Given that none of us got much sleep last night, we were all happy that today’s journey would be short and flat. only 9 miles from Casa Fernanda to Ponte de Lima.
The weather was sunny and cool this morning, which made the trek away from hell very enjoyable. The scenery was lush and green and the road was mostly void of traffic.
There were some interesting sights on the road this morning – a man and his donkey, and a lady doing her wash down by the stream. (Not something you see everyday in Kentucky.)
About an hour into our trek, we met two women from Sardinia who were walking in our direction. JP started the conversation in italian, so I thought this would be a great time ti brush up on my language skills. We talked for several hours and afterwards, JP told me that he was very impressed by my ability to carry on the conversation with non-English speakers. I take that as a high compliment from the biggest polyglot that I have ever met. The guy can switch from Portuguese to Spanish to French to Italian to English to Chinese in seconds. I’ve started referring to him as Goggle Translator!
Right around noon, we arrived in Ponte de Lima, a beautiful little town along the Lima river. Ponte de Lima (the Lima Bridge) actually has 2 bridges – one old and one new.
After dropping our bags at the hotel, which featured private rooms, air conditioning, a queen size bed, Jacuzzi tub, and a spa, we made our way to a restaurant for lunch. The fare was Portuguese veal steak topped with cheese, ham, egg, and homemade potato chips. But what really made this lunch special was the berry sundae with tons of “whoopin toppin” (whipped cream) for dessert. I immediately went back to the hotel and entered a 2-hour sucrose coma.
Tomorrow will be a rough day as we will climb for almost 4 hours. I need to sleep tonight.
Walking Across Italy 
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