11th-13th April. Nazaré

We reach the pilgrimage site of Nazaré and spend 2 relaxed nights here. In the morning, we head to the local weekly market where we stock up on fresh bakery products, meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables. We love these markets because we can be sure that the products are truly regional and the fresh strawberries, etc. are mostly grown by the sellers themselves. Slowly, the number of German tourists is decreasing and English is rarely enough to communicate, so my rudimentary knowledge of Spanish and hand gestures are sufficient. However, the menus of the restaurants now offer original Portuguese specialties instead of just traditional tapas and burgers. Although there is an extensive range of strange seafood options that don't suit my taste, we try some experiments. One thing is for sure, the freshness is never in doubt. Here, you can choose your own mussels directly from the water basin in front of the restaurant. Unlike the dried sardines hanging on the beach, which we couldn't bring ourselves to try.

Finally, we like Nazaré better than expected. So, we take the cable car up to the 200m higher district with a stunning view of the beach where the highest waves in Europe can break (thanks to the shallows just off the coast). However, there were no 30-meter high waves to be seen on that day, so we went back down and comfortably settled in with our little one who has become quite an expert on restaurants.