Travels with archy and beyond

This entire medieval town with its castle, tiny streets and tile-roofed houses, is a national historical preserve and so it cannot help being postcard perfect. We stayed here for five days, to allow a stable point from which to drive to the nearby coastal towns of Peniche and Nazaré and the monastery towns of Alcobaça and Batalha. But Obidos merits a posting all on its own

According to Rick Steves, you can “do” Obidos in about 30 minutes, if you’re pressed for time. Luckily for us, we’re not! We walked the entire circumference of the Old City on top of the 45-foot high wall and climbed up all possible towers for views. There is a certain amount of acrophobia involved here but we persevered and oh, man, the views!

I’m trying hard to avoid posting too many churches but this one is actually not a church but a bookstore. The town of Obidos is also known as the City of Literature— we are having our last dinner here tonight at the Literary Man Restaurant— and here is one of the most charming bookstores you’ll ever see!

This is our final day in on the Silver Coast of Portugal and I confess to liking it the most so far of any region I’ve visited yet. We’ll, there’s still Porto to come… but this climate, Mediterranean but with more rain and green than in the south, is about perfect this time of year. We’ve had a relaxing and yes, historical and church-filled time!