Obidos

Obidos was a place we really wanted to see having heard and read good things about, so we headed there pretty early so that we could spend the best part of the day there. It's known as the 'wedding city' as in the past it was the traditional bridal gift given by the king of Portugal to his queen. The small city is perched on a hill surrounded by castle walls and it looked really impressive even as we approached it. We found a parking spot just outside the city walls under the old viaduct, which was also an Aire where we could have stayed the night as for a few euros. We had other plans and more places we wanted to visit though so we decided to just park there for the day.

As soon as we entered through the walls we could see how beautiful the city was, with its cobbled streets and whitewashed buildings. It seemed as if there was a Scandinavian influence as there was Swedish flags flying and women making and selling flowery head bands like the ones worn at Midsommar. The city was built during the medieval period and it has definitely still retained that influence as well, with all the shops selling knights swords and shields, many people dressed in armour and medieval clothes and we even saw a guy dressed like Gandalf, stood at the gates chatting on his mobile. The narrow streets were bustling with people but when we were chatting with a shop assistant she said that only about 70 people actually live within the walls now, so we wondered what it must be like at night time. At the end of the main street we came to what was once a church but was now converted into a bookshop. It was odd seeing inside book shelves where once an alter would have been.

We took a walk around the top of the city walls which was quite a hairy experience as there was no railing on the inner side and it was pretty high up. The views from up there were really good though as we could see the surrounding countryside on the outer side and the whole city below us on the inner side.

In the main square is another church – Ingreja de Santa Maria – where royal weddings were held back in the Middle Ages. We went inside to have a look and Angie lit a good luck candle for our friends Dawn and Graham who are getting married at the end of the summer. The inside of the church is decorated with really nice designs of azulejos (the blue and white tiles typical of Portugal).

We stopped for a drink in the main square and overheard someone say that the oldest building in Obidos was just behind the church so we went there for a look. We walked round the back and found a building that had an archway and a restaurant called Arco de Cadeia so we sat and had a coffee and the waitress told us that it was the oldest building in the city dating back to the 12th Century. The building was originally the magistrates courtroom and holding cells for prisoners awaiting trail and that if the prisoners were found guilty of their crime they would be led over the archway to the prison, as it was tradition that a prisoners feet shouldn't touch the floor of the city.