Corinne CrawfordTomar is an even smaller town than Aveiro and was the headquarters for the Knights Templar. The town was founded by one of the Grand Master Knights and a castle was built in the 12th century. This is what I was visiting Tomar for. The castle turned convent turned historical site was huge, very intact and it consisted of various parts and styles that were constructed over the course of 6 centuries. I was only staying 2 nights and decided I would go budget by staying in a hostel. This would be my first hostel stay. The hostel was located right in the old town walking distance to all the sites I wanted to visit. I had booked a bed in a 6 bed female dorm and was kind of hoping that because it was off season, maybe I would have it to myself or at least it would not be full. I have stayed at hostels before during my trip to England many years back and did not really find them all that comfortable. Never enough space, beds not really comfortable, and the vibe of smug 20 somethings looking to party was not my idea of hospitable. But I wanted to save a little money and I thought that for two nights, it couldn’t be that bad. I walked from the train station to the hostel which took me just under 15 minutes and checked in. It was a simple place with very nice staff and the dorm they put me in had 3 bunk beds with two of the bottom bunks already taken so I took the middle one. There was no one on the top. As expected the room was quite small with only about 2 feet between the beds to maneuver, put your stuff and get dressed which I found to be a bit awkward. I also admittedly have too much and too large of luggage for a comfortable hostel stay and that is on me. The two other people in the room were a younger solo traveler that did not speak a word but I heard her on the phone and believe she spoke French and the other was a put together woman maybe a bit older than me that muttered to herself constantly and really did nothing but be on her computer either in her bed or in the common areas. The bed was not super comfortable and I had anxiety that I would snore and disturb the other people in the room and be that person. I have no idea if I did or not but the anxiety of it had me waking up often and tossing and turning. All that said, it was not a terrible experience but I definitely prefer my privacy and space. From the type of traveler that came in to the hostel and snippets of conversations I overheard, it seems as if this hostel is a stop on one of the routes of the Camino de Santiago that takes you though Portugal and Spain. Good for them.
I took myself out to a nice dinner and was really pleased with the meal of a steak and rice. It was called Portuguese style steak and I love the fact that Portuguese style apparently means meat and what the heck, throw another type of meat on the first meat, add an egg and then put a light gravy type sauce on it. This is my kind of style. But based on the meat and hamburgers I have had in Portugal, if you like your meat medium, you better ask for it medium well because medium is pretty darn rare in my opinion.
I got up relatively early the next day. It had been lightly raining the previous day and the morning started out hazy but sun was expected and mild to nice temperatures.
I headed up the path that took you up to the Convento de Christo– the site of the Templar castle and church. I first wandered around the grounds and gardens reading the placards placed around that described the when and what of the diferrent areas. I walked the rampart walls and everywhere you looked, there was evidence of the Templars with crosses and roses being the motif they incorporated in every element.
After exploring the grounds with the haze hanging in the surrounding forests, I ventured into the official entrance of the main building. It was a 6 € entrance ticket and was well worth it. The huge structure with amazing carvings, architectural, history and courtyards including the dormitory building where the knights slept was absolutely breathtaking. In so many places, there were dates carved into the stone from the 1500’s and information in other places dating it back to the 1300’s and earlier.
I stayed and wandered for several hours before going back down to the old town, grabbing some lunch and then going to the hostel to work for a bit before venturing back out to see one of the old churches, where the town’s founder was buried. I took the long way along the river and came across a large cemetery and meandered in there for a bit as well. Many families had their own elaborate free standing mausoleums with windowed doors that you could see the actual coffins on the shelves inside going back to the 1800s. It was fascinating.
I went back to the hostel to take a shower, get my things ready for my departure the next morning before having dinner and going to bed early. As I was getting ready for my early bedtime, I heard some commotion from the window in my dorm that overlooked one of the main walkways in the old town. I opened the doors to the little patio in the room and finally got to see the university initiation ritual I had heard about. There was a humongous procession of some students in black wearing capes and then a long line of others covered in who knows what, tied to a line and being made to sing and march and drink. Some of these new students had the task of pushing the shopping carts of full and empty bottles that they all were drinking from. They were carrying flags and filled up the whole street. What I loved is that following right behind them patiently waiting for them to pass was the city clean up crew.
