20/07/18 – 25/07/18 Tomar
Oh Tomar you were so good to us, after 5 days (our longest stint anywhere) we are sad to be leaving you.
You should have seen the looks on our faces when we first turned up to Tomar’s former Municipal campsite (GPS 39.607275,-8.41072), set in beautiful lush green surroundings. We couldn’t believe that something as nice as this could be free, but it really was!! Although it’s no longer a campsite, it still has facilities such as clean toilets, drinking water, showers (albeit cold), washing basins, washing lines and security manning the entrance between 8am-7pm. We’re not sure the reason behind why the original paid campsite shut down, but Tomar clearly knows the best way to make use of an otherwise unused piece of land, which in turn brings tourism to the area.
The site is so was well looked after, there are so many beautiful trees including willows (one of my favourites), and vibrant plants. We loved this site and Tomar in general so much, we really didn’t want to leave. As Dan mentioned before, we wondered whether this was something to do with us seeing so much green again and it reminded us of home.
Literally as you leave the site, the area is a feast for your eyes as it’s adjacent to Tomar’s picturesque Nabao river with its shoals of big fish, and its tree lined park surrounding it. We spent a lot of time walking around this area with Marley who was also enjoying the grass again. Up until this point really, the landscapes we’ve been to in Spain and Portugal have mostly been dry, dusty and arid so it really did seem quite weird seeing flourishing plant and tree life. Sorry, I’ll stop going on about it now!
There were a lot of people also walking their dogs here so Marley got to have a good old play. The people we met, including many Portuguese made such a fuss of him, he was one happy boy. Tomar is definitely a dog friendly place!
Although Tomar is quite small place, we found lots to do.The castle above the town formed the beginnings of Tomar originally constructed by the Knights Templar, and makes for a fabulous walk. It’s a bit of a trek, but we loved it.
On reaching the entrance to the castle, Dan waited outside while I went and had a nosy around. Sorry Marley no dogs allowed inside! It was €8 to enter the castle where you could visit the Convent of Christ. Seeing as there was no cost to enjoy the stunning gardens and enjoy the castle’s architecture from the outside, I spent an hour just walking around taking in the scenery. As you will know by now, I do like a good old freebie.
You can walk along the castle’s perimeter walls, and it being elevated meant I got to see great views over the town too. Some parts of the castle grounds are now in ruins, but in my view this added to the beauty. It was so peaceful, and I enjoyed the quiet time as there was hardly anyone around.
I even got a sneaky peak inside (from the outside) of The Convent of Christ, which was a bonus! By the time I came out, Dan was ready to go, but I convinced him to go and see it too, as it was too much of an opportunity to miss. Dan enjoyed a quick overview of the castle and grounds (my recommended route, thank you very much) He returned within 20 minutes, and said he was really glad he went.
The town is pretty cool and laid back. The main square is very attractive with a black and white cobbled floor, and a church and town hall taking centre stage. There are lots of little inviting looking shops, but also some which we found a bit weird. Sorry to any Portuguese that this may cause offence to but, there were some clothes shops that looked like they had taken items from charity shops and marked them up at €80-€90. Dan said to me “not even Pat Butcher would wear these” giving an accurate visualisation of what we saw. It’s odd because no one that we saw in the streets was wearing anything like these outfits.
Clearly we didn’t go in any of these shops, but we did spend quite a bit of time at The National Wood of Seven Hills situated at the base of Tomar Castle. As you arrive, you’re greeted by a lovely topiary style maze with tall trees behind it lining each side. It can be reached within 5 minutes walk of the town centre and was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying.
We went on two occasions, to walk and to run. Dan walked, whilst I did short stints of running with Marley. Dan’s knee is still not strong enough to run on since his accident, but it’s on the cards to start building it’s strength back up. Given the weather in Portugal is unusually cool this year, Marley managed this run amazingly well and looked so happy. It reminded me of our long walks around the beautiful Stamner park in Brighton last year. It also highlighted just how much energy the recent high temperatures had zapped from him.
These woods don’t come up high up on the tourist research sites, but if you love nature, they’re so worth a visit. There is also a play park for children. The sign at the entrance gate said keep your dogs on a lead, but when we saw a guy with his dog off its lead, we did the same, and no one seemed to care!
Going just a little further out of the town, there were quite a few derelict buildings contrasting with it’s almost pristine centre, perhaps as its frequented more by tourists. However, Tomar seemed neither affluent nor poor. We didn’t see any beggars or homeless people unlike many of the other towns we’d visited. We saw lots of locals saying hello and chatting to one another, like they all knew one another, and giving the impression Tomar has a close community.
Back at the campsite, Dan saw it as a great opportunity to finally clean the moho, which had 3 months worth of dirt from France, Spain and Portugal stuck to it. He did most of the hard graft and it chipped in by climbing aboard the roof, and giving it a good scrub. Somehow the risk of being on the roof, made the job all the more attractive to me. When we finished, it looked all shiny and new, and was the perfect time and place for Dan to execute his Exterior Tour video.
We also enjoyed some quality sun bathing time and some VERY refreshing cold showers, but towards the end of our stay the flies constantly landing on us just became too much. They seemed to land on me the most, not sure why!!
As you can probably tell, Tomar was one of my favourite places to visit, and I really recommend others visiting if you can. It had so much to offer, and finding the amazing free site just added to our experience. Anyone wanting to visit Tomar by motorhome or campervan can find the address of the campsite here.
