Leiria Portugal
But first, Decathlon.
Our friend Amy was traveling in Europe when she told us about this place called Decathlon that sold all this amazing outdoor gear for a MUCH cheaper price than what REI and other stores sell for here in the U.S. As we headed from Obidos to Leiria, our first order of business was a trip to this magical place to see it for ourselves. They operate 1,747 stores in 60 countries, including here in the U.S. of A. Wait, what?
We browsed, we bought, but kept it minimal as we were traveling minimally. I was impressed they had a map holder in stock. Orienteering may be more of a thing here? We missed our day bag we used to own, so picked up one of those (already been super handy as we move around). And the kicker happened at the end when we were told to just drop all of the stuff we were buying into the magical machine which would calculate everything automatically. Credit card tap and we’re done!
Check out our super cute little Fiat!
Why Leiria?
It’s probably not on most itineraries, but our host daughter from Mozambique is a student in Leiria. Portugal provides full ride scholarships to a number of students especially from former Portuguese colonies (like Mozambique). So we had to visit Aissa and meet her boyfriend too. He’s from São Tomé. We ended up at an Indian restaurant for dinner.
As we got to know Leiria a bit, it seemed to us like a perfect size to get all the amenities of a proper city without much of the drawbacks. It has about 130,000 residents and has had constant settlement since before the Romans arrived. King Denis (1261-1325) who resided in this region was the one responsible for planting the pine forests that were later used to build the ships that sailed the world and made their marks in South America, Africa and Asia.
We stayed in a ground-level apartment listed on AirBnB and parked our car in a parking garage right next door. Convenient considering the multiple narrow one-way streets. It would have been nice to stay longer, but we felt that our time was well spent enjoying a bit of cafe culture in the main square as well as visiting the biggest tourist draw set high above the city…
The Castle of Leiria
The castle dates back to the 1100s and was originally built to defend against the Arabs. Over the centuries it faced neglect and only received restorative efforts starting in the early 1900s. Read more about the history here.
