Day 22 - To Vitorino dos Piâes

We both slept well last night. The beds in the hotel were comfortable but strangely high off the ground, rather like hospital beds, but made of polished oak. Up and around quite early and everything packed and ready to go before breakfast. When we went down to the breakfast room we were greeted with a single made up table laden with food. It seems that we were the only people on the hotel, certainly the only one needing breakfast at 8am.  We finally left at 8:45 for a steady walk, slightly uphill, out of Barcelos. Soon after we started we passed an official looking building with an enormous queue of people waiting outside. We had no idea what the queue was about but it really did look as if the queue was, possibly, to get a weekly/monthly allowance. It may be possible as Portugal is currently quite a poor country with lots of unemployed.

The route soon became more rural and at one point we walked alongside a railway, just as a train passed by and the driver blew his horn, and waved to us as he passed. We waved back. Shades of the Railway Children!  

The route was mainly rural passing through some nice areas with lush fields and farms. There are lots of tractors and other machines around but occasionally we saw some very old fashioned items around. A woman carrying a large sack of greens on her head.

Corn or hay that had been cut and stacked by hand,

and some magnificent horned cattle.

In Barcelos we saw many picturesque cockerels, all as statues and caricatures, today we saw the real item.

The steady climb started getting harder. We stopped off at a small cafe and and had a freshly squeezed, orange juice  and got into discussions with a German man about possible stopping places this evening. We mentioned where we had booked, he liked the sound of it and rang it himself and booked in. So, we may see him later. Later we met a Dutch man who was walking very quickly, otherwise everybody we met today was from Germany.

The afternoon developed into a long slog as we walked mainly uphill. We stopped for lunch and had delicious sandwiches made from bread that we'd just seen coming out of the oven. And met some more Germans. The weather earlier had been overcast and a little cool, but as the afternoon progressed the heat and humidity levels increased. Walking became harder. The track today had initially been in the forest and country tracks, but eventually we were walking only on very uneven, cobbled roads and tracks.  By the time we reached our lodgings for tonight we were flagging!

The place we had chosen, just from the guide, was somewhat strange. It was almost like a set of stables around two sides of a farm yard with an orchard/vineyard facing.

We had booked by phone and so didn't know what to expect and so were rather surprised. We didn't quite know what to do, as they was nobody there to welcome us, we were trying to decide when a man appeared from somewhere and told us that we were in Room G. The owner, apparently, would be around at about 6 to 6:30 to deal with registration etc.

The room was quite a surprise, to my mind it was very dark and dismal, with the only window being the one in the door, The floors were very dark and the walls a sort of dark plaster. The bathroom however was quite swish with a very impressive and, as we soon found out, hot shower. We were feeling rather sweaty and soon were showered and changed and started to look around the rest of the place. We had already seen a German couple, in the next room, that we'd met earlier in the day.  Later we also met two more German men who were also staying there.

There was a separate building that, we discovered, contained a very well equipped kitchen, a dining area, a sitting area and a very well stocked bookcase.

Suddenly, again, the man we'd seen before appeared, this time with a mobile phone in his hand, he came to me and said "Carroll", I answered 'Yes" and he gave me the phone. It was the owner, a young lady, Susannah, who apologised for not being there, confirming that she would be there sometime after 6pm and checking if we wanted an evening meal. As there were no apparent eating places nearby, and at that time, we didn't know of any shops, we gratefully accepted the meal offer. We later found that there was a mini market nearby that sold food. Later we went to the market and bought a few beers and some snacks for tomorrow.

The owner duly arrived just after 6pm with lots of interesting containers etc. She proceeded to serve up a delicious chicken casserole with salad and bread. Accompanying this was an olive oil dressing, from the olive trees on the farm and several bottles of a good white wine again from the vines on the farm. The meal, for four Germans and two Brits was very sociable with lots of conversation and generally a good time. The owner had, before she left dealt with her administration, stamped credentials etc. and also arranged with a local cafe/bar for the three German men to go there to see Bayern Munich's match on their TV. The TV on site was limited in channels and couldn't receive that particular match. Soon after the meal was finished they went off to walk to the next village to see the match. The German lady went back to her room and we stayed in the lounge area reading, and starting this blog. I managed to get the wood-burning stove going so we spent a cosy evening by the fireside.

What I had considered a dark and dismal place turned out to be very nice after all.