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Today we visited the lovely town of Viana Do Castelo, which was an excellent contrast to yesterday.  Yes, there was some walking involved, but no rocks, no blackberry vines, no scary heights…well, no scary heights to anyone but a heightophobic (I can’t remember the right word) person like me.

We took the funicular up to the Cathedral on the hill, Santa Luzia, which looks a bit like Sacre Couer in Paris except grayer, natural stone color, instead of white.  I had thought it would be nice to walk up but the guide book said “The walk up is either for people who are very fit or penitent,” and none of us were feeling that fit and we aren’t the penitent type at all.  The kids found all sorts of places to lean over walls with dizzying drops on the other side of them, causing me a great deal of queasiness, but that’s just me.  They also went up to the observation tower in the dome, which I let them do with their cousins while I stayed below and enjoyed other pursuits.

I was a little disappointed when I found out the Cathedral was built in the 1950s.  That’s not historical at all but, I guess, brilliant new buildings are being built all the time.

My brother Ben said that the view had been mentioned in National Geographic as one of the 10 best scenic overlooks in the world but it was kind of comical that it was so foggy we couldn’t see a thing.  Then the fog lifted and we could see the town stretched before us;  the river, the port on the river, another river leading into the river, and down to the sea.  It was pretty, but not an entirely pastoral scene, you could see factories, and roads and bridges.  I mentioned that I wouldn’t quite rank it as among the Top 10 scenic overlooks in the world, but then I walked around back of the cathedral and realized that it was a very different view from every side.  East was the ocean, north and west were sort of mountainous, and south was the town.

Then we came home to Afife – amazing how a home base can come to seem like home in just a couple of days- and had an amazing dinner.  The portions would have been deemed huge by any nation’s standards.  And now, I’m waddling off to bed.  Good night.

OMG, what a hike we hiked.  If I’d understood how difficult it was going to be, not only wouldn’t I have gone, I would have forbidden the kids to go.  So, it’s probably as well I didn’t know, because sore as I am, I must admit that it was a satisfying experience and we saw a lot of spectacular scenery.  The kids just clambered over the rocks and pulled themselves up by roots and whatever else they could grab, onward and upstream, totally oblivious to the imminent death I saw at every moment.

I, unfortunately, did not fare as well.  I was almost always at the tail end of our party of eleven, occasionally required a bit of pulling up, or a bit of being pushed up, or both.  I was looking for safer paths up the side, through the forest, but there weren’t any,  for most of the course of the stream.  I love a nice, pleasant walk through the woods, but when there is no path, nature’s indifference to man comes to seem like downright hostility.  I grabbed thorns, I stepped on thorns, and at one point a long vine of blackberry thwacked me across my fat belly, and I had  a thorn lodged there until I got home.   At one point, I stepped on a batch of thorns and, startled, stumbled backwards, grasping a small sapling which was not really meant for the task of keeping me from rolling down the hill but, fortunately, it rose to the occasion.

Before that, we’d swum through one pool because it was easier than walking around.  I diligently moved my wallet and keys from my pocket into the backpack but I forgot about the things in my other pocket.  A pack of tissues got soaked but that’s O.K., they’re not expensive.  My glasses, the most important thing, are not affected by water.  But I think I may have destroyed my phone.  We’re trying to dry it out, but I am not optimistic.  On the other hand, it’s over ten years old, so maybe it’s time.

The scenery, I must admit, was spectacular.  A succession of pools and waterfalls and eventually we made it to the top of  the mountain and a close up view of the windmills, those huge turbines that Don Quixote’s giants would have seen as giants.  Also, I was quite pleased with my children’s stamina and fearlessness.   So, despite the fact that I am sure, cut, sunburned and totally knackered, I feel good.

Today was physically much less demanding than yesterday, but just as rewarding in its own way.  It took us forever to get out of the house in the morning.  It was 11:30 before we set out and I was bitching at everybody and Helena was saying “Calm down, what do you think they’re doing?  We’re not going to miss anything.” and she was right, when we got down there they were at about the same stage of readiness as us.

Meanwhile, we had sweet, delicious banana pancakes with honey and whipped cream, and some with peanut butter or Nutella.

