Sid - 18,468 steps
16 degrees and rain
We had a very nice dinner and visit with our host Mr Holland and other guest Miss Germany. Miss Germany is an occupational therapist and works with stroke victims. Mr Holland speaks 5 languages and intends to learn Russian this winter . For supper we had ground beef wrapped in puff pastry as an appetizer, vegetarian pasta, fig salad tossed with balsamic and olive oil, fresh lettuce and apple salad, and baked 'pumpkin'. I'm pretty sure it was butternut squash but Mr Holland says all squash are called pumpkins. For desert we had chocolate ice cream with elderberry sauce
This is a picture of the dwelling from the outside
He showed us the 'before ' pictures. It looked like any of the pictures of ruins that I have posted. He said he paid 100 thousand euros for the property and spent 400 thousand renovating the property. He had quite a vision...It is beautiful. He also said he can live quite nicely for 15 thousand euros per year. He took no personal information from us and were offered no receipt
Our walk today was the prettiest yet. We started out in a light mist that worked its way into rain, but warm
En route
We have not seen too many vinyards on our recent paths, but every single yard/property is edged with grape vines
Followed by a canopy of cork trees...the bark has been harvested, but vey beautiful
Mr Holland says those grapes are all used for private wine making.
On our morning stop for coffee, we have coffee and 2 pastries for 2.60 euros.
Olives ready for harvest
And a sign for our destination
Last night we discussed the difficulty to know which village you are in, there are no markings . Mr Holland said that was a common complaint of pilgrims.
As a point of interest I have been recording our steps and distance according to our Fitbit/Garmin devices. My distance is in km and Sid's is in miles and they convert pretty close. The distance is about 15% greater than the guide book. Mr Holland said if you ever want to have a heated conversation those devices are a great place to start. He said he could have 20 people with 20 devices and 20 different distances!
We walked through a canopy of grapevines
Our destination town has a beautiful bridge for automobiles
And a beautiful bridge for pedestrians
We are pretty wet by the time we were looking for lodging. We stopped at a hotel and took the last available room. Brand new place, but the rooms are so tiny...like about 8 feet wide...can't even walk around the bed for goodness sakes. We were in no mood to shop around!
The view from our room
We walk back into town in the afternoon but it is raining again...just after we got dried out.
Will try to find supper somewhere close
We are near the north border of Portugal . Trying to figure out the details of receiving my passport...
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