Phot-o' the Day: Sunset over the Beach, Nazaré, Portugal

Sunset over the south end of the beach in Nazaré, Portugal, as seen from the grounds from the appropriately-named Hotel Miramar Sul. ("Miramar Sul" translating roughly to "Seaview South. Which it provides quite beautifully.)

The water looks placid from way up on the bluffs. But Nazaré is not known for placid water. What's it known for? Ask your surfer friends. The answer is: the highest, largest, surf-able waves on Planet Earth. But those waves roll in during the winter and can be found on the beach north of the town. This picture is from the last days of summer, and at the south end of the beach,

Visited September 2017.

My Swinging Hip Bachelor Pad in Nazaré

View from my hotel room at sunset in Nazaré. Seriously.

My hotel room in Nazaré is the hippest, most swinging, bachelor pad I've ever stayed in.

Today was the day to leave Lisbon behind and go to the next stop on this vacation tour of Portugal.  I was going to stop in the town of Evora en route, except for the fact that's not really en route.  It's two hours due east of Lisbon.  And Nazaré, the day's ultimate destination, is two hours north.  And due to the vagaries of Portuguese geography, it would require a complete backtracking on the two-hour trek east in order to go north.

So no to Evora.

And yes yes yes to Nazaré.

The Hotel Miramar Sul is located on the cliffs above the southern part of Nazaré beach.

But that is not what makes the place so hip and swinging.

Orange sheers.  Red carpet.

Correction.  Red SHAG carpet.  Shag carpet!  The place is so hip and groovin' that I expected the sound system to pump in Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Look at this:

It's even been sanitized for my protection!  There's nothing frayed or overtly dated about this place -- it is a VERY nice beach area hotel -- but it just magically appeared out of a time warp from 1971.

Except for the bathroom mirror selfie.  That's more au courant.  Right out of 2012.

No exploration of the town below for now.  Today ended up being a light vacation-within-a-vacation day.  Except supper,  Supper was not light.

I parked the rental car -- an Opel Astra which, weirdly enough, was what they said I would get when I rented the car several months ago -- in the narrow-streets part of Nazaré.

I ate supper at the beautiful, upscale Pangeia Restaurante in Nazaré, which actually was not far from the swinging hip hotel.

The decor definitely was not 60s hip.  Dinner was a delicious but heavy Grilled Octopus.

Fourth day eating octopus in my five days in Portugal.  And I've only just begun.

UPDATE:  I am very disappointed to say that the hotel room bed is NOT a waterbed.