Sea to shining sea

So today I finally found the open Atlantic and am quite sure that Nantucket was out there somewhere!

After my memorable night at the castle, I had a lovely hot breakfast buffet at my table over looking the Portuguese countryside. A steaming silver pot of coffee and an equally steaming pot of hot milk!

After a quick walk around the village and some supplies for cousin Monika's visit in Seville. I set off to the coast eventually arriving in Foz do Arelho. It was a big sandy beach surrounding a lagoon and opening to the sea (the weather has been amazing and apparently quite typical for this time of year). The amazing thing about Foz and my entire drive up the coast was the completely deserted but fully outfitted vacation and villa developments. Obviously hit hard by the crash. It is like some sort of end of world movie.

My next stop was Nazare - described as a small fishing village - it is anything but. It is the site of what was determined to be the worlds largest wave not that long ago. I think over 100 feet and some guy actually surfed it.

The saving grace and the point of the stop was lunch. Across from the beach but inside a glassed room - a plate of crispy fried "horse mackerel" small like a sardine and fried gutted but whole - it's a bones and all meal! And it was fabulous. It came with creamy bland rice and a side salad but those fishes were the stars. So much that I had the neighboring table starring me down until I explained what the were (they were French were were trying to all speak spanguese)

The beauty of having local phone - I called a small place in Coimbra for a room for tonight. That sorted, I hopped back in the rental car and off to the monastery in Alcobaca (driving is easy - the GPS helps - lots of fairly expensive, well maintained toll roads) It was another monstrous place hard to describe without photos. But unlike other churches it adds a few hundred thousand square feet for the monks - including a huge kitchen with a walk in six cow fireplace!

(It was - as many places have been mobbed with school students and today Japanese bus tours)

And finally off to Coimbra. Slowly moving north to arrive in Oporto tomorrow night. Coimbra is the main university town and the former capital of Portugal. Arriving into the old walled city, carefully coordinated by my innkeeper, after a bit of doing I find Elsa. A grand looking and effervescent Dutch women who explains her absence as out "trying to reel in" some fishes/guests.

The inn is maybe 20x20 but five stories high. My room with breakfast is fine - in the attic - with a decent bed and a bath for 38€ (about 45$US)

Dinner is a bit of a none event - roasted pork with ham. There is a strange custom in that the bread, butter, cheese and olives that are brought to the table are charged for only if you eat them. Dessert is interesting - a pineapple ring covered with unset but flamed creme brûlée.

So I am off to a free Fado (sad Portuguese opera singing) concert set in a small chapel now cafe. If you are wondering, I type at dinner between courses - my version of sharing my day with my friends!