17 September 2016, Saturday, Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia de Ancora, Day 19


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September 17th 2016
Published: October 10th 2016
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17 September 2016, Saturday, Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia de Ancora, Day 19, 16.25 miles. Advertised by Follow the Camino as a 11 mile day.

Correction: well, after seeing a bigger picture of the beautiful flower bush of yesterday I can assure you it is not a belladonna plant! Belladonnas were everywhere. I think it might be in the fuschia family--

Viana is a shopper's paradise. Fortunately for our bulging bags and much thinner wallets it is early in the morning and the shops are closed. I am particularly intrigued with the outstanding textile handicrafts. The window displays of regional dress just explode with color.

The other side of the street faces the river and fronting the riverbank are a series of very modern style buildings. Viana is distinguishing itself as a center for modern architecture. Articles in upscale magazines, such as "Wallpaper," have featured the vibrant small city's efforts. It reminds one of Bilbao, Spain's efforts to put themselves on the world's map through architecture. One of the premier buildings is the library and how I would love to spend the day there!

We found a street passing the old fort and fish market as we headed along the harbor for the coastal way. We saw no arrows as the main waymarked route went through the historic town center. One of the statues we passed I call the Horseless Headman. It shows the head and leg of a horse and the head of a jockey. Unusually intriguing.

We walked roads along the railroad track until stopping for coffee and and a pastry. This was in the little town of Areosa and they had had some celebration at the church there the night before with all the booths and the trash still in the square in front of the church. The breakfast at Hotel do Parque was the poorest in quality, variety and taste of any to date. One walked into a lovely dining area on an upper floor and saw nothing but piles of different bread. An auto coffee machine did not work well either. And the unsecure wifi made work on internet nearly impossible. So we enjoyed a coffee and shared a couple of pastries at this cafe/pastry shop In Areosa.

We elected to go to the coastal boardwalk for the next several kilometers. A man told Moira how to follow the route when the boardwalk ended. Two paragliders flew by overhead as we made our way to the coast. Along the coastal walk we passed several archeological sites of prehistoric significance. Salt drying stones, petroglyphs, and Roman fish tanks. About 1230 we headed for the town of Carreco back across the N-13 highway to get to a restaurant. After a great lunch the man at the restaurant told us how to find the Camino route. Then the fun began. We climbed south and east above the little town when the direction we wanted to go was north and west. We found the arrows. Next we got separated as Jo and Moira went ahead and Julian, Karen and I continued on a route with a few arrows which went down the hill. The end result was the three of us, after 4.5 kilometers of walking, wound up only 500 meters from the restaurant where we had lunch. Julian had talked with Moira and she and Jo were to go on and find their way to the hotel. We would follow my google maps directions to the hotel and see them there. So with Jo and Moira nowhere in sight, no arrows to guide us, we took the walk along the highway into our destination town. We stopped for a Magnum ice cream break. As we were finishing Moira and Jo came up the street. See Jo Finestead's blog for their day.

At the hotel the two rooms for the three others were ready but ours was not. We were told 10 minutes. Seems the rooms were used by a wedding party and ours still needed cleaning. After 20 minutes we were informed by Julian no one had started cleaning our room. We were then told 40 minutes more. This did not make us happy! But the smiling, beautiful bride appeared, we took her photo and felt better. The Meira Hotel had a nice atmosphere.

The last photo of this blog entry is of the Portuguese Rooster. The painted art work is different than usually seem. The rooster is a national symbol and refers to a folk tale in which the rooster is the principal character in saving a Spanish pilgrim's life. The symbol is ubiquitous in Portugal.


Additional photos below
Photos: 30, Displayed: 25


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Artistically rendered graffiti Artistically rendered graffiti
Artistically rendered graffiti

Leaving Viana do Castelo
A statue depicting labors of lifeA statue depicting labors of life
A statue depicting labors of life

The climb up the ropes or attempt to - to get to the top
Viana do Castelo historic churchViana do Castelo historic church
Viana do Castelo historic church

Capela de Nos Senora da Agonia
Horseless HeadmenHorseless Headmen
Horseless Headmen

Washington Irving please note: intriguing statue of horse head, leg and jockey head
Salt basins - drying pools in the rocksSalt basins - drying pools in the rocks
Salt basins - drying pools in the rocks

Use by the Romans or earlier man to produce salt.
The beach and ocean in the distanceThe beach and ocean in the distance
The beach and ocean in the distance

Shortly thereafter we discovered we were not on a path and used GPS to get us back to a road and some lunch


Tot: 0.318s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 53; dbt: 0.1155s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb