Tomar, Portugal

We had a little day trip to Mata Nacional do Buçaco, a national park near Coimbra, to get a break from perfect medieval towns and cobblestone streets.

At the suggestion of the lady at our hotel, we bought picnic stuff for lunch at the local supermarket, Pingo Doce. Bread, cheese, cured meats and a bottle of wine from the Dão (we splurged on the wine, most of the bottles were under €2, we spent €3).

The bus took us right into the park, dropping us off at the castle (now a luxury hotel). The trails weren't as well marked as we would have liked, but we did manage to find a nice location for lunch.

Wandered through the park, under giant ferns and wild callalillies. Waited for the bus to take us back, which was a bit late (there was only one scheduled at 6:30pm so we didn't have much choice).

Between all the hills in the park and our hotel at the top of the hill in the old part of town, our leg muscles were tired out. Back down to the lower part of town for dinner, and then back up for bed. We were exhausted.

The next morning walked back down to the train station, for the train to Tomar. Checked into Residencial Cavaleiros Crystal.

Had lunch and then had a couple hours to see the sights. First checked out the matchbook museum. We thought it would be an in-and-out-quick sort of place, but it was actually quite interesting and larger than we imagined with over 40,000 matchbooks.

That left us an hour to see Convento do Cristo, the old Knights Templar headquarters. We thought that would be enough, until we started touring it. The place is amazing, the size, the age (12th century), and the access allowed to tourists. We wandered all around, up turrets, into cloisters, everywhere. The place was also relatively tourist-free, likely because it was an hour before closing time, so all the tour groups had come and gone.

If you are going to Portugal and can see only one place, I would recommend the Convento do Cristo. It's one of the top sites I've seen in the world. After, that got me thinking about what I would rate the top sites, so I created a list. Convento do Cristo comes in at 13:

Eric D'Souza's Top Sites

1 Machu Picchu (Cuzco, Peru)
2 Angkor Wat (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
3 Tikal (Flores, Guatemala)
4 Moai (Easter Island, Chile)
5 Perito Moreno Glacier (El Calafate, Argentina)
6 Great Wall (Simatai, China)
7 Plains of the Serengeti (Tanzania)
8 Foz do Iguaçu (Brasil & Argentina)
9 Palenque (Mexico)
10 La Paz, Bolivia (from altiplano)
11 Mountain Gorillas (Ruhengeri, Rwanda)
12 Great Mosque (Djenné, Mali)
13 Convento de Cristo (Tomar, Portugal)
14 Swayambunath at dawn (Kathmandu, Nepal)
15 Angel Falls (Venezuela)
16 Prambanan Temples (Indonesia)
17 Lago Verde (Bolivia)
18 Drepung Monastery (Lhasa, China)
19 Nazca lines (Nazca, Peru)
20 Friendship Highway (Tibet to Nepal)
21 Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg, Russia)
22 Stonehenge (Amesbury, England)
23 Tanneries (Fez, Morocco)
24 Lake Louise (Jasper, Canada)
25 Borobudur (Indonesia).
26 Khongoryn Els sand dunes (Gobi Desert, Mongolia).
27 Kremlin (Moscow, Russia)
28 Great Pyramid (Giza, Egypt)
29 Galapagos Islands (Ecuador)

(Keep in mind it's only places I've been to (for example, I've never seen Rome) and it's based on my personal preferences, and as you can probably determine from the top three, I like ruins).

...

Today we had another day trip, this one to see a castle on a island (Castelo de Almoural). It was a bit difficult to get to -- we caught a short train to Entroncamento, then a taxi to Almoural, and finally a two minute boat ride to the castle. Overall, probably not worth the effort, but it was something different. Plus after Convento do Cristo anything was likely to be a let down.

We were back in Tomar by 1:30, and so spent the rest of the day reading in a park near the hotel. We had lunch at an excellent restaurant (they bake their own bread, have the best olives we've had, and the cod was perfectly done), so we're going there for dinner too.