The Giant Waves of Nazaré

With Cascais behind us we take the slow train to Nazare. The e is hyphenated but I don't know how to do that. (CE: long press the e 🤓) From the pictures it seems like a good choice and someone back state side mentioned it. So off we went.
Our train stop was the town of Valado dos Frades. From there we had to arrange for a taxi to bring us into Nazare. No problem. Valado is one of those dying towns from what I observed. Half the place was for sale.
We made it to the steps of our Airbnb where Caroline, who was already frustrated with our host, tried multiple times to contact her to find out where she was at. I thought there was going to be a cat fight when she finally showed up. Yikes.

This is a fishing village but is also famous for its BIG waves. In excess of 100 feet tall. Some of the biggest ever surfed.
2020 Olympics:
https://youtu.be/GJc4Ir78KdE
100’ World Record Wave: https://youtu.be/74pnrYPozcU
Nazaré waves explained: https://youtu.be/RuN2AnKyMio

Besides the waves it has three beaches, all of which were calm during our visit. The South beach is the swimming and hanging out beach and the north beach is for the surfers.

Our accommodation was adequate (more hard beds and pillows hooray!) and was on the upper part of the village. When I say upper I am not joking. See photos. Almost daily we walked down to the lower part of town which was along a windy cobblestone pathway with a swing midway down. Once down, you worked your way through narrow streets and alleyways. We found the local market which was great. Lots of fresh produce, bread, cheese, honey, fish and meat. Also a few small coffee shops and smoothies. And the prices for everything were very reasonable. It would be no problem to walk out of there with a full meal ready to cook including protein for two people for under ten euro.

We went for walks daily which was wonderful. The promenade on the lower south beach was great and once did the entire marina which round trip was six miles. That included climbing up those steps. We found a great sushi restaurant where we overindulged on sushi and wine. It was fantastic.

It is our last day here and off for the next slow train ride north on our eventual stop in Porto where we get the car. As I type, I am listening to the church bells chime away. I am assuming this is to let everyone know that Mass will be starting shortly as it is now 09:43. There is no other reason I can think of for this to happen. The bells are non stop. Its pretty cool, I can see them for the table here in the kitchen. Oh, and occasionally there are daytime fireworks with the bells (see video). Not sure if that’s just a Wednesday thing or some special occasion.

Well its time to finish packing and get ready to taxi to the train station. Take care all. CheersRead more