Surf and Church

Peniche, Obidos, Foz do Arelho, Nazare, Tomar

18 - 20 Mar 2026

The rain did not depart upon our departure from Cascais. The storm responsible – now had a name, Storm Therese,  and it will be with us, to some extent until Saturday 21 March. But one good thing about this storm is that it had stirred up the ocean a little – so as we travelled up the coast, we were able to enjoy seeing some good Atlantic swells crash onto the shore.  Indeed – most beaches we encountered would not be good places to swim… but excellent places to surf.

But before going on – a small detour into some comments on the housing here in Portugal. In Spain we commented that many of the villages looked like they had been planned by an artist – with a high sense of harmony – generally with a church at their centre. However, one can’t say that about villages in Portugal… indeed, it feels a bit like being different from your neighbour is what counts (one could be unkind and say “disharmony” is present)… there is lots of colour on display – perhaps in part due to the juxtaposition of villages with the coast – where there seems always to be a breeze present – cooling the environment, so unlike in Spain – no need for everything in the south to be white.  Also, perhaps because the climate leads to lots of growth – weeds abound everywhere – making things look a lot less “cared for” / unkempt.  The exceptions are the large tracts of new housing/flats built near the coast – which curiously, tend all to be white!

Evidence of the impacts of the storms in late January is everywhere in the south. There are vast areas of fallen trees, including those that had stood for over 100 years. Road signs, power poles, and even motorway infrastructure were not immune to damage either.   But back to our travels.

On arriving in Perniche, we climbed over the large sand dunes to see what we could see… As it turned out a beautiful coastline with surfers dotting the sea (a little like flies on a carcass, I must say, sorry) and all, apparently, waiting for “that perfect wave”, before climbing onto their boards.

To our eyes, there seemed to be a lot of “perfect waves” – but almost no takers among the experts in the water! Perhaps they were waiting for a “Supertubos”  (I understand that surfers understand what this term means) – as Perniche has some of the best in Europe – we are told?

We carried on around the peninsula to Cabo Carvoeiro – which gave us a chance to view Portugal’s equivalent of the Punakaiki pancake rocks – which are “a unique example of the Toarcian turnover during the worldwide Early Jurassic extinction” Clear??

And in colour, we witnessed some nice waves too!

Of course, Perniche has a fortress too – part of the Portuguese Coast defences – which had a second life as a prison for communists during the Salazar years…

But before we move on to Obidos – one more “sky scape” from Peniche…(stormy weather is great for photography!).

We didn’t so much visit Obidos, as “pass through” Obidos – with just time to stop and take a photo of part of the Wall that surrounds the city… At this point we have seen / visited a good number of medieval (or earlier) defensive walls and were not sure that adding another to the list would much improve our interest in such features… isn’t that sad!

So to be fair... we took a second photograph (90 degrees to the right of the one above)...just to show it really was "raining"...

We arrived at our campsite in Foz do Arelho, late in the day. Sadly, the campsite had been devastated by the January storms. It looked like most of the trees at the campsite had fallen – and as the attendant said – it will take a 100 years to return to what it looked like before the storms.

But at the beach – the waves from Storm Therese were pounding the coast! To our eyes, they looked like they were more than 5m high!

More nice skies too...

The following day, we were heading for Tomar, via Nazare and the Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitoria (aka Batalha Monastery). But first Nazare. It seemed hard to bypass this famous location, known for the huge (30m) waves that pound the coast here. The largest surfed to date, being 26.2m high. However, it has a quieter side (from a marine wave point of view) and a fishing fleet operates out of the port on the southern side of the headland – an area of the coast that has only been occupied since the beginning of the 19^th Century… because before then that part of the coast suffered from raids initially by Vikings, then later, by  French, English and Dutch pirates!  Before then – the inhabitants stuck to the headland!

After some careful manoeuvring around the streets in the town, we found a park quite near the Surf Viewpoint… and after paying a slightly dodgy looking character €2 – to watch over BF while we were away – we set off to explore.

We noted some interesting political statements:

And some views of the Light house building and the surf (there was some - though they looked and sounded more impressive in reality, than they do in a photograph)…

There was a lone surfer too – but the jet ski that he was using to tow him out to the waves kept becoming inverted – so they seemed to give up after the 3^rd or so attempt, and everyone lost interest!

Of course, wherever there is a crowd, there are sellers of this and that… and here we met a sister in Christ, dressed in the traditional garb of a fisherman’s wife – complete with her 7 petticoats. Why seven… well you can take your choice from several options: 1) To keep warm while waiting on the beach for their husbands’ to return, 2) It’s the number of days in the week, with one skirt being removed each day as they pray for their husbands' safe return, 3) a symbol of strength and tradition for the women of Nazaré… etc.

We moved on to Batalha, to visit the Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitoria. It was erected in commemoration of the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota (where the Portuguese beat the Castilians, who had their eye on the Portuguese throne!) and would serve as the burial church of the 15th-century Aviz dynasty of Portuguese royalty.

Apparently, it is one of the best and original examples of “Late Flamboyant Gothic” architecture in Portugal. It took over a century to build, starting in 1386 and ending circa 1517, spanning the reign of seven kings. Curiously, it is still “unfinished” – as a result of King Manuel I deciding to put all his efforts into the construction of the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon. And – as is becoming “normal” for the history of the Iberian Peninsula, Napoleonic troops sacked and burned the complex in 1810 and 1811. Then, when the Dominicans were expelled from the complex in 1834, the church and convent were abandoned and left to fall into ruin. But in 1840 king Ferdinand II of Portugal started a restoration program of the abandoned and ruined convent, saving this jewel of Gothic architecture – which is quite “severe” compared to all the Baroque structures we have seen to date!

