The following morning, we were greeted by sunny skies and beautiful views from our balcony. After stuffing ourselves with the delicious breakfast, we headed along the coast north of our hotel. Destination—Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe.
In the 16th century, there used to be a fortress over here, but nowadays, only a fully functioning lighthouses still operates on the cliff.
Situated at a latitude of 38º 47´ North and a longitude of 9º 30´ West Cabo da Roca attracts hundreds of visitors daily. In fact, when we pulled in to the parking lot, a busload of Asian tourists were heading for the viewing platform. It’s obviously a popular place to stop at on the way from Lisbon to Sintra via a scenic route.
We tried walking as far as we could to the cliff drop off.
…To take our traditional selfie. It was starting to sprinkle by then.
My sweet husband at the edge of the world (well, at the edge of Europe).
We didn’t spend more than 20 min at the lookout point as we had one place in mind that we wanted to visit. On the way out of the village we saw some food stands where the locals were selling some homemade food. We got some cookies (that were so delicious we had to stop by again at this same place at the end of the day) and these weird things that we were brave enough to try.
The old lady who sold them to me didn’t speak any English, but the people who were buying kilograms of this stuff from her did translate to me that this is barnacles. She had some raw ones and some cooked ones stored in a pot. I opted for the cooked ones-haha. They tasted very salty, and you don’t eat the hard “claw” part, just the “meat” inside. Weird stuff.
Oh yes, one of our favorites was next.
Convent of the Capuchos.
This old convent is located deep in the forest along the windy road that takes you from the coast to Sintra. This place is quite tiny but mysterious. The convent was founded in 1560 by Dom Alvaro de Castro, a state councilor to King Sebastiao, and was given to the Franciscan friars (I really like that word “friar”). This convent is also known as the Cork Convent because cork was extensively used for insulation and decoration of its tiny spaces.
This is one of the places where I recommend paying extra for an audioguide. We only paid for one handset (and not two) for a couple of reasons: a) we are cheap and b) I wanted to be able to listen to the narration with Robert’s cheek close to my cheek (you know, for all the cute reasons?
). We had the place to ourselves as it was a bit of a rainy day in the middle of January (who goes to a Portuguese convent in the winter?). That gave us an incredible perspective on what kind of life those monks had in the tiny convent. Everything had its symbols, purpose and customs.
). We had the place to ourselves as it was a bit of a rainy day in the middle of January (who goes to a Portuguese convent in the winter?). That gave us an incredible perspective on what kind of life those monks had in the tiny convent. Everything had its symbols, purpose and customs.
The gate to the convent.
A few last pictures outside before entering the sacred place. We were not allowed to take photographs because of the nature of the building.
The inside was so crammed! The rooms where the monks slept, read and prayed were tiny! You had to kneel down in order to enter the room. Only a few monks lived there at any specific time (eight, if I remember it right). One, apprentice monk, got to have the biggest room of them all with access to the exit door that led outside the convent as a reminder that he could leave any time he wanted if he didn’t think he was cut out for this life.
This is the outside of the convent.
We only learned all this interesting information because of the audio guide. Otherwise, this place could have been explored in 20 minutes.
We walked around going up and down the hill near the convent for a few more minutes after we finished listening to the audioguide. This forested area was very mysterious…
After the convent we turned back to the coast and drove up north once again to find a place recommended to us by our friends who live in the area (and were stationed with us in Japan). It was a seafood place with amazing views. Here is the restaurant on the right.
We didn’t realize that even in the wintertime this place would be busy (well, we should have considered that since it was Sunday lunchtime), but we managed to get a table, although not right next to the window. I had octopus and Robert had tuna—both were delicious but not amazing.
The views outside didn’t disappoint though.
After our very late lunch we drove back down to our fort-hotel and decided we should take a quick trip closer to Lisbon.
To Be Continued…
Lyana.
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