PLACES TO VISIT

Alcobaca is well-known through out the region and nation holding fragments of Portuguese culture and heritage. The main feature of the town is essentially the Monastery, Portugal’s largest church. The Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaca is a beautiful abbey renowned for its simple medieval architecture.

The monastery was founded in 1153 built as a commemoration for Alfonso Henriques victory in battle over the Moorish stronghold of Santarem. This magnificent architectural feat is closely linked with the arrival of the Cistercian Order as well as the birth of the nation. In the church are the tombs of King Peter I and his murdered mistress Inês de Castro and with it the story of the tragic liaison between Pedro and his ever-lasting love for Inês.

There are many delightful features; such as the abbey cloisters with its apt name of "Cloister of Silence", not forgetting the enormous Abbey kitchen with a running stream purposefully diverted to pass through as fresh water supply.
On having visited the Abbey in 1794, Lord Beckford commented that he found some 300 monks "living in a very splendid manner"!

Originally a fishing village Cascais gained reputation as a resort for Portugal's royal family in the late 1800s. It is a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal. Cascais offers a taste of Lisbon without the intricate navigations of an international city. For those who prefer to stay outside of the city yet however enjoy an urban and sophisticated environment Cascais is ideal, offering certain aspects of the jet-set lifestyle from fashionable boutiques and shopping centres to lavish restaurants and cafes. The town is also able to boast the famous Casino of Estoril as being the largest in Europe.

Cascais situated on the magnificent coastline also includes a large yacht harbour, and several small sand beaches. It has the ruins of a castle, an art and sea museum as well as parks and the charming cobbled streets of the historic centre.

The name towns name can be translated as "Queen's Spa”. Caldas da Rainha was founded by Queen Leonor, wife of King João II. in 1484. The name originated from when the queen came across a group of peasants bathing in foul-smelling waters by the roadside; taken back the queen enquired as to what they were doing, they claimed that the muddy waters contained great healing powers. Out of curiosity Queen Leonor decided to try it for herself, and she too became a believer in the cure. As a result of her beliefs in the therapy she founded a thermal hospital on the site, which is still standing to date and happens to be the oldest thermal hospital in the world.

Caldas is a vibrant market town. Any visit to Caldas must include a taste of real Portuguese culture by wandering through the market stalls. Fresh baked bread, lush ripe fruit, blossoming flowers and sea food is a taste of some of the fresh local produce that can found in the market place; (along with several interesting items that you certainly wouldn’t see at home). The town itself and the surrounding region is potty about Ceramics (no pun intended!) with ranges of pretty ornamental pieces, as well as a ceramics museum.

Obidos is the pride of the region, a fantastically preserved medieval portuguese town. The whole town, which has been classified as a National Monument, was traditionally the gift of the Kings of Portugal to their Queens. Obidos is known as the 'Wedding City' and was the traditional bridal gift of the Kings of Portugal to their Queens. The custom began in 1282 started by Dom Dinis and Dona Isabel and the town has changed little since.

Its very small and completely enclosed by the medieval walls, the streets are cobbled and lined with classic architectural white washed houses, with delightful floral displays of window boxes along the narrow streets. The exhilarating walk along the towns walls (not for the faint hearted) offers blinding views of the lagoon and surrounding picturesque countryside. The most striking building in the town is Dom Dinis's Castelo which has been converted to a wonderful Pousada.

Fish! Fish! Fish! The town is most famous locally for its numerous fish restaurants, local specialties being Roballo (Sea Bass) Sardine and shellfish.
This quaint fishing port of Peniche lies in the shelter of a great headland on Portugal's rugged Atlantic coast. Peniche is known for its long windy beaches, and along with neighbouring Baleal is the base for many recreational activities and water sports such as surfing, windsurfing or kite surfing. The area has mass surf following due to the exceptional conditions, with very fast and powerful (tubular) waves, some of the best in Europe; some call it the "European Pipeline". Widely recognised as the best and most consistent surf sport in Portugal, the peninsula of Peniche offers a north and south-facing coastline. The result is finest surfing conditions everyday regardless of the swell and wind direction.

At the edge of town on the waterfront, stands a 16th-century Fortaleza (fort), used as a prison during the repressive Salazar regime. It now contains a museum of local archaeology and crafts, incorporating former cells, solitary chambers and the visitors' grilles.

Strewn with grottoes and coves, the Berlenga Islands are an hour's journey by boat from Peniche. Berlenga Grande, the largest of the group, is a nature reserve with nesting sites for seabirds. During summer, the islands can be visited taking a ferryboat from Peniche.

