One thing we have really been missing in Portugal is good coffee. Sure, we get decent expresso everywhere, but the grounds we get at home or make in the Land Rover have been pretty dismal. We have just been buying supermarket beans and the last two we tried were so freaking bad we chucked them them out in disgust.
So to go to a good coffee shop with REAL beans in Peniche, Portugal - actually a little town up the road called Ferell, was a must do scenario.
The cafe, called Sol, is quite cool. It's clearly run by surfers - both the look and the boards as decor. They apologized their machine was broken but like true coffee cowboys, had no problem offering us a perfect v60 served in a beaker or an aeropress.
They only play music from old cassette tapes, have bands occasionally, and serve coffees in homemade ceramic cups made from Peniche clay and with a eucalyptus ash glaze. Yeah as I said, cool.
We got some nice Burundi roast beans which made the Landie smell delish. To be honest they are a little too sweet and subtle for us - we prefer something a little chocolate and knock ya socks off in the morning kinda brew (if we were wearing any) but still, at least it didn't taste like dishwater!
We were grateful for a chat and some tips for coffee shops and roasters in Porto. One needs to fuel ones road trip after all!
Peniche itself was lovely. It's very much an old fishing town with a surfing community woven into it. It's unique as there is a kinda isthmus with an island at the end and you can find surf on either side depending on wind direction and swell size. There's a surf break called Supertubos on one side that can be heavier but on this day it was pretty small with tons of people about. One thing we have noticed about surf in Europe is that there's absolutely tons of surf schools and EVERYWHERE is crowded. It was windy too so we didn't even bother.
One thing that was pretty groovy was an abandoned restaurant right at the end where the lighthouse is. It used to be Michelin starred. We don't know why it was abandoned, perhaps it's tenuous spot on the rocks. But boy, what a stellar view.
We walked around some pretty nice cliff tops and enjoyed various views. By this time I was feeling ill and seemed to have a bit of gastro so we decided to stay in a caravan park so I could be close to a toilet. Ew.
Luckily I felt better the next day so I could enjoy my Sol coffee!
It's getting harder to post now. My data plan is scant (hence the collage uploads) and as I'm more relaxed, I spend less time online. I feel any day now I'll be called home. Dad has his scan results tomorrow so we will know more then.
I hope you are enjoying these little updates. They're getting a little jumbled now, time wise, as I start losing what day it is. I guess that's a good thing though, right? I'm more relaxed.
Relaxed enough to drink coffee again, anyway!
With Love,
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