We waved good-bye to the gondolas bobbing on the water as we headed off to our next destination, Estoril Cascais. Our goal was to drive as close as we could to all the beaches along the beautiful shores of the Silver Coast. This route would take two or more hours longer than the quicky on the highway, but whatever, talk to the sand! Someone’s ample gluteus maximus had just about moulded itself into the drivers seat when your beefiness wanted to take a quick look at the Aveiro Lighthouse (Farol de Aveiro), or mostly known as the Lighthouse of Praia Barra (below). Said! Done! Little beach walk! Awesome! 😁
We only managed to drive a total of twelve and a bit kilometres since leaving the hotel in Aveiro, so no, we did not get far. Oops! Shortly after leaving the lighthouse, these unusual and attractive candy striped houses (below) looked too interesting to ignore, so of course we had to stop. We’d never seen anything like this anywhere else in Portugal. Costa Nova is a colourful fishermans village on a strip of land with the Atlantic ocean and a vast beach at the back, and probably the widest part of the Aveiro river to the front. These colourful houses (palheiros) were once used by the fishermen as storage spaces, but have since been converted into holiday homes, restaurants or shops. Some of the other houses are painted in bright colours or adorned with beautiful local tiles. We did not spend a lot of time here, what a pity, and only stopped to take a few photos. Next time, baby! 👍
Okay, let’s get outta here already! Vroom-vroom-screech! Geez, we’re such acquaholics! A bit of water and we screech to a halt. A dog sleeping on the grass jumped up and growled at us. Did we scare you woofy-woofy? Lake Barrinha, near the Praia de Mira, seems to be a much loved area for joggers, cyclists and dog-walkers. We decided to walk a few metres in, take a few photos, then be on our way, but someone’s camera was giving problems. She handed it over to the expert. He took the memory card out and !PLOP!, it fell through the slats of the wooden boardwalk, and right into the mushy ground below. That’s it, bye-bye, but he was having nothing of that. As calm as the sliced cucumber we’d just had for breakfast, two long legs with boep started to scramble over the splintered railing. !PLOP! Small space, wet ground, spider webs? No problem! He got the card! Ta-daa! A Knight in shining armour!
Happiness comes in waves, and we saw a lot of them along the Silver Coast. We stopped for a quick picnic at the Praia do Norte (North Beach) near Nazare. What a lovely way to nibble, and we were the only ones far and wide!
Next stop was the famous Nazare lighthouse and the Fort of Saint Michael the Archangel. The crazy aunty was at it again. She navigated us on to a holier than thou dirt road, yes, there were potholes and bumps everywhere! Too much effort to direct us to a new tarred road through town, hey? Grrrr! Whatever, we know how to rock and roll, baby! So there! Wow! The view from the top over towards the town of Nazare is simply breathtaking! It was also very busy, and every Dick, Tom and Maria wanted to take a selfie with the red thingy. We walked around, waved at the fishermen below, admired the view and finally managed to get a few photos of the lighthouse, sans selfie sticks hahaha…
Modes of transport to the lighthouse, wink-wink. A horse-back rider or a tuk-tuk?
We left our car parked nicely on the side of the dirt road, but when we got back, some flipdiot (flipping idiot) had parked us in. Now really! All that space and he had to kiss the back of our car?? A lot of stinky brake fluid and clutch fumes later we managed to get the car out without dropping over the cliff. It was getting dark and we still had a long way to go. Bring us to the highway, you crazy thing. She did, but via, via, via! We found our hotel quite easy, BUT, we were at the wrong end. We went round and round like a merry-go-round around the block trying to find the entrance. We throttled the nutty aunty and one of us walked to try and find it. Geez, how complicated, but we eventually found it. A Valet and one of the Doormen took over the parking and baggage stuff while we checked in. It was another one of those old Palace Hotels that we love and so luxurious. The Palacio is also famous because a James Bond movie was filmed here. Kings, queens, spies, writers, famous actors, athletes and other celebrities have stayed here. Photos of their visits line the walls of the hotel. We were so happy that our top floor suite had a view over the bay, so we opened a small bottle of wine, and enjoyed this awesome sunset. A soothing end to a very long and eventful day. All the nights we were there, we took romantic walks in the gardens opposite the hotel, and loved these colourful dancing water lights. Ooh! Love!
Angels Travelling 