We spent several hours on the beach and the water was really too cold for much swimming, but eventually I did immerse myself and let a wave crash over me, but mostly we just sat on the beach and talked and played trivia games, and contemplated the ocean.

The ocean really puts things into perspective, and that is why it’s such a universally desired vacation spot, especially among those of us who don’t live near an ocean.  It’s vast, it goes the whole world round, and so it is a reminder of how small we are in the overall scheme of things.  Buddhists may meditate, and that’s great, but anybody can look at the ocean without any preconceived notions and get the same effect, perhaps even more directly.

Then some members of our party made a reservation for dinner at Senor Bacalhau, which I was jazzed about because I’ve been meaning to try bacalhau (it’s a national dish: cod), and then we went by the pool where our trek up to the mill began yesterday but this time a few of us went in swimming, it was so much warmer than the ocean.

Then, we went home and got a message that Dennis and Monique (my brother and sister-in-law) were on the train so we made it down to the station to pick them up.

Dinner was great.  I was going to have the Bacalhau, but Betsy, my niece who’s lived in Brazil and speaks Portuguese and is married to a Brazilian, pointed out that one of the appetizers was, in fact, bacalhau balls, so I considered that bucket list point checked and went for a pork skewer instead and it was great.

Everything was great, especially the magnificent view of the sunset from the terrace, although we thought it was a bit weird that everything came with french fries AND rice.  But that’s a small thing, and the world is so very, very big.

I am spent.  Beat.  Knackered. Whipped.  Exhausted.  But that’s a good thing, the result of a day well lived.

It took a while to get started, nobody wanted to move in the morning so it was probably after 10 when we got started on our beautiful nature walk, the kind of endeavor that’s best started early, but early starts do not seem to be the rule for our party.

My kids in the pool

We took the street above the house, at my insistence, I just felt it would be much more interesting than the main road, where traffic is whizzing by and it feels like a touristy beach town, and I was right.  Walking through the streets, often walled on one side and sometimes on both, with huge flowers and blooming trees, an old fashioned drinking fountain which had two settings, off and torrent, so you got wet when all you wanted was a drink but that was O.K.

We walked up the river, which is really a creek, cascading down from the mountain over big, dangerously smooth rocks, which held no terror for the kids whatsoever, but me, if I hadn’t wound up just physically exhausted from the days exertions, would still be worn out just from repeatedly saying ‘Step back from there, O.K.?’

There was a series of pools, the water was cold, not as cold as the ocean, but cold and it felt good on a hot day.  The forest was beautiful, dominated by towering Eucaplyptus trees and tangled growth at ground level.  Even the human structures seemed ancient enough to blend in with nature, stone bridges and aqueducts which may have been a hundred years old, or a thousand or more.

When we got back,  we had a note on our door that the bulk  of the rest of our group had arrived, so we all went down to their home for the week and had a big spaghetti dinner and talked and laughed and some of us haven’t seen each other in years so it was a wonderful reunion.

Two more people arriving tomorrow.  We’ll probably just do the beach in the morning, which I’m quite happy with.

Day two and a half of our Portuguese vacation and no internet access at the place we are staying, which is a beautiful home which is ours for the week.  We are still getting settled in, have not even made the walk down to the beach yet,a situation we will rectify shortly. At the moment we are in about door cafe,the view is of a cornfield with sunflowers,across the road there are white and yellow buildings with orange tile roofs and behind them the green mountains rise.  The sea is to my back but that is just the perspective from my side of the table.

Some impressions so far: Porto requires more than one day of sightseeing. We saw lots of castles and amazing things from the outside which I am sure deserved  to be seen from the inside, we did not take the cable car across the river or walk across the Eiffel bridge, and we did not see the river front at night. We did have our first air BBB experience, which was fine,we had a view of a totally overgrown courtyard, which  was a mini jungle of feral cats, popping in and out of sight like fireflies.

We have learned not to expect speedy service but so far I like the food.  They like putting an egg on things you would not expect an egg on,say, a hamburger for instance.

Now,we are in the quiet northern town of advice and everybody is eager for me to finish this so we can get to the beach.