Hi,
Wow! We have turned over a new year. I hope everyone had a blast saying goodbye to 2024 and welcoming in 2025. I really want to believe that this new year will go well, but what do I know? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
I didn’t come close to getting this blog out in a timely manner, but I won’t give you any excuses. Let’s just move on.
We have visited two sites in the past few weeks. First, we drove to Figueira da Foz on the Sunday after Christmas to partake in our new Christmas tradition (eating at an Asian buffet). Of course, we should have gone on Christmas Day (if we wanted to stick with the tradition as defined last year), but we failed at that. Still, Sunday was a bright, clear, beautiful day, so the pictures we took look better than they would have if we had gone on Christmas Day. Not that we took pictures of the food. We just ate that and then hit the road to scope out a couple of miradouros located in and around Figueira da Foz.
The first place we found was Miradouro da Boa Viagem (54P2+X8 Buarcos, Portugal), which is located on top of a line of mountains that run north of Figueira da Foz’s along the coastline. I suppose technically they are hills, not mountains, but this miradouro was up high and the other was down below, so mountains or not, we could see quite a distance.
Right next door to Miradouro da Boa Viagem was another miradouro (54Q2+J3 Buarcos, Portugal). This miradouro had better views than the Boa Viagem one, because trees had grown up at the overlook at Boa Viagem which narrowed our line of sight. So, we walked the dogs over to the other miradouro and took a couple of pictures. Right beneath us on the road that runs along the coast was a lighthouse (Farol do Cabo Mondego), which you can see at the end of this short video.
After admiring the scenery, we took the road down to the coast where we stopped at Miradouro do Cabo Mondego (53HW+P4 Buarcos, Portugal). We were closer to the ocean here, and the view was still spectacular.
All in all, it was a good day out. The dogs enjoyed the drive through the mountains, especially because we made several unscheduled stops just to take in the scenery along the way. They were not as intrigued as we were with the windmills (they are huge up close!), but that didn’t stop them from appreciating the unexpected stop. I always knew that the windmills were large – I see them all over the mountain ranges here. But this was the first time we saw them up close. I mean, we drove right underneath them!
Today, we drove to Águeda to see their Christmas Market. We were told that this market has the largest Santa in Portugal…and the world! I was doubtful, but once we arrived, I wholeheartedly agreed. Santa, seated on a box, was almost 70 feet tall. Imagine how tall he would be if he stood up!
As if Mega-Santa was not enough to make this market memorable, Águeda also has the smallest Santa in the world. However, we couldn’t find him, so I will just have to take their word for this nano-sculpture of Santa being real. They didn’t lie about Mega-Santa, right?
Like most markets, Águeda has stalls with trinkets and gift-items, along with food trucks of all kind and carnival rides. Opal and Onyx were not interested in getting on a ride, which was good, because I doubt they would be permitted to. They aren’t tall enough to ride this ride, ya know? But we did get a few pictures of the girls in front of Santa and other decorations, so they didn’t miss out.
Plus, we walked around downtown Águeda to see the decorations lining the streets around the market. Águeda is famous for hanging umbrellas over the pedestrian-friendly streets downtown to provide shade for locals and visitors during the hot summer months, and even for Christmas they use umbrellas in quite a few decorations. Yes, there are trees and stars and Christmas ornaments scattered around, but the umbrellas take center stage.
So that’s all I have to report for now. We are scheduled for rain all next week, but hopefully we will find a dry hour or two to get out and take some pictures to post for you all to see. Take care everyone and have a great new year!
Nola