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Portugal Trip 22: Óbidos and Alcobaça

Monday 28th April 2025

After our trip up the coast yesterday, we have today travelled further north and inland to visit a couple of small but picturesque towns, Óbidos and Alcobaça. 

There was, however, a bit of a problem. Today, there has been a complete power outage, which apparently has affected much of both Spain and Portugal. There is no mobile coverage and no internet, so we do not know what the reason is, or whether it will stay off for long. It is a good job that we do not need fuel or food, as all the petrol stations and supermarkets appear to be closed. It is however interesting to see people interacting with each other rather than with a mobile phone. That must create a strain on relationships in some families.

Óbidos:

The small fortified town of Óbidos is built, as you might expect, on a hill and at the apex, a castle.

With just a narrow walkway, the town walls are higher than my nerves would allow.
The impressive Aqueduto de Usseira, which leads to the town.

There are many narrow medieval streets, which give a wonderful character to the town.

View across the town rooftops to the castle.

Amazingly we also bumped into some folks we know, who were lurking below:

Age has a beauty of its own. The other picture is of Jeeves, Michelle and Layla.

The church is interesting, in that all the walls are covered in ceramic tiles:

Wall tiles and painted roof detail.
The same tiles are within one of the town-wall gates, where there were some buskers playing.

The other church had been converted into a book shop. There are apparently 14 book shops in the town, which has an annual literary festival (each October).

Some of the bookshops have diversified a little. The one below-right sells fruit and vegetables and I believe there is another which sells fish.

Alcobaça:

Alcobaça is a town which is famous for its monastery, which is normally open for visitors, but as the power was down, it was closed. We did have a look around the town though:

The autocaravan park was in a local park.

On our way to the centre, we passed through a small garden area, the Jardim do Amor.

The garden is intended to reflect the “immortal love” of Pedro and Inés. A story of forbidden love and revenge from the 14th century.

I think the pots which are along the river-wall, contain tokens of love, placed there by couples.
The Monastery Church Entrance

We chose not to climb up to the castle. It was a very hot day.

After visiting, we moved on to our park-up for the night, in the town of Batalha, which also has a monastery. See tomorrow’s blog entry for details. That is it for now. See u Later and TTFN.

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