Portugal: Biking Day 3, Pedro de Moel to Alcobaca

  Portugal: Biking Day 3
Pedro de Moel to Alcobaca, 34 miles

I loved this day! I loved, loved this day.

We had another amazing breakfast, a nice ride along the coast but no so windy today. We rode through Nazare and saw the spot with the world-record surfing waves. The little fishing city was such a fun stop. We walked through the "living museum" along the coast that shows the way fish has been traditionally dried. We found a spot for lunch to try traditional sardines and the owner of the restaurant told us his story -- youngest of 10 kids, flew to LA with no money and no English skills (thanks to a family friend that agreed to loan him flight money) to find a job on a cruise ship. He noticed his supervisor made 10x what he did because he knew English and could be the lead server, so he studied English every spare minute for 6 months and was soon making more money in a month than his father made a year in back in their tiny village. After years and years of working in on a cruise ship, he went back to Portugal and opened a restaurant. His wife is the cook and he manages it, and they've done really well and opened a second restaurant. He said the best part was coming home and spoiling his mom, who had never had much of anything in life. The way he talked about his mom was so sweet. Those sardines were actually delicious, too :)

We rode from there to Alcobaca, which ended up being our favorite city of the whole trip. We stayed in a hotel that is connected to the monastery and has been restored to reflect the same aesthetic as the monastery itself. It was so simple and beautiful. We loved walking around the monastery, seeing the tragic tombs of King Pedro and Ines de Castro, walking up to the old abandoned castle, getting caught in the rain so finding this cute dessert shop and tried Coroa de Abadessa and Ovos do Paraiso with some hot chocolate. Spaghetti squash in desserts, who knew! Then that night we went back to the monastery to see a choir concert, since we'd seen them practicing earlier and it was hauntingly beautiful to hear those voices in that church. It was 8pm after that and we were starving, finally almost onto Portugal time for eating :) And we found a Chinese food shop with super high ratings. Best Chinese food I've ever had and all of it plus tip was 20 euros, crazy. I just really, really, really loved this day.

Ready to ride!
A taxi took our luggage each day and all we had to do was get from point A to point B. 
It's wild to have that little amount of responsibility.

Ocean rainbow!

The famous big wave area, Nazare.

This is the spot where the surfing records have been set,
but those waves happen in Winter and not Spring.

There's a legend of Mother Mary helping a prince who was hunting a deer and almost feel off a cliff. And now the spot is famous for surfers. So they embrace both, and there's a statue of a huge deer holding a surfboard there. I love the straightforward approach.

Tile scenes in churches

This is kind of a "living museum" to show how the fish catching and drying happened here for years and years. An older Portuguese couple is there doing everything they used to do to preserve the seafood.

So many types of fish and squid.

They salt and dry them in the sun and they last for years.

The squid and octopus looked so wild.

Traditional boats that have been donated to the "living museum" when they're retired from their fishing life.
Those mosaic sidewalks... I'll never be over them.

There was no better stop to try the traditional sardines!
Fried in butter so that the skin turns crispy like a potato chip.

I actually thought this was so delicious.

This was one of my favorite tile patterns

Alcobaca Monastery, the first Gothic building in Portugal

Michael loved all the creative water drains :)

This tomb has quite the tragic love story, kind of known as a Portugues fairytale/legend but it's a true story of one of King Pedro. You can read it here, it's so sad.

Another rain time means...

...another dessert shop! This spot had such creative treats, tons with spaghetti squash or almonds incorporated. 

Hot chocolate during rainy days, the best.

Hiked up to the old abandoned, dilapidated castle.

We went back to take a picture of the little treats we tried because I couldn't stop thinking about them! I love these descriptions.

We caught a choir practicing during our walk through the monastery, and we told one of them we enjoyed it when we saw him on the street later. He told us their concert was that night and we decided to go see them.

We didn't have time to swim in the monsatery hotel pool but it looked amazing.

This tile! I LOVE these colors.
If I had a little girl I would design up her entire room baed on this picture.