We originally had a tour scheduled at 0845 to go to Obidos, Nazare, and somewhere else. But the tour company canceled about 45 minutes before we left because there weren’t enough tourists. What to do? Turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we decided to take a Obidos ourselves and save money. Rebecca, Michelle, and I took a bus ride to Obidos. It is easy to travel there directly by bus from the Campo Grande bus station. It’s nine Euros each way. You buy the ticket from the driver.
Turns out, taking Uber in Lisbon is the best idea. They are reliable and cheap. However, we found that that there could be trouble because there are places that have the same name. If you’re not paying close attention, you will select the wrong destination and then head out to the wrong place. It almost happened this morning heading to the Campo Grande bus station. I put in Campo Grande bus station and didn’t realize that Campo Grande is a large area, and there are two separate bus terminals. Fortunately we wandered around asking people where to go and made our way to the correct bus.
I you love cherries like me, then Obidos is “Cherry Heaven.” Ginja de Óbidos or “Cherry Liqueur” is the famous local drink. It originated with 17th-century monks in the region. They combined Morello cherries and brandy, and drank it after dinner.
Ginja are funny little fruit. They look like cherries. They grow on trees like cherries. They have pits like cherries, but they are much more sour than cherries. This bitterness makes the fruit almost inedible. Yet, a liquor produced using this fruit is an amazing treat among Portuguese.
An enterprising Portuguese friar in the 19th century started “Cherry Heaven.” Legend has it that Francisco Espinheira, of the Church of Santo Antonio in Lisbon, fermented ginja in some Portuguese brandy. He added sugar, water and cinnamon. Soon, Ginja became the favorite liquor of residents of Lisbon and throughout the region. Another entrepreneur named Pimpão discovered that pouring the cherry liqueur into small chocolate cups raises the taste to new heights.
Spent the day walking around visiting the various shops. Actually, my day was mostly spent standing outside the shops waiting for Rebecca and Michelle to leave the shops. Fortunately, there were shops and kiosks everywhere selling the cherry liqueur in chocolate cups for 1.5 euros each. I spent a lot of money, so the wait outside the shops seemed shorter than it actually was. Of course I bought nothing in the shops.
However, people watching is always fun. We heard a couple of guys walking behind us talking about episodes of Seinfeld. Rebecca and I ran into a family from Germany while Michelle was shopping. Strange encounter. A few young girls passed us in awful cheerleader outfits. This German guy makes a comment about them being cheerleaders from the U.S. We agreed and a conversation started. Turns out this family—a father, mother, and two daughters—are from a town just outside Cologne, Germany. Rebecca mentioned something about us being there while on a river cruise in few weeks. He said to be careful on November 11th because that is the beginning of Carnival season. He showed us pictures of the city with wall-to-wall (or street-to-street) mobs of people drinking and partying. I would say they were packed like sardines, but sardines don’t drink.
Anyhow, I checked our itinerary and saw that yes, in fact, we will be docked in Cologne during the day on November 11th
The German man said it would be likely that the Cologne cathedral would be closed. Guess that means our tours of the City would be canceled. He gave us his card and told us to give him a call when we arrived in Cologne. Obidos sits inside a fortress surrounded by a wall. You can walk on the wall, but the path looked a bit dangerous since barely two people could pass and there was no railing on one side. So we skipped waling the wall.