Obidos was the last Moorish stronghold seized in the region of Estremadura. Afonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, took the citadel in 1148, one year after taking Lisboa. I find this interesting, since Lisboa is about an hour’s south of Obidos. It is a beautiful little town with the medieval wall intact, though reconstructed. It was also all decked out for Christmas…
Here we all are…
It was a lot of fun to walk through the streets, with the walls and the keep overshadowing you…
Specially enjoying ginjinha in chocolate cups…
As I said, it was all decked out for Christmas. Mostly for the kids, but we had fun too…
Obidos has an amazing view of the surrounding countryside…
That was the morning. Then we went for lunch at a very traditional Portuguese restaurant. The first dish was octopus and potatoes served in olive oil. As always, the octopus was amazing. If you go to Portugal, you must eat it. However, the main dish was cozido, which was basically one massive bowl of pork and vegetables for the five of us. Here is my buddy Diogo dishing up my plate…
Cozido is basically a stew, made with pork shins, ears, hocks, potatoes, carrots, and a variety of traditional sausages. Chouriço is a cured sausage made with chunks of pork and fat, wine, paprika, and salt. Morcela is blood pudding Portuguese style. The other type of sausage was farinheira, which is a smoked sausage made with wheat flour and pork fat, along with some seasoning. In short, the meal was an exercise in “eat until you are full and then eat some more.”
It is, of course, served with wine…
After the Meal we returned to Obidos. Stopped at a very old church along the way and it gave us a wonderful view of the medieval town…
Then we did what I have wanted to do for a long time; walked the castle walls…
Awesome views of the town…
As the sun set, we headed back into town for a final drink before heading back to Lisboa…
We had another meal at our professor home, which was more time to catch up with friends, and stuff ourselves with Portuguese food…
It was a wonderful day, easily my amongst my top two days in Portugal!!
