Azenhas do Mar, Lisbon, PortugalAzenhas do Mar – Buddha Eden
Sun at Boca do Infermo
Today we leave and the weather
forecast brought rain – let’s hope it won’t be too bad. It rained when we got
up, stopped when we left and the sun came out as we pulled into the empty
parking lot at the Boca do Infermo. We could admire the beautiful ocean in the
sun and admire the stone bridge and the crashing waves – here we saw again
those little scooters – I think one time we have to rent some.
Gine discovered a lighthouse, so
we thought we will stop – except we discovered that it was closed and belonged
to the National Defense, ok I don’t think we are invited here.
Flowers along the shore and
the Forte de Sao Jorge de Oitavos
As we drove along the ocean on a
beautiful highway – blue sky – the ocean on one side we decided to stop because
it looked so gorgeous. We walked a bit along out to the rocks to watch the
waves – admire the cool plants and flowers before keep going on our journey.
We stop at this little Fort, but
didn’t want to pay entrance fee, we admired the view from the outside. It is
one of many along the coast from Lisbon to the Capo da Roca to defend the
coastline: once 18 soldiers were stationed here with 4 guns (I guess if we
would go into each fort, castle, palace, mosque, church and museum we need
another few month here)
Waves along Praia Guncho
As we drove along the crashing
waves amazed us – you could see the mist up in the air – I mean with all the
blue sky it looked amazing. Further on we also came to a part of the highway
covered in Sand – guess we are driving through some sand dunes. We decided to
stop and admire the waves a bit– what a beautiful place.
Wind at Cabo da Roca
- We are the western most point or Portugal – of Europe and the Eurasian landmass!! “onde a terra de acaba e o mar comeca” – “where the land ends and the sea begins”
This is still an active
lighthouse and we stop with a lot of other tourists: it did not rain – but it
was super windy!!! I mean so windy you turn and the hoody automatically comes
on. You can’t go inside the lighthouse, but then you stop for the supercool
coastline – looking down the cliffs (some over 100 m high), seeing the waves
and looking up and down the coastline – it’s amazing. We walked a bit along the
edge where a huge cross was standing reminding us of this western point, we
went against the wind downhill to see more amazing coastline – and once going
uphill we had the wind behind us, literally pushing us up.
The Portuguese Windmill
Continuing on, we discovered
some windmills – we had to stop because Gine has a white blue windmill at home and
those here look exactly the same – guess now we know it: we have a Portuguese
windmill in our kitchen.
Lunch in Azenhas do Mar
Gine told Paul that we will
visit this most photographed village with the whitewashed houses on the cliffs
and a pool dug into the cliff in the 50s. We passed the viewpoint and
unbelievable there was one parking spot downtown!! (if you can call it that),
it was right near the river – one of 5 parking spots. As there are little
benches we decided to have a lunch: and it started to drizzle!!! As soon as we
were done – the clouds blew away – the sun came out and the white houses
glittered in the sun with the blue ocean and sky behind. It looked so amazing
beautiful. We walked down towards the ocean over the cute little bridge with
the cute park and had a closer look at the pool. Then went partially up on one
side of the cliffs to have the gorgeous view down on the pool and the town –
back down and up on the other side: Gine headed a bit in the narrow alleys –
and then we decided to head back to the viewpoint: from here we watched the
ocean – admired the sunshine: it got so warm we could take of the jackets!!! Looking
down on the town: this is really a beautiful place.
Lots of Buddhas in Buddha
Eden
Gine read about this Buddha Eden
and decided we have to go there as it sounded so unique:
- It is Europe’s largest Asian garden with the largest collection of Buddhists statues in the Quinta do Loridos estate
- Joe Berardo started it in 2001 when he discovered that Buddha statues in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban and he started the garden of peace and meditation (by the way we didn’t had a lot of peace – as we went through in fast walking pace – no time to rest) – important to mention: it was not done for religious purposes
Ok we discovered one thing: you
should be in here longer than 1.5 hours because in that time you can only walk
through part of it and you don’t have the time to see all – walk everywhere and
admire all: guess one whole day would be perfect.
Entering through a Chinese
gateway and down a walkway with some Chinese looking statues with the lake on
one side – beautiful especially with the sun coming out in glimpses. What was
really super is the big staircase with the golden Buddha’s and heads leading up
to a large lying Buddha: Paul tickled his toes – as well our names are on the
big toe!! Further up to the Giant Buddha, and as it now started to drizzle we
went towards the pagodas – but couldn’t really linger, as Paul gets grumpy when
it is rainy and he is not into the thousands of Buddhas you can see – as where
I think it looks super cool. From there by some cool Chinese horses and dragons
to some fancy art with a lot of blue terracotta soldiers overlooking the lake.
Now it’s art time: some huge
giant cool modern art displays – we stopped at the palm lake surrounded with
modern nude art: this pond and this art is so cool!!! (why don’t we have more
time). Along a walk with African style art – with the sun coming and going it
looked amazing. We ended up in “Africa” with a lot of cool wildebeest, rhinos,
an Elephant and birds all out of iron, but the time is calling and we have to
head back, glimpses only. I mean we have all that time and still run out of
time – can you believe that!!!
They call it a unique openair
gallery – and that it is for sure, it definitely gets a Gine’s approval.
At the Surfhotel Neptuno
Paul thought it is weird where
the hotel is and that it is not right on the ocean, we drove through an area
which likely is full in summer, but now no-one is around – it’s like ghost city,
guess we are too early in the season. We drove behind a factory and see there
is this beautiful cute hotel: we have a nice room on ground floor with a little
patio so we could have a late coffee outside with free muffins. There is even
water in the pool – if it would be warmer we would be there.
Ok I maybe should also mention
that we have a super cool shower with massage jets – That means Gine needs also
an Evening shower to enjoy it!!
Waiting for the Pizzeria to
open
We decided to have Pizza today
and we heard about this new pizzeria: go right and then until the water comes
out: ok I think we turned when we shouldn’t but we found it: a cute little
plaza with fountains – totally empty. We found the pizzeria and it was closed,
the ladies sitting in front of it, were speaking Portuguese but we could make
ourselves understood and got it, it opens at 06.30 in one minute. We did had to
wait another 10 minutes until the owner finally came – but then we had this
yummy pizza.
2025-05-22