Another quiet and hot day. We had our routine breakfast, although bread, ham and cheese is starting to get monotonous and headed out for a walk of the old town. Feeling like veterans we braved the car entrance with the double walls and the stop and go system for cars. We definitely have the hang of it now. We had our morning espresso and water sitting in a plaza from the years 1000- 1500 when each of the cathedrals around it were built. It is getting a refurbishment and the streets are torn up so it was rather dusty. No magic choir music as we had last night. In fact, we heard music as we walked around but this time it was much more modern. The city must have a speaker system around the walls that give it that magic feeling at night. The churches were beautiful and it was quite a peaceful morning. We walked to the “new town” (built in the past 200 years) and the grocery story which was packed. In fact, this entire town was packed. This morning as we were hanging our clothes out to drive on our deck we say huge busloads of people coming into town and standing outside the shops. Apparently the Spanish travel to this border town to buy cheap bed linens and home furnishings. The buses arrive about 8:00 AM stacked full of people. The luggage underbelly of the buses, each one identical, was full of ice chests. Apparently they take a break from their day of shopping by having a picnic. Virtually all of the people on the buses shopped, although a few of the men and children walked up the hill to the old town. We wandered around the grocery store and picked up our lunch ingredients, more staples- a loaf of white bread and fruit with water and diet coke. Although our walk back from the grocery store to our hotel could politely be called “taking the long way”, we have come to consider being lost as a chance to see new territory. In a town this small it is really hard to be lost for long.
We tried to get to the internet café to check in with all of you, but apparently 7:00 PM is quitting time on Saturday night, so it will be until at least tomorrow before you get to read this. We will spend the rest of the evening reading (I just finishes Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections which I had never had enough patience to read, although this time I enjoyed it, and Mike is almost done with Steve Berry’s The Third Secret which takes place here in Portugal, making it quite interesting).
Our train tomorrow leaves at 10:15 for a two hour ride into Spain and the town of Vigo. We may travel beyond that, but as yet we are not committed as to tomorrow’s stopping point. We have reservations at Santiago de Campostela for Thursday and Friday nights which we may keep, synching back up for at least a few days with the agenda posted in the blog.
Wait-late breaking news. Yesterday I worked on my computer for a few hours trying to learn how to set the TCP/IP address. It turned out to be a quick fix if only I knew where to look. I got a hint that was the problem from those German kids we met at the port wine tour, and after fooling around for awhile I tought I got it fixed ans showed Mike what I had done so that we could both be fixed or messed up, whichever was the case. The problem was that we had no network in this hotel to enable us to test it. Then, low and behold, while I was writing today's blog entry in expectation of posting it tomorrow, all of a sudden I noticed that my e-mail file was growing. Someone has a network up now without security and we are using it! The fix worked! I can't tell you how good it feels to be able to use the computer again.
Happy in Valenca, Deanne
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Hallelujah for unsecured networks!!! Hahaha
You guys are learning so much from your trips (as well as we are) and becoming such savvy travelers. It's so cool that you get to meet such interesting different people along your travels that teach you something in one way or another.
Miss you both!
Post a Comment