Walking Across Italy

Today, I discovered that the Portuguese love to adorn their homes and churches with ceramic tile. The effect can be quite pretty.

These tiles provided the only beautiful aesthetic during our 11.6 mile journey from the outskirts of Porto to the small village of Vilarinho. Most of the trip looked like a visit to a concrete factory. The building were industrial. The road was cobblestone. And the walls were gray stone. As a result, a little color went a long way.

The tiles on the houses were mostly geometric patterns in blues, greens, oranges, and brown.

But, the ones on the churches, were consistently blue and white and depicted religious scenes or saints.

Unfortunately, most of today’s hike was on busy streets where we dodged cars and walked on cobblestone pavement. That made it hard on the feet as my stiff hiking boots had no flex on the uneven stones.

Toward the end of our trek, we happened upon a quaint chapel on a hill. From that vantage point, we could see the Atlantic Ocean on the horizon.

Our bed n breakfast was owned by an elderly couple who frequently offered lodgings to weary Camino travelers. Our apartment was clean and comfortable, but the lucky strike bonus was a miniature swimming pool in the courtyard. The only problem was that the water temperature was a chilly 60-65 degrees. As George Costanza exclaimed in a famous Seinfeld episode, “Shrinkage, Jerry! shrinkage!”

We ended the day with a splash and hopes of a more pastoral hike tomorrow.