Time had come to bid farewell to the proud city of Lisboa and start our bus ride to Porto where we would get on with our riverboat cruise. Along the way, we stopped at two small towns. The first town was Obidos.
Obidos is a cute medieval village with cobblestone streets, a church on every other corner, lots of shoppes and a hotel built into the old Castle/fortress. We were told by our guide that one of the best ways to experience the village was with a quick stop just beyond the gates for some Ginja, made in Obidos. This is a delicious cherry liquor served in either a white chocolate or dark chocolate edible cup.`It is made from the Morello Cherry tree native to the region. Dark Chocolate cup was the way to go. 
Every shop seemed to have a window to the narrow street making it available for 1 euro. It is a tradition when visiting someone’s home to offer this drink.
The tourista buses on the Sunday morning when we visited were overwhelming. The village was still very beautiful.
The remains of the original castle was a lot like other castle remains:
There were around 100 Portuguese people dressed in all sorts of different period customs to participate in an archery tournament and parade:
There was also a Marionette Museum in Obidos and while we were there they had a showing of these ‘creatures’ from all over Europe:
We left Obidos and headed to Nazare on the coast. It was once a small fishing village, but has grown as a summer destination for Portuguese and also a vacation home area. Douglas had heard of it because it is where surfers get a chance to ride the largest waves in the world. There is a three mile long super deep trench in the Atlantic that stops just off shore of this town. In the fall/winter, huge waves come and batter the coast and these surfing daredevils. In the spring, it is calm. Here is a link to the 2019 Wave ride of the year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nytw9pPczM
The old section of town looks like it could be dropped anywhere along the coast of southern Portugal or Spain and blend right in. The buildings are white, the sky blue, and with fish drying outside along the beach.
Lisa found a highly rated restaurant off the main tourist strip along the beach for us to try. We heard bad reports from several of our cruise mates that the strip restaurants were not good. We went to Rosa Dos Ventos and had delicious shrimp, sword fish, and more green wine.
and finally we were off to board our river cruise!
