria, then ice, then 7up. I used half of an orange, and two doughnut peaches as fruit (would have put more, but the pitches IS small). While I am still not sure on the sangria - 7up balance, this turned up to be quite nice - we drank two pitchers of it in very quick succession.
I also had a bottle of Lvivskoe beer - we found an isle with food from the former Soviet Union in Intermarche - one of the two grocery stores we went to yesterday. It tastes like Pabst Blue Ribbon - but Slava Ukraine and let's hope for the victory to come soon.
Next. Driving to Lisbon tomorrow, returning the car, and actually settling into our Lisbon place.
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