NAZARÉ
We drove further north to some of the towns towards Figueira do Foz. Some lovely little beachside towns with their small cafés selling delicious Pastel de Nata pastries and tiny espresso coffee. We encountered frowns all around when asking for a large cappuccino.
I remember stopping off in the now-famous Nazaré and wandering around for a bit. The thing I remember about Nazaré is its massive open beach–two kms long and not protected so it was very messy. Towards the north of the long beach, it is protected, but we didn’t venture that far. We were traveling in July and there wasn’t enough swell to make the break by the lighthouse work. Also, we didn’t know about this potential wave so we didn’t really hang around. I was very surprised to hear years later that it was such a huge spot.
Nazaré on a flat day. Photo: Nicky Kelly
The next part of the trip took us back south. The motorways in Portugal are excellent and that is all thanks to the European Football Championships. The government pumped billions into the road for the event. They have linked all the cities in order to make Portugal a world-class modern destination. The locals aren’t as happy as tourists are when it comes to the roads though. They will tell you that all the tax money went to the roads instead of to education. They will also tell you that some roads were built by politicians who promised to build a road to a town if that town voted him in.
The Portuguese love to talk politics. Just ask a question about it and you will be into a good few hours of chat. They tend to eat out a lot, they go down to their local restaurant a few nights a week and all congregate around the tables, eat and chat. It’s a great tradition in my mind and the food remains inexpensive. You are not dining out just for a special occasion. It’s almost like being in a friend’s living room as they’ll even have the Brazilian soaps on TV.
LISBON/CASCAIS
We spent the next week driving around the Lisbon coast, basing ourselves in Cascais for a while and surfing some epic secret spots (to us anyway!) in little coves between cliffs. Then we ventured out to big stretches of beaches like Guincho and Carcavelos. As you get closer to Lisbon, there are some great breaks. A few days earlier, we were surrounded by wilderness and now we were surfing in a city. It was incredible watching the sun set on the ocean and looking inland at the fantastic backdrop of the magnificent old mansions and monuments.
Not telling. Photo: Mark Stephens
We were in paradise, in and out of the warm water all day, up at the beachside cafés sipping beers and taking in the heat. The beers took us a while to get used to. We’d drink pints at home so when they arrived with the small 20cl beers, we felt a bit cheated. One of the cafés brought us over a beer in a pint glass, but we quickly found out that unless you knock it back, it goes warm too quickly. Just like the espressos, it was small beers all the way. And at 50 cents each, you couldn’t really go wrong!
By this stage, we were 12 days in and very sunburnt! We only had another two days, couldn’t believe it had gone so fast. We went down to Costa de Caprica which had a couple of cool mellow waves created by manmade jetties. The town is more purpose built though so we left and went up to Ribeira D’Ilhas in Ericeira for our last surf.
Having never been to Portugal before that 2004 trip, I have since returned almost four times a year which is almost over 40 times now. That will always be my favorite trip because it was all new, but I have since traveled all around. While the Lisbon coastline gets all the coverage, the area north around Porto is fantastic. The tourism money is still all going into Algarve and Lisbon so you won’t find any McDonalds or Starbucks nearby. Long may it continue!
