Our next destination is Óbidos, which is home to one of Portugal’s Seven Wonders, the Castelo de Óbidos (the Óbidos Castle), otherwise known as the Pousada Castelo Óbidos, a hotel. Seriously. One of the Seven Wonders of Portugal, in significant part, has been a hotel since the 1950s.
After packing up our suitcases and backpacks, we made our way to Lisbon’s Rodoviário do Oeste bus terminal at Campo Grande. Okay, it’s actually more of a marked parking lot under a bridge than a terminal. At 10:30 AM we were about 10th in line for the 11:00 AM bus to Caldas da Rainha, which stops at Óbidos. By the time the bus arrived at 10:45 AM, there was a line of about 30 people. A few, like us, had luggage. Most were tourists taking a day trip to Óbidos.
Get there early to get in line as boarding and tickets are first come first served. There are no advance sales. Even though it was warm out, boarding early was not a problem as the bus was left on with the air conditioning running. Unfortunately there were no charging ports for phones or other devices.
The driver pretty much assumes every foreigner on the bus is going to Óbidos. After confirming our destination, we bought our tickets, which cost €9.25 each, payable in cash only. A small machine printed out what I thought was a receipt. I stuck it in my pocket, not thinking about it.
At exactly 11:00 AM the bus pulled out of the terminal. It was about 90% full. During the summer I suspect that the bus is absolutely full and that folks hoping to get on the 11:00 AM bus actually end up taking the 12:00 PM bus instead. I’m pretty sure that busses run this route hourly for most of the day.
It takes an hour to reach Óbidos. At an earlier stop, in Bombarral, a ticket checker for the bus line got on board. At that point I realized our receipt was really our tickets. I suspect ticket checkers are on this route quite often. After arriving in Óbidos the ticket checker got off the bus and into a car that followed the bus from Bombarral to Óbidos, heading off to a different bus.
Almost everyone on the bus exited at Óbidos. Only a few were actually going to Caldas da Rainha.
Óbidos is a medieval walled city, still basically intact, unique in being recognized as a UNESCO City of Literature, meaning there are books everywhere. Even an old church, Igreja de São Tiago (Church of Saint James), has been converted into a bookstore.
Our hotel for the night is The Literary Man Óbidos Hotel, about a five minute walk from the bus stop in Óbidos, just outside the walls of the old city. Staying with the literature theme, the walls of the hotel are lined with bookshelves and thousands of books. After dropping our bags we walked over to Café O’s for lunch. We chose this café because it is typically not frequented by tourists and is less expensive than the places that are.
The menu is pretty simple: beef or pork. Breaded or not. Cheese or not. With potatoes and rice. My breaded pork (ham) and cheese was really good. Stephanie’s steak, just okay. Lunch cost us about €21, compared to about €30 to €35 if we had gone to a place inside the walls.
Around 1:00 PM we finally joined the rest of the day trippers in exploring the walled town. We were done by about 2:30 PM. Seriously. It is a really small town, with restaurants, tourist stores, a couple of churches, castle walls, and two small museums (neither of which interested us).
The two main tourist activities in Óbidos are drinking Ginjinha (a cherry liqueur drunk from an edible chocolate shot glass) and walking the castle walls.
We skipped Ginjinha shots because I didn’t want any and Stephanie forgot about it.
After poking around the castle, reading numerous restaurant menus for dinner options, and looking in a couple of churches, we climbed up the stairs to the castle walls. The walls fully encircle the old city. About six sets of stairs can be used to access the wall.
The walls are about three feet wide at the top. On the city side of the walls, it is a sheer drop down. In some places, the drop is two feet onto a roof, or eight feet onto grass. But mostly a fall is going to be twenty to thirty feet onto cobblestones.
Walking on the walls is not for those with a fear of heights or who are unsteady on their feet, particularly in the middle of the afternoon. It is inevitable that you will have to pass other folks walking on the walls in the opposite direction, or just standing there afraid to move any farther away from the stairs they walked up.
After you enter the walled city through Puerta do Vila there is a wide set of stairs on your left going up. These stairs are much wider than the other sets of stairs to the walls, and in this area there are short raised walls on the inside edges of the castle walls.
In other words, these are the stairs to go up if you are unsure of heights and want to avoid sheer drop offs. Even Stephanie handled these stairs just fine.
After exploring a portion of the walls, we decided to call it an afternoon. By 3:00 PM we were checking into our hotel room and relaxing with a Coke.
Later, closer to sunset, we ventured back out and I walked around most of the castle walls. This time the day trippers were gone and I encountered no one on the walls. Likewise, the stores were still open and we could window shop in peace.
The difference in crowds between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM (in early October) cannot be overstated.
Around 7:00 PM we made our way to Letraria Óbidos for dinner. Basically the place sells all sorts of burgers, fries, and craft beer, with indoor and outdoor seating. All around very good – and reasonably priced if you don’t add on too many beers.
It was dark well before we finished dinner and, other than the restaurants, the walled town was closed up for the night.
The following morning we made another short walk through town before the stores opened and the day trippers began arriving. It’s best to explore the town then, when it is sleepy and quiet, as the walled town itself is the main attraction, not Ginjinha, the castle, or tourist stores.
Our morning walk was followed by brunch at the hotel before checking out and beginning our short journey to Nazaré.
Garrett and Stephanie
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