It has some of the earliest stain glass windows found in Portugal – the section of a stain glass shown here probably dates from around 1530.

The nave is vast and narrow (22m) in proportion to its height (32m) – and there is no ornamentation.  

The square Founder's Chapel was built between 1426 and 1434 on orders of King John I to become the first royal pantheon in Portugal. The joint tomb of King John I of Portugal (d. 1433) and his wife Philippa of Lancaster (d. 1415) stands under the star vault of the octagon (that is them, below!). Their statues lie in full regalia, with clasped hands - expressing the good relations between Portugal and England. Indeed, Britain and Portugal have never officially fought a war against each other. They hold the world's longest-standing alliance, established by the Treaty of Anglo-Portuguese Alliance of 1373 and the Treaty of Windsor (1386), which remains in effect through till today

It rained (again) while we were there – which was interesting – because we got to see the gargoyles  in operation!

It was getting quite late by now, and raining hard, and we still had a ways to go to get to Tomar – so rather than take the N roads (in 200m take the 3^rd exit at the roundabout , followed almost immediately by, in 600m at the roundabout take the first exit, followed by, at the…) – we turned off “avoid motorways” in Google Maps – and motored up the highway at 90kph… until we got to Tomar.  There were 5 possible places to stay here, of which 4 were “campsites” – but one was closed, and the fourth was a “motorhome stop over – in essence in a farmer’s paddock. The first one we tried was down a very steep drive – with no apparent reception, we left. The second was down another dodgy narrow road, but overlooking a hydro lake, had great reviews, and was open today (according to CamperContact… but upon arrival was very definitely closed… No problem – we will go to the last “open” campsite… but after navigating through more cross country dodgy roads… it too was closed - which left the motorhome park over place… more narrow roads (and now in complete darkness) – and guess what… there was no evidence of anyone there, or any other motorhomes! Annoying… But in all of this coming and going between possible campsites – we had seen a small area on the side of the road in front of a derelict house … with plenty of room for BF… and so it was there that we camped the night. It had been a long day! Tomorrow – Tomar, home of the Knights Templar… and Henry the Navigator!

The town of Tomar was created inside the walls of the Convento de Cristo, constructed under the orders of the fourth Grand Master of the Knights Templar in Portugal in the late 12th century and was the last Templar town to be commissioned for construction, and is one of Portugal's historical jewels. The town was especially important in the 15th century when it was a centre of Portuguese overseas expansion under Henry the Navigator, the Grand Master of the Order of Christ, successor organization to the Knights Templar in Portugal.

And as you no doubt expect, under the modern city lies the Roman city of Sellium.  After the conquest of the region from the Moors in the Portuguese Reconquista, the land was granted in 1159 as a fief to the Order of the Knights Templar. In 1190 the Moors tried again to take the City, however the knights (200 defenders) and their 72-year-old leader, Gualdim Pais, kept them at bay.

In 1314, under pressure from the Pope Clement V, the order was suppressed. Philip IV of France, who owed the Templars huge debts, held the pope a virtual prisoner and coerced him to suppress the order on bases of false accusations and forced confessions. The Order was suppressed in most of Europe and its holdings were to be transferred to the Knights Hospitaller. Instead, King Dinis (of Portugal) negotiated the transfer of the Order's possessions and personnel in Portugal to a newly created Order of Christ. In 1420 Henry the Navigator was made the Governor of the Order and the Order of Christ Accordingly, the Templer cross was painted in the sails of the caravels that crossed the seas, and the Catholic missions in the new lands were under the authority of the Tomar clerics until 1514.

The round church (rotunda) of the castle of Tomar was built in the second half of the 12th century. The church, like some other templar churches throughout Europe, was modelled after the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was believed by the crusaders to be a remnant of the Temple of Solomon. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem may also have served as model. And this “rotunda” is perhaps the most majestic structure we have seen in any of our travels.

And here are some more images from the rotunda... which really was focused on Jesus....

The rotunda occupies just a small percentage of the footprint of the Convent – e.g., it had 60 rooms for visitors as well as all the facilities needed to care for everyone on site (e.g. central heating, a very large kitchen and storage room, and of course a large dining room, along with any number of  Cloisters, e.g. of Santa Barbara, of D. Jaoa III, of Lavagem, of Cemeterio). It also possesses the famous  Chapter House “Manueline” Window – which means it includes most of the typical Manueline motifs: the symbols of the Order of Christ and of Manuel I, and elaborations of ropes, corals and vegetal motifs.

The town of Tomar has other interesting features, including: the best preserved mediaeval synagogue in Portugal built in the mid-15th century (i.e. pre-expulsion of the Jews in 1492), and curiously, the Museu dos Fosforos (Matchbox Museum) – the biggest private matchbox collection in Europe. But we had run out of time (and it was after 1PM when many places close) – so it was time to leave and head for our next stop Aveiro.

Nice door...

But that required another refresh of diesel. When we first filled, in mid-February, Diesel cost €1.46 / litre… On the 21^st March – we paid €2.06 / litre – as a result of Trump’s war.  We have now travelled just on 4,000 km over the last 5 weeks.