The upmarket resort town of Estoril grew up in the 1920s as a resort modelled along the lines of the Cote d'Azur.
During World War II it was a safe haven for exiled royalty from all over Europe, including Italy's last king, Umberto II, and Karl Hapsburg, the last Austro-Hungarian emperor. All partial to the odd flutter, their pass time largely consisted of evenings spent gambling in the town's modern casino, which today is still the largest of its kind in Europe. Estoril is a cosmopolitan place close to the fringe of Lisbon with clean sandy beaches, a range of high-quality hotels, several championship golf courses and some of the best restaurants in the region.
Motor racing enthusiasts might like to visit the famous Estoril track, which lies in the shadow of the Sintra mountains.

The town, on the bank of the River Sisandro and nestling on the edge of Serra de Montejunto, Torres Vedras was a royal residence from the mid-13th to the early 16th century.

Previously inhabited by Celts, Visigoths, Romans and the Moors, the town is best known for its light, refreshing wines and beautifully maintained vineyards. Torres Vedras also hold some valuable history with the “Lines of Torres Vedras”, this was a network of fortified defences built by the Duke of Wellington in 1809, in place to repel Napoleon's troops and played a decisive role in the defence of Lisbon during the Peninsula War.

Traces of trenches and bastions are still evident near the restored fort of São Vicente. In the centrally-located Largo de São Pedro, winged dragons enliven the Manueline portal of the church of São Pedro, which was rebuilt in the 16th century. The inside features fascinating 18th-century azulejo glazed tiles depicting everyday life with a painted wooden ceiling. The tomb of Perestelo can be seen; João Lopes accompanied Vasco da Gama on his epic pioneering voyage to India in 1497.

Close to the heart of Portugal, the fairy-tale setting of Sintra is one of the oldest places in Portugal. Occupied by the Romans until 5 AD, it has been repeatedly praised by poets over the centuries, including Lord Byron who described it as a 'glorious Eden'.

The town's landscape is lush with surrounding green forests, exotic flowers and elaborate palaces built centuries ago as summer retreats for the royal family. When the Christian Crusaders captured it in 1147, they fought bitterly against the Moors firmly entrenched in their imposing castle, the ruins of which remain today.

There are several key attractions to explore in Sintra. On the main square is the National Palace (Palácio Nacional de Sintra), begun in the late 14th century and most distinguished for its tall, conical chimneys, Manueline windows, 16th- and 17th-century tiles and grand chambers such as the Swans Room with its magnificent ceiling divided into octagonal panels decorated with swans. Perched on a mountain top overlooking Sintra, the Palácio da Pena is a rich mix of Renaissance, Baroque, Moorish, Gothic and Manueline styles. With its impressive drawbridge, towers, battlements and daintily-furnished royal chambers, the palace remains much as it was when Queen Amelia lived there at the beginning of last century. The Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish castle) on the opposite hill dates from the 7th century. Founded in 1560 by the Viceroy of India, João de Castro, the remotely-situated Capuchos Convent hidden away in another part of the mountain consists of a dozen cork-lined cells cut out of the rock.

Foz Do Arelho is located 8 km west of Caldas da Rainha, set in beautiful surroundings of Obidos Lagoon and the sea. This seaside resort is a much loved tourist location, which in the height of summer is a magnet for sun seekers and beach lovers. The sea front bars offer stunning picture perfect views across the ocean and the lagoon, providing a therapeutic and relaxed environment (catching the sun set is spectacular).

The town, as with most of this Atlantic coastline stretch, is well known for its water sports; If the lagoon is too quiet for you, and surfing is more your thing, just go along to the lagoon entrance where you will find eager and normally very good surfers!

Fatima is a devotional shrine on prodigious scale, a pilgrim destination on par with Lourdes in France. Fátima's claim to fame is the shrine called the Sanctuary of Fátima, built to commemorate the events of 1917 when three peasant children claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary. The apparition then reportedly reappeared on the 13th of each of six subsequent months calling for peace in the world. On the day of the final apparition a crowd of over 70,000 people had gathered and claimed to witness the Miracle of the Sun, curing illnesses and disabilities of onlookers as the sun appeared to shake and tremble in the sky.

To this day on 13th Fátima now attracts hosts of believers from far and wide, and the shrine has been developed on a correspondingly large scale. The large torch-light processions in the evening are particularly impressive.

The heart of the city is the Baixa or city centre; this area of the city is being considered for World Heritage Site status. The Baixa is organised in a grid system and a network of squares built after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which levelled a big part of the medieval town. Other monuments include: The Castle of São Jorge, atop the tallest hill of the central city, Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square) with the beautiful façade of the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição Velha nearby, Rossio Square, Restauradores Square, Elevador de Santa Justa,

The city of Lisbon is rich in architecture; Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, Traditional Portuguese, Modern and Post-Modern constructions can be found all over the city. The city is also crossed by great boulevards and monuments along these main thoroughfares; notable among these are the Avenida da Liberdade, Avenida Fontes Pereira de Mello, Avenida Almirante Reis and Avenida da República.