Day 23 - To Ponte de Lima

We had a really comfortable bed last night, so much so that it was difficult to get up, but we did so, at 7:15. We saw Heinz and Claudia, from last night, before setting off. It was a beautiful day again, clear blue sky all around as we walked through lovely countryside. We had our breakfast at a bar after a few kilometres of walking and met two more Germans. We kept meeting then for the rest of the day in different places. Today started with a climb but it was so, relatively, gentle that we suddenly realised that we were on the downslope. Some while later, stopping for an early lunch, as there didn't look to be any places further on, who did we meet?  Bernard our, by now, good friend from before Porto.

The weather by now was getting hotter, spring is really advanced here.  

We did discover something that we've never seen before, but commented that it would be very helpful, that is a rest station for weary pilgrims. We found one just outside a private house, there were several benches to sit on, fresh water on tap and even a jar of fruit sweets of you fancied one.

Sheer luxury, there should be lots more.

It was a long way to Ponte de Lima through very pleasant countryside, with the last kilometre or so being alongside the river.

As we entered the town we started to look for somewhere to stay. We hadn't bothered too much before as we knew that the town had plenty of accommodation. As we reached the centre Barbara was walking a little in front of me when a man from a restaurant asked her if we needed somewhere to sleep. We agreed to have a look at it and it turned out to be a very swish apartment in the centre of the town, for a very reasonable price, so we accepted. It has very good facilities including a clothes washing area. We, therefore, managed to catch up with our washing and hung it all in an enclosed veranda to dry. Hopefully it will be dry by morning. There is one major drawback, though with this apartment, there is absolutely no internet access available. In cases such as this I have occasionally used our spare phone, with its Portuguese SIM as a local Wi-Fi "hot-spot" but I couldn't get that to work either. I think the credit must have all been used. Some of the local cafes have internet but all are very marginal in signal.

We went out later for a drink and met our German couple from yesterday. Barbara also spotted another pilgrim, looking rather lost.  She went over to him to ask if we could help. The guy, another German, wanted the tourist office. That was just nearby, but closed. He was looking for somewhere to sleep. So Barbara mentioned the apartments that we were staying in, he was interested. She took him around to the place where they did the letting, and they booked him in for the night.

This whole town is very nice, we've had some time to look around and been very impressed.

The main feature of the "Ponte" or bridge. There are about 26 arches and if very old, it's only used for foot traffic now as a much more modern bridge crosses the river just nearby.

By the old bridge is a sculpture depicting a group of Roman soldiers marching towards the river. On the other side of the river is a single Roman officer, on horseback, shouting back to his men. The legend it relates to is that when the Romans first came to this area the river was supposed to have magic properties and anyone who crossed it was supposed to forget about everything they had ever done before.  When this group of Roman soldiers arrived here the officer crossed over before allowing his men to do so. When he reached the other side he called back to each of his men by their individual names so proving that it was safe to cross without losing their minds.