Day 66: Ponte de Lima to Valenca

May 6, 2023

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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.

Looking toward the bridge, chapel, and misty hill behind. We know we will be doing some climbing today.

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.

On the other side, a Saint James (Santiago) statue.

The bridge turned out to have two sections, the second beginning at the chapel.

The shot we were looking for - of the Roman bit of the bridge!

See the onion bulb steeple. We have noticed this a lot as we pass through this region.

A typical albergue entrance. Notice the yellow and blue arrows. On the Camino, yellow denotes the way to Santiago, and blue the way back.

See the yellow and blue boots? and the water gourd with the walking stick.

Inside the shop, though it's early morning, the woodworker is hard at it.

"The Way" leads from the other side of the bridge.

Elaborate decoration of a walking stick.

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.

Here is a last look back at Ponte de Lima, what a lovely place!

And a last look at the Santo Antonio de Torre Velha church facade. It is from the early 19th century.

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.

This corn crib has the proper design, as described in Scott's link yesterday. That is, stone pieces to deflect any rats.

It doesn't take long to be looking down at towns.

Google thinks this is a "White" Wagtail.

We missed stopping in at Fatima. Signs in the road that do not point to Santiago, point to Fatima.

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!

Wow, here are really a lot of those flowers of somewhat unknown identity.

Another church with the bulb tower. It is a church on the Camino. Note the mountain bike riders on the walking route rather than our route.

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.

Look Kelly(Iniguez), real cobbles - not just pavers. But fortunately we are on foot.

Up into the fortified town. The walls are from the 13th century.

Inside the chapel. Stone walls, wood roof.

The same pile of boxes main altar design we have been seeing here in the north.

The elaborately decorated gate to a side chapel.

That main arch has recently been subject to restoration.

Here is a unique item, a trebuchet, for lobbing cannon balls.

And here is a possibly serviceable battering ram.

This Roman marker is from the year 43, though it was shifted over here in 1680.

The Santo Estevao church. There sure are a lot of churches and chapels up here.

A building with a beautiful tile facade.

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

Look at this blue fronted building, similar to the previous one.

The first Portuguese saint, 11th century.

The St. Teotonio statue is in front of the Bom Jesus chapel.

Reaching the Bom Jesus Sanctuary in Braga is one thing, but how many have been to the Bom Jesus Restaurant?

Here are a lot more of the menu items. I'm recording them here because they are so typical of what is on offer in this country.

We close our excursion in the upper town with one additional door.

Popping out at the not river end of town, we found ourselves at Continente. In the store, we took no basket, to limit what we might pick up.

Here on the right are cod fritters, often eaten at breakfast, we understand.

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.

More from Continente: Fish that is not dried cod (that's on the next counter over) and a map of wine regions.

Finally, out in the street - "Prego" is a real thing!

Gotta go, computer is out of power! Tomorrow we head toward the coast!

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Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,756 km (1,711 miles)

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