Weekend on the Silver Coast of Portugal

Chili wakes me up early for breakfast every day and I am able to catch some of the beautiful views that start my day. Every day I am reminded how fortunate we are to live here.

There is a mini-lockdown in effect again. You cannot leave the Lisbon district after 3 p.m. on Fridays or return before 6 a.m. on Monday. Restaurants are also closing early again on weekends. For our weekend getaway, we dropped Chili at her summer camp pet sitters before noon and headed north.

Our first stop was the medieval, walled city of Obidos. It is just over an hour north of where we live. I grabbed this picture from the internet. As we were driving in, we saw this view from the highway, but -- needless to say -- did not take pictures. It is a breathtaking sight.

Our hotel was within the wall and that meant that I had to drive on some extremely narrow roads with some vague directions and Waze trying to keep me on track.

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Note #1: Will's back is MUCH better but I am doing the driving and he is doing the enjoying the scenery.

Note #2: WAZE is amazing.

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I will save Will the time of posting or commenting to tell you that there was a very slight crunching incident between Big Bidness (me) and a woman in a van. Once she determined that she had no damage, her demeanor softened and she accepted my apology. Onward. With mirrors folded in.

We enjoyed strolling around the town which has a lot of tourist shops but very few tourists. Our lovely little hotel was also basically empty. We had a wonderful dinner at the hotel restaurant -- all by ourselves.

From Obidos, we traveled to Caldas da Rainha by way of the fishing village of Peniche. It was a cloudy, foggy morning but we sat at a beach cafe/bar for about an hour to watch surfers brave the 60 degree water.

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a stroll through a wonderful park in Caldas da Rainha. Beautiful flowers and greenery. We explored a small museum with displays of various Portuguese artists.

The July 4 party for expats was great. We were lucky enough to sit with the man who coordinated the event. He's been here for 15 years. So in addition to his vast experience, it turns out that he is an absolute hoot. We look forward to getting together again with him soon.