The final and fourth destination on the day tour was Obidos. It is the closest ancient walled town to Lisbon. It is thus a Mecca for tourist buses from the capital. However on this day it seemed relatively relaxed. It is very well maintained and not as potentially garish or gaudy as one may anticipate. Granted the predominant shops were alternating restaurants with arts and crafts boutiques. The other rather ubiquitous offering were stalls selling “nips” of Portuguese cherry liqueur in an edible chocolate thimble  for 1 euro.

I could not but fail to compare this commercialised walled town to the several relatively untainted medieval villages during my week of cycling