April 27, 2022 - Figueira da Foz Exploring
Hotel - Marina Charming House
Restaurant
Why am I taking a day off to rest already? Am I a baby?
Maybe I am but this pause was 'just in case'. Never sure of how the going will be and how strong I might be after a long winter without cycling, I inserted this day off in case I needed to catch up to myself. This could be by bus to move foreward or a resting day for me, or repairs to the bike. As it turns out, everything is fine and I could have continued today, but I will take it to rest since after today I will be cycling for eight days in a row. The next rest day will be all the way down to Sintra.
Breakfast was served at 8 am and I was greeted by oodles and oodles of goodies - again, breads, meats, cheeses, yoghourts, fruit - and all set out beautifully in their nice little breakfast room. Very soon I was full and was back up to the room to decide what to do next.
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With this time I decided to put out feelers for the bike box. Since I had not heard back from my contact Filipe in a bit, I decided to call a few bike shops in Lisbon. When I called last year, Decathlon told me it would be no problem to give me a bike box and it would be for free. Well, when I called they said they don't get bike boxes any more. Yikes. The same when I called other shops - too small to keep boxes or they don't get them.
Not wanting to bother Filipe, but a little concerned, I did end up calling him, and he reassured me that he would have a box for me and after I offered, he said yes, I could pay him to bring me to the airport to catch my flight in two weeks. All I need do is touch base a few days prior. Whew!
With that issue solved, I headed out into a gloriously sunny morning. Though it had been raining in the night, now the sun was out and the north wind was blowing the clouds to the south. According to the forecast, rain is much less likely for the next number of days, plus, it still appears that for a good number of days I will be getting a fairly brisk tailwind and occasionally a cross wind, but seemingly no more headwinds.
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I could see waves crashing on the rocks so headed straight toward them and out to the end of the pier where there was a lighthouse. A number of fishermen were there with their really long poles, but I didn't see anything caught. As I came back toward the beaches, I noticed the sheltered little beach I had seen yesterday. I pulled off my socks and shoes and walked over to the water's edge and in up to my ankles. COLD!!!! But it was nice, since I think these are my first steps onto a beach since Cuba in 2020.
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The beach had a spot to rinse off the sand, so with my shoes back on I continued along the walkway and toward the park I had seen yesterday. Then an idea started to formulate. What if I continued back in the direction from yesterday toward that restaurant that I saw? The one that looked like the typical old-style like our family went to back in 1982. At first I missed the street, but with the help of my map I ended up finding it. What seemed like a tiny place from the entrance opened into big sections in the back including one which was open-air which I liked. I asked for a menu (in french which the server spoke) but she said there were no menus but rattled off their offerings, including grilled fish with potatoes - she said it was a traditional dish. So I chose the fish... with a Sumol.
Lucky with my restaurant again, the fish was amazing. There was garlicky olive oil drizzled on everything and the simple mixed salad was delicious. I was too full for dessert, so paid and went back to exploring on foot.
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Back in that same park, I sat to look around a bit and listen to the birds and to the wind through the palm trees and eucalyptus when all of a sudden it was raining really hard against the back of my head. Actually, the sprinklers had come in to water the new sod in the park. I wasn't the only person in the park to jump up and dash to safety.
I sat a little longer then made my way through more of the back streets in the general direction of my guesthouse. I could see some restaurants were open, and in quite a few cases, what looked like former restaurants were not open. I'm not sure if this is because it is low season right now or if the pandemic killed those businesses. Either way, though there are people around, it is by no means busy around here. Most people seem to be either locals or at least Portuguese with the very occasional French or German tourist. I have seen none from North America.
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