My eyes were so confused. They didn't know where to look first, at the sublime blue colour of the ocean, the sky that received a brighter shade of the same blue or the green cliffs of the Portuguese coast. It was like an inability to focus just on one thing, as you want to see everything. It could easily become a blurry picture of the whole landscape... but in the end, it came out well, the ocean, sky and cliff managed to squeeze themselves into one photo. The first picture, above.
The place coming today to my blog was captured on our latest trip we made to Portugal. It was more than a month ago 😱... Time flies too quickly. I had my old Nikon camera with me, but mainly I was forgetting to take it on our walks. And also, it is not very comfortable carrying many things, I like to walk around light. A phone also can serve to take a few photos. The one below is also a phone photo. It's the beach of the beautiful Portuguese coastal town, of Nazaré.
This town even has a deer-headed statue that looks toward the ocean and the waves. Maybe I could make a little guessing game to ask for his name, but that would be too easy :D
So, this statue we are seeing right now is Veado, as I said a deer-headed person who has a surfboard on his right. There is a legend connected to Veado, but not that I am going to write it down. Who wants to learn more about it, here is the link to do that. I didn't come here because of a legend, but because a student of mine visited Nazaré last year and adventured himself in surfing. He came home with a serious neck injury 😬. He told me that this is the mecca for surfers in Portugal and a great place to feed our souls with stunning landscapes. I do believe him now, after seeing the long and huge waves!
At first, we had to walk down a path from the old city centre. The water was still far away and showed just a tiny part of itself.
We continued walking and my company didn't believe me that there is also a lighthouse at the end of the path. I like to do a bit of research before we visit a place, so I knew that a lighthouse should be somewhere there. But still, it was not visible although it was not a long distance. That is one of the reasons that this time I did take my photo camera with me. I knew that I would not be bothered with that additional weight for that little walk. And the views would be simply gorgeous...
Yep!!
I was right :D
At the end of this little road, there was the lighthouse I already saw in the photos while searching for more information about Nazaré and a question if it would be worth making this stop on our route. I sent a photo from there to my parents... and they became a bit worried. A few years ago the daughter of one of their acquaintances went missing... a huge wave got her while she was close to a cliff with big waves in Portugal (maybe exactly this place) and her body was never found... They asked me not to go too close to the cliffs, as you know, parents never lose that protective side.
But there was no danger here, that day I visited Nazaré the waves were much smaller than they can be. Continuing with the path, just a few steps more, we could turn to the left and see again the town.
On the right, the wild nature was the sight that called to go closer. Come, come closer and observe the waves whispered... and that is how everyone was glued there, just sitting hypnotized on the edge of the cliffs.
Others went down, to the sandy beach. Can you actually see how small the people in this photo are? Compared to the waves they are just tiny ants 😁 Just zoom in on the next photo to see them.
While watching the waves and the water drops above them, many rainbows appeared. An effect that the sun brought to this whole place, in Nazaré. No, I didn't go surfing, if you will ask yourself. I was fine there, up on the cliff.
It was a short visit but so pleasant one. We were on the road from Lisbon and wanted to reach Porto before the sun would go down, however, it is a story for another post. It was time to continue the journey and not much time left for seeing the town. I saw just one church, a square and a tiny market. Nothing else.
But we didn't leave that town with empty minds. The power of the ocean stayed for a long time in us, so just one more last photo to remind us of those waves...
Ok, the "last photo" part was a lie 😂
Here is another one that would definitely close this post and our short visit to the mecca for surfers!
