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Published: April 1st 2010
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Everyone slept better last night. We’re getting better at sleeping in this climate as we’re adapting beautifully to the temperature and dampness. Cath wore full pajamas, I wore sox and a T shirt, Renita was in her track suit, Jo had all the extra blankets in the villa and Pete was so full of wine, he really couldn’t feel much of anything.
After breakfast we made our plans for our trip to Obidos. Of course, we had to walk into Alfeizerao but then we encountered our first problem of the day. We didn’t know where the bus stop was. So we wandered up and down main street for awhile trying to get directions and, while everyone we tried to talk to pointed us south to Obidos, it was awhile before we found someone who could actually point us to the bus stop. We bought our tickets, waited for the bus and we were on our way.
Now that we had a half hour or so to kill while waiting for the bus, we decided it was time to try some of the local linguistics. We practiced things like obrigado (thank you), bom-dio (good morning), boa-tarde (good afternoon), adeus (good
bye) and most importantly, casa de banho? (bathrooms or toilets?). So far we haven’t greeted anyone by saying good bye (that was for you, Bob). The bus finally arrived and we toured rolling hills, vine yards and gardens throughout the country side.
Obidos really is a small village built inside the walls of a castle. The castle was built in 1282 by King Denis as a wedding gift to his new bride Isabel of Aragon. It’s possible to climb stairs located around the walls to a height of about 40 - 50 feet. From there, you can walk all the way around the village. The stairs are very steep and they, like the walkway around the walls, are made of cobblestone. They are very narrow so the trip around was somewhat tenuous. One slip and it and it’s a long way down.
Many people actually live in the village. The property of each home is marked by either a blue or yellow painted line on a perimeter fence wall or on a house wall. All week, in advance of Easter, the church is being prepared by local parishners. There are many restaurants and a ton of souvenir
shops sprinkled throughout. Like every other town and village we’ve been to, the roads are extremely narrow and the sidewalks and roads are all made of cobblestone. We had lunch at a small restaurant consisting of a village recipe vegetable soup and biscuits. Pete had a hamburger that he said had the consistency of mush (he should have had the soup) and we shared a bottle of wine from a local vine yard. After 3 hours of wandering around the village we caught the bus back to Alfeizerao. We shopped for our dinner at a town market and got home just before the rains came pouring down. I think tonight is going to be a quiet night. We walked a TON today ........ and we can’t wait for tomorrow.
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