Ponte de Lima is on the Portuguese Camino. The Camino remains a popular idea and activity, as it has for hundreds of years. We could even see it in the wallpaper of our room, which illustrated three eras of "pelligrinos". The wallpaper also had a map of the Camino, with Ponte de Lima on the bottom. Last night as we were discussing our possible routes to Valenca, which is also on the Camino, I could stand by the wall as if it were a school blackboard, and point to our possibilities.
This blog is not even getting out of the hotel room yet, because after looking at the wallpaper, it was time for a shower! Dodie went first, and came back with an explanation of how to work the controls. I listened carefully, but still was not very successful. In past blogs I have had effusive praise for the logic of some European shower controls. These controls totally separate the adjustment of water temperature from water volume, unlike either the two or one handle controls found at home. Usually here you see a horizontal fitting, where twisting the left side controls the volume, and the right side controls temperature. But in today's one the left side shifted from the hand sprayer to the overhead, and the right side - never did quite figure it!
More or less showered, we set off through the town and toward the ancient bridge. This town is easily one of our favourites in Portugal. It has an open feel and it is easy to appreciate where things are. Cars are not an issue, and buildings are old and restored/well preserved.
Dodie launched across the bridge and on reaching the other side was looking for a perspective from which to see the Roman arches of the bridge. There was no ready way to see the whole bridge, so we started to scout around a bit. In any event, we were reluctant to leave this very beautiful spot. We did find that bridge view, and also several Camino related things - an albergue (pilgrim guest house), a shop with home made Camino souvenirs, and even a group of pilgrims.
These kids are actually from Ponte de Lima. They have walked to Fatima before, but now are heading for Santiago. They say they are targeting 39 km today, which is nuts. That puts them in Valenca, and is about twice what they should be attempting, especially on the frst day. Also, look at their feet. We know they have no chance of making it to Santiago, certainly not in sandals, and no socks.
Reluctantly, we now set off on the road route to Valenca, using N201. We had clicked out this route using Ride With GPS, ignoring the various cuckoo suggestions of the routing algorithms. Interestingly, though, some wanted us with the walkers, following the route called "CP" in the Open Cycle map - the Caminho Portuguese.
N201 tuned out to be a brilliant road, offering low traffic and even something of a shoulder for the first 10 km. Consequently, the whole ride was glorious and despite the two long climbs, over seemingly too soon.
The Camino repeatedly crosses our road. You can see that these walkers will need to dive off on the left ahead. But first they have to watch out for the fast moving Dodie!
Based on experience with a lot of other riverside towns, we rather expected Valenca to be a place with a downtown clustered by a bridge. But Valenca is not like that at all. It presents as a long, high, fortified village at right angles to the river. You can descend to the rather nondescript bridge, and then cross to Spain, if that is what you are in to.
Our hotel came before the long village, so we dropped our bikes and bags there, and carried on by foot. For this, I had our backpack on, and Dodie had her trekking pole, so we blended with the pelegrinos. In fact we had had some "buon camino" greetings during the day, and had begun to feel into it.
Still working with our downtown by the bridge mental model, we bypassed the elevated, fortified town and walked straight to the river. We took a few steps on the bridge, toward Spain, after which I chickened out because of the height. On the other side we did see their castle. Strangely the two castle do not oppose each other across the river. It would have been a good arrangement for lobbing cannonballs back and forth.
It looks like Dodie is really brave, but the railing is a decent height, here on the bridge to Spain.
Kelly IniguezI"m all into cobblestones lately - the Andersons' journals have quite a few cobblestone photos - the pretty paver styles that make patterns - plus a couple of old fashioned rock ones just to keep me on my toes.
The 12% grade spot I couldn't find, Scott had a photo of, by Marvao - https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/iberia2019/marvao-dd1/#18960_gxnlmwbgnekgcyi7yuagn9c4izb Reply to this comment 1 year ago
Kelly IniguezMy son did a high school physics class project where they had to build trebuchets and figure the trajectory of their objects. He and a friend spent considerable time after the project had officially ended, playing with their project. He was quite disappointed I did not want to buy cantaloupes to donate to their cause! Reply to this comment 1 year ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kelly IniguezYou big meanie! It does seem like it would have been a waste of perfectly good food though. Better as fruit salad. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
As we continued to walk through the buildings up in the fortified town, we were pleased and surprised to come to quite a commercial walking street. It had lots of souvenir shops, clothing stores, restaurants, and best of all, ice cream shops. Since we had walked and slogged our way up here, encountering only a few oncoming pelegrinos, we were surprised to find so many ordinary tourists swarming around. It turned out that not only was there a big parking lot up ahead, but some cars were filtering onto the streets of the village
To watch somebody REALLY enjoy cod fritters, watch
Also in Continente, that BBQ chicken so famous in Montreal. We almost bought one here, but not. I realized that I had not been spotting BBQ here much because I did not know the word for BBQ: It's "churrasco" and a BBQ grill is "churrasquiera". We have been seeing that word lots. These are indoor restaurants, unlike Mexico, where "pollo asado" is on the streets everywhere.
Kelly IniguezChurrasco is a very good word to know. Jacinto is hoping we might find rotisserie chicken in the stores, to make a picnic with later. Any luck on that one? Reply to this comment 1 year ago
Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Kelly IniguezOccasionally we have seen chicken in packages like in the picture. It is warm and probably good for a picnic later if it can be safely stored. I do not think we have seen many whole rotisserie chickens as is common in stores at home. Probably only the larger chains have this, like Continente, Aldi, etc. Reply to this comment 1 year ago