Leiria to Sao Martinho do Porto

Our visit to the beautiful city of Leiria was short and sweet. I would have loved to have had more time to explore the hill and Moorish castle and the old streets. Perhaps in another life... 

Our bike ride took us up steep hills through small towns with intriguing little corner altars with depictions of the Virgin Mary visiting the three shepherd children in Fatima (which is located due East from here). 

It brought us through planted Pine forests where sap is actively collected and heather grows abundantly. 

And finally it took us down steep cliffs and streets to the busy beach of Nazare for a late lunch at an authentic Little India restaurant. This was quite the experience for us all, the delicious food took quite a while to arrive and though the Indian music channel brought entertaining videos, the boys quickly lost their interest and went to the beach. 

After lunch the boys choose to continue biking to our destination, Sao Martinho, instead of spending more time on the beach. 

Steep downhill in Nazare

Little India

The road from Nazare to Sao Martinho do Porto was a sweet sunny ride and thank the Goddess: it was all flat!! That's my kind of biking, reminding me of the Dutch biking paths. Google Maps is our go-to for quick trail finding while on the bike, but sometimes this leads to paths that do not exist and this day we ended up at a dead end in the fields. Sol picked up quite a bit of grass in his chain in the process, but once that was cleared we quickly found a better route. 

Much like Nazare, Sao Martinho, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, was packed with Portuguese people, strolling along the boulevard, sitting at cafes, and laying on the beach. It was a bit of a shock after having been in mostly quiet places, devoid of people. Aside from wearing masks in stores and the antibacterial gel placed at the entrance of stores, the place didn't have the same "COVID-vibe". 

The next day, Monday, brought a whole different vibe. Grey skies and the streets empty of the people who had gone back to their towns and likely back to work - the party is over. Sao Martinho do Porto is located in a bay shaped like a scallop with calm waters. It is surrounded by steep cliffs covered with hardy little flowers and we climbed up to have a closer look at the entrance of the bay. 

Originally our plan was to continue south along the coast towards Sintra and Cascais to spend our last two weeks before flying out of Lisbon. This would have likely taken us two more days of biking, but Lief expressed he does not want to stop biking. He wants to continue biking and to explore new places, so he proposed we would go to the Algarve instead... To be continued....