Traveling up north

Over the last couple weeks Tom was traveling around northern Portugal and Pat was enjoying some peace and quiet and doing boat chores. Then we managed to mesh our schedules and Pat took a train to Viana do Castelo so we could do some hiking together and get out into less developed areas.


Viana do Castelo is a nice seaside town with an imposing cathedral overlooking the town.



You can see the church on the hill

 We thought it would be a good training exercise to hike up to the cathedral and then we took a VERY narrow stairway up to the top and then took a VERY narrow spiral staircase up to the very top of the dome. Pat was quite comfortable up there, I was a quivering mass of protoplasm so the picture you see here was probably shot by Pat. I do not like heights.

We were way up at the top...

Here is the city from the top of the church - what a view!

The next day we took a rental car off into Park Peneda Geres – the largest and first national park in Portugal. It is a great place to hike. We went to a small town and stayed in an old granite inn.

Here are some shots of us hiking and goofing around for a couple days. Our first day we climbed 2000 vertical feet up these kind of trails and through these kinds of woods and rocks.

I wouldn't walk under this rock until Pat agreed to help hold it back

Part of our hike was on this road which we shared with cars and goats

Here was a nice waterfall and pool

We made a hiking buddy - Joachim - an airline pilot

At the top I claimed the valley for, well, Remedios ...

Pat just never stops working. I sat down for a minute to have some water and a candy bar and before I knew it - look what he did!

Some of the terrain was very open and moon-like

Some of the trails went through the forest



Remember sharing the road? Pat told me he would go ahead and if anything happened - I should keep shooting pictures. I readily agreed.



Don't tell Pat, but my money was on the bull if it came to that.

OK, I am not making this up. We missed a turn on this hike and ended up in Spain. We kid you not. Just like those hikers in Iraq. Except we were smart enough to take a wrong turn in the EU so all we had to do was come back across the Portugal / Spain border.

Here is the border sign

Here I am coming back from Spain...

We had hiking sticks to fend off wild dogs if needed. They weren't...

The second day we hiked 18 miles up and down with a vertical gain of 1900 vertical feet. Part of that hike was on the path of an old Roman road more than 1500 years old.

Roman mile markers more than 1500 years old!

Our reward after four hours of hiking!

Now we are off to meet Michele and Peggy at the airport and then we will split up for some spousal re-acquainting and travel time. More in a couple weeks!