Óbidos - A Medieval Town

 

Hello everyone from the old Roman settlement at the foot of a high mountains! A  few of us from the company got together and travelled by morning bus to Óbidos, an hour away from Lisbon. We decided to go for the day as it had the famous "Vila de Natal Harry Potter" theme that day and the town was very lively.

When you enter the city, you see that most of it remains a well-preserved example of medieval architecture; the streets, squares, ramparts and castle are a popular tourist destination. The entrance is a fortress gate and inside you are first greeted by the "Porta da Vila" made of Portuguese ceramics "Azulejos".  Because it was the weekend and the Harry Potter concept, the city - or rather the town - was really crowded.

Here is my site that I sell some photos that I took for your home decoration : Viki Abroad

Azulejos

Before we started wandering on the streets of "Direita", we drank "ginjinha" in Portuguese chocolate cups and looked around admiring the Christmas decorated streets. Doors, shops, places were all decorated to attract tourists.

The city reminded me a bit of Şirince in Izmir, Turkey. On the way to Şirince, you can see the ruins of several Roman aqueducts as the village was an important water source for ancient Ephesus. There is also the "Aqueduto de Usseira" in Óbidos, but this one is much longer. The streets of Şirince are narrow and cobbled like Óbidos and there are many places where you can drink mulled wine. I can almost smell the same air and get the same energy. I left a source for you to review below 😊

Óbidos is a city with a long history, which fell under the influence of various empires after the fall of Rome, but was finally recaptured by Portugal in the 12th century. In the 14th century the castle and walls were rebuilt and strengthened, and in the 16th century it suffered another earthquake.  For the fancier, I read that every July the castle of Óbidos hosts a traditional 'Medieval Market'. For two weeks the castle and the surrounding town recreates the spirit of Medieval Europe, I didn't visit but I might consider it next year 😊

 

Houses inside the castle walls

There was a Harry Potter concept that is actively going on at the moment and the whole team has bought tickets for it, except me and a few other people. I'm actually a Harry Potter fan, but fortunately I didn't enter, they say there were more arrangements for children.

What should we do, I'm here for the first time, so I took my camera with a wide angle lens and we started to climb the castle stairs. Yes, you can climb the castle walls! I have never done this before, has anyone tried it? We started climbing, I felt the desire to take photos at every corner of the castle walls. On the one hand, I felt like an archer standing guard over the castle and watching the enemy. After walking a part of the castle wall, the rest of it was closed due to the Harry Potter event, we went down and had a ginjinha, beer and a small lunch break. 

Ginjinha

After a little rest, we visited the "Santa Maria" church and lit our candles. Then we set off again to climb the castle walls. There was an incredible Harry Potter ticket queue, we had already decided not to go 😊 We climbed up from the other side to watch the view, in the same way, we continued by feeling the texture of the castle walls and watching the surroundings. Of course, we were not the only crazy ones, there were a lot of people walking on the walls despite the "dangerous" warning at the entrances. Yes, in fact, one side of you is a small cliff, and the other side continues as the wall of the castle built of lime and marble stones. The texture is really great, you should definitely walk if you go! After completing our tour, we decided to meet the rest of the team and have dinner. We were tired of walking on the castle walls that surrounded almost the whole city!

Of course, the day was spent with a long walk and a little laziness. However, if you have a vehicle, you can also include the following in the list of things to do:

-You can discover the aqueduct closely

-You can visit the Mercy Church and the walls of the old Jewish quarter, which it remained in my mind and couldn't see.

-You can visit the library, but I can't give you a name  because I didn't visit it.

- You can go to the "Bacalhôa Buddha Eden" Park, or even take me with you if you go, I didn't have a car this time ☹

That's it for my day trip this week. I bought the tickets for the journey back home 30 minutes ahead, guaranteed our place and spent a day back to Lisbon and reviewing the photos I took.

Happy discovering to everyone!

 

Şirince english source I liked : https://www.unwto.org/tourism-villages/en/villages/sirince/

Óbidos : https://www.cm-obidos.pt/ (change language)

Buddha Eden : https://www.obidosportugaltourism.com/guide/buddha-eden-garden.html