Viana do Castelo free day
I fell asleep within 2 seconds last night. I awoke in the middle of the night pretty sore. It took me quite a while to realize I could get up and take some Advil. Once I did that it was much better.
Finally got out of bed at 8:00 and met everybody at breakfast at 9:00. We were staying in a regular youth hostel so it was a big dining room with a buffet breakfast and we were the only ones still there. But this is our day off so it didn’t matter to us. Everybody else was probably off on their Camino.
Tina and I headed out to do laundry. Cynthia, Evany and Joana headed up to the cathedral on the mountain overlooking the city and Andre stayed behind to do his thing.
Amy from Connecticut (met her yesterday) showed up at the laundramat.
A pilgrim before us helped us get the laundry going.. Soap included, 3.50 euros and 27 minutes later (4.50 for a large load) washer finished. 1 euro/10 minutes on the dryer, took 20 minutes. And out the door.
Tina, Cynthia and Evany didn’t have burgers yesterday so back to the burger joint we go.
I switched to a salad, very good but can’t compare to the burgers.
Group split: Evany and Joana to the cathedral for mass, Cynthia out on errands, Tina and Andre back to the hostel and I went to walk around old town and check out the Pastelaria famous for Bolas de Berlim, a cream filled ball sort of like a donut texture. The fresh hot ones weren’t due out of the oven until 4:30. 50 minutes to go. Back out wandering around I ran into Amy again., I told her about the the bolas, and she wanted in on its location. I revealed my secret and she couldn’t resist.. We bought 2 from the 12:30 batch, along with drinks and headed to the steps of a fountain to consume our calories. Yum
Afterwards she showed me the record street, as in vinyl records hanging between buildings up and down the street
Lined up at 4:26 at Manuel Natario Pastelaria for fresh out of the oven bola do belim for dessert for all tonight (Tina’s favorite). Joana and Andre are cooking us dinner.
I was told to walk down Rua do Amalia. She is the most famous Fado singer in Portugal. I finally found the street rather alleyway very very narrow maybe 6 ft. Really cute but full of flies.
So instead of a stroll I did a quick pace get outta town.
River walk back to the hostel. Home cooked pork chop by Joana was a welcomed over another restaurant. Off to bed.