13/09/2015
Today we leave Sintra. We will travel North to the village of Óbidos. But first we wanted to find the vineyards of Colares.
In the 19th century, Europe had a bit of a problem. That problem presented itself in a tiny little bug called Phylloxera. It pretty much destroyed all the vineyards around Europe. People were frantically doing strange things like planting toads under the vines in a desperate attempt to save the precious vines, while in Colares, the vines were doing just great. It seems like the little bugs didn’t quite like the sandy soils and sea breezes. Which worked out rather well for Colares.
Being a Sunday, we were not sure whether the cellars would be open. But we went looking for some signs of vineyards anyway. This resulted in us driving around some extremely narrow streets. We now know where Penedo is – a little village with the most stunning views, and streets that would make any golf-cart pathway look like a highway! In these narrow street, we found an Adega (cellar), that was a tiny house that looked like it might, at times, serve guests in some form or way. They redirected us to a larger adega, that had a sign up boasting that they were open on Sundays. They weren’t, as the owner annoyingly tried to convince Niel over the intercom at the gate. Back at the original Adega, we were once again redirected to a village closer to the see. Here we found traces of vineyards (as well as the area’s sewerage works!). Research indicated that the vines grow “in very sandy soil and the branches extend in a unique way twisting and turning along the ground giving them an unusual appearance.” We never managed to see this (and not for a lack of trying, I might add), and so we decided to rather continue on to our destination for the day.
Imagine being given an entire town as a gift on your wedding day. This is what Queen Isabel got in 1282. And what a lovely gift it is. Óbidos is such a lovely little village surrounded by a 13m medieval wall. Lovely shops line the main street, and I even saw a hauberk (vest made of mail (metal rings joined together to make a wired mesh)).
We wondered around the village for a while, had a great supper, and had lots of fun taking photographs of this lovely village.
