Nazaré

I had some work to do and a writing project and an application I wanted to work on, and--I'll be honest--I kinda just wanted to kick it somewhere for a week straight. The Atlantic Coast beach town of Nazaré ended up being that place and it was awesome.

Above the main town is a bluff with an upper part of town and that bluff points out into a rather famous part of the ocean: Praia do Norte, which is one of the world's most impressive surfing spots when the weather is right. The weather was NOT right this week, which means that it was really beautiful and not windy out, which was fine with me. But it was still fun to go check out the gorgeous point...

...and gorgeous lighthouse...

...which sat atop an old fortress that is now a surfing museum. I don't really know anything about famous surfers, so all these boards donated by different luminary athletes were wasted on me, but even so the vibe in that room was eerily reverential and cool to experience.

The view back down at the main part of town, also not so shabby.

Bluff-top church.

I couldn't stop taking pictures!

It was especially cool to see those fishing boats coming in at the end of the day. There would also be fish drying on racks on the beach all the time.

And a bunch of older Portuguese women selling the dried fish along the promenade.

I suspect this boat had a good amount of fish on board.

And I suspect I will not forget this lovely spot anytime soon.