Life's a Stitch

The journey started with three flights – Vancouver to Calgary to Paris to Lisbon. It wasn’t as pleasant a trip as we have had in the past. I can understand a small child being vocal about ear pain while flying. What I can’t is the sibling shaking a rattle that sounded like a New Year’s Eve noisemaker – the ones you spin around on a handle – the entire time the baby wailed. I think it was his coping mechanism to drown out the sound.

The weirder experience, possibly the strangest of the thousand plus flights I’ve taken, was the man in the seat in front of me. He and his wife found it entertaining to use something to push at or put weight on my feet, which were well behind the metal bar separating my under-seat from their area. I can’t imaging the contortion involved to reach my feet. So strange. I settled for a minor confrontation, but next time I’d involve airline staff. It  was a bizarre experience.

We Ubered to our hotel located near the Sete Rios train station. In the morning after a delicious hotel breakfast, we repacked our bags, one for our hiking trip, the other to remain in hotel storage. While waiting for the bus to arrive I went to Lidl for lunch supplies. A well stocked little Lidl, I was lamenting the fact that I had no cooking facilities.

On the 3.5 hour bus trip to our starting point on the Rota Vicentina, Zambujiera Do Mar we passed miles of pines resembling broccoli stalks. We saw threatening clouds, the remnants of Storm Claudia that brought extensive flooding and tornados to coastal Lisbon. 

A rainbow followed.

We checked into our inn, Rosa do Ventos, where we have a peek-a-boo ocean view from our tiny balcony, but can hear the ocean sounds so calming at night.

There are many restaurants in this little town, but no banks or ATM’s. Luckily cards are widely accepted. We did our online research and chose a place for dinner based on their menu, but for some reason they were closed when we arrived. We found another, with similar sounding entrees and locals watching sports in the brightly lit dining room. The real Portuguese deal.

Chuck ordered Feijoada, bean stew with whelk 🐚 meat. It looked nothing like the one pictured from the previous restaurant, and was a little disappointing.

I ordered one of my favourites Porco a Alentejana, pork and clams, salty deliciousness.

The local white wine was excellent, tasted like a mix of Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay and Semillon. 

We walked home before the skies opened up. Instead of the ocean we listened to the sound of rain and wind all night, also calming in our cozy room. 

Tomorrow will be a short hiking day.