Wellington in Portugal - The French Invasions Thwarted - Day 1

 

Today we begin the tour which is at the centre of this holiday as we join the tour guide, historian and fellow travellers on The Cultural Experience's Tour called Wellington in Portugal - The French Invasions Thwarted. We were firmly reminded from the start that these were three separate invasions during the period of the Peninsular War.

Obidos Castle, above, is emblematic of some of the sights we are likely to see. In a place built to defend Obidos by the Moors, the Portuguese royals were to live. At the beginning of our period it became a French position overlooking the protentional threat posed by the British in the Atlantic. Before long it was Wellesley (later named Wellington) who was in charge here, knocking out arrow slots to place a 6lbs cannon to defend against the French - which is why there is a glass window looking out of place at the centre of the cannon, known colloqually as Wellington's Window.

But more of that later, now to the beginning of the day.

Early Morning

I'm back to waking at the civilised time of  3.30am, so could begin the post about our day in Lisbon yesterday. With that drafted, ready for Drew to check later, I made a start on editing last night's photos. 

At 5.30am I start my ablutions, breakfast starts at 6.30am today as it isn't a Public Holiday or weekend.

Drew wakes up at 6am and reviews the blog, which I uploaded while he is having his ablutions. 

Breakfast

The breakfast spread at this hotel is really good. We go down to breakfast and are among only four others who are as early as us. 

Drew begins with bacon, mushrooms, hash browns and rice.

I with yogurt, fruit, nuts and seeds

I then proceed with a salad with smoked salmon and boiled eggs - delicious.

Drew also has some salad, but joins it with rice in a peri peri sauce.

I have some cooked food - Empanadas, mushrooms, tomatoes and brown bread

Drew finsihes with four cakes, one chocolate, two almond and a raisin one.

Morning

We go back up to the room after breakfast. We had plans to visit some of the sights of the city this morning before checking out and travelling to the airport to meet the tour guide and the fellow tourists. 

However, both by observation, through the window, and a check of the forecast, how did the fast show put it - scorchio!!  We decided that the idea of a trip to elsewhere in the city might be way to hot a way to spend our day. It was 92f i.e. 31c, with the wind raising the feel of the heat to 95f - 33c. Not our kind of weather.

I used the time finished the blog of last night's dinner and began uploading photos to Flickr from yesterday. A fun task with the amazing views in Bela Vista park. 

Drew finished yet another of the books he has on his kindle, he is now onto the third book of the holiday.  

We finally departe the hotel at 1.15pm and were grateful we hadn't tried earlier when we walked out into the blazing sun. 

We strolled, mainly in the shade, to the Saldanha station, just six minutes from the hotel.

We went down stairs to the underground - our fourth journey on our 24 hour ticket, so making savings even without any trips this morning. We reach the platform at 1.25pm just as the train for the airport arrives. 

We are on the red line, the one that brought us in on Tuesday. Five stops and we are at Oriente and another three

and we reach Humberto Delgado Airport 

We arrive at the meeting point - Ponto de Encontro (a nice way of expressing it, the idea of encounter being much more engaging than just meeting) at 1.43pm. We took a dreaded selfie to tell the rest of the group what we looked like, I really, really can't do good selfie, it is an art and one I fail at.  

and at 2.10pm. We are joined by Elizabeth from New York who has the app with her. She is a former lawyer who lives on 85th street overlooking Riverside Drive. Somewhere we walked past in 2011, the year hurricane Irene gave us a extra stay in the city.

Then we go over and meet those arriving by plane at 3.30pm the plane has landed at 2.15pm

By 3.51pm we are on the coach and heading to Óbidos the location of our overnight stop. 

Fiona (Fi) Richards the tour guide begins the journey with a brief introduction to herself, she has been with The Cultural Experience since 2018 and Mark Crathorne, the trip historian. He has done over 120 battlefield tours over the years. 

The road to Óbidos 

Mark introduces himself, he originates in England but has lived in Portugal for 37 years after learning the language while working in Brazil. 

He has a special interest in Wellington and reminds us that four of the six years of the Peninsular War, Wellington was based here in Portugal as were most of his troops. Though the larger battles happened in Spain, Portugal was where the war was established and the logistics needed for the further invasion underpinned.

Mark explains that we are going to Óbidos as the first engagement of the Peninsular War was near Óbidos a town founded by the Romans which has developed over the centuries since. 

As we travel we cross the second line of Torres Vedras, which was never used as the first line stopped the French. Nine signalling stations along the line supported by the Royal Navy who built high towers on hills, still used for communications now, we pass them. As we do Hill Fort 150 one of the last of the 152 forts to be built. All the photos are Flickr, but a few are captured in this animation 

Torres Vedras means green towers and the defences were used by Wellington to cover the area from sea (Atlantic) to the Rio Tejo. The hills were already tghere, but Wellington connected them and built forts on them to defend against the French. The first one worked so well that the second, third and fourth (across the River Tejo from Lisbon) were never used. 

Mark also points out the Battle of Roliça took place at the top of the high ground we are passing (also in the animation above. This was first battle of Wellington's expeditionary force on the 17th of August 1808.

The Three French Invasions

Mark goes on to outline the three French Invations of Portugal 

The first in 1808 under General Junot, the second in 1809 under General Soult and the third in 1810-11

Óbidos 

Óbidos is an ancient town which has seen rule by Romans, Visigoths, Moors and then Portuguese rulers who made it the town of the Queen. The history of the town is well capturerd here, the timeline is particularly helpful. 

Here are some of the sites of Óbidos 

We stop here for a short time, before going to our hotel just outside the town, to connect the town to the Peninsular War.

The Battle of Brilos was the first time the French fight against the British and there were six deaths. The site is visible from the Castle Hill in Óbidos, 

but we will see more of it tomorrow.

Wellington stayed in the town for a night and defended it, as I said at the beginning of the post, by placing one of his smaller Canon in what is now the castle window. This was to stop the French approaching Óbidos from the sea. The valley was tidal and navigable at the time  

Hotel

Having left Óbidos at 5.55pm we arrive at the Hotel Vila d'Óbidos at 6pm. We have a speedy check in, go to our room

The balcony of the room even gives us a great view of Óbidos castle in the distance.

We return to the bar at 6.45pm for welcoming drinks and a talk by Mark which looked in detail at the First French invasion and then in headlines about the second and third, to put into context all we are going to see for the rest of the week. 

Dinner

We then went to dinner and began with Vieiras Gratinadas - gratinated scallops. It was light and tasty and the lettuce had a zingy vinegerette.  

Bread was served with the meal

and we went on to a potato, carrot, onion and garlic soup - this was slightly sweet, but wasn't very garlicly

Our main was Bacalhau à Braga, a traditional Portuguese cod dish that combines fried cod loins topped with braised peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic, we know where the garlic from the soup went, as there is plenty of it here. It was served with broccoli and baked potatoes.

Dessert came and half was for me and half for Drew, so I eat to portions of pineapple and two strawberries and Drew are two chocalte cakes and two ice-creams.

We had an entertaining evening with Alasdair and Gavin sitting beside us. Friends who met in the University of London 40+ years ago and have now left their wives and children/grandchildren for this week of travelling to Wellington's battles. Were telling tales of the Spanish version of this trip which they did last year.

The meal finished with a coffee

 We came back upstairs and edited today's photos, we got to bed at 11pm.