Stacy: Day 7 - The Longest Day
Our hotel in Tui is beautiful! It was built in the 1920s. I mean, look at these room keys! But. Being old, and being European, they turn their air conditioning off on a certain date – it's NOT based on the actual temperatures outside. For two nights, we'd slept with the windows WIDE open. Keep in mind: the Europeans do not have screens. Luckily we weren't eaten by vampire bats. It was fairly miserable.
In both Portugal and Spain (so far) we see these gorgeous violet flowers absolutely everywhere. They kinda look like huge Morning Glories (4" diameter).
After a decent breakfast, we made our way to the Tui Fortress-Monastery visible from our hotel's back yard. It's beautiful inside! But, the climb was fairly steep, especially for those of us with only Mall Walking experience under our belts...
After leaving, we walked back down.
And, we walked some more, playing the 'Were's the next yellow arrow' game! So far, we have not lost the path. We hear arrows are sparse along the Spiritual Variant, which we'll come upon in a few more days.
The little town below the Fortress-Monastery is quite lovely and quaint! There were a couple more churches.
Eventually, we made it into the forested area. Soooo lovely! And fresh-smelling! And quiet! But, it's not all quiet. There's a lot of walking along, and crossing over, busy roadways. We even sat next to one (heavily forested on either side), and took a potty break! 😂 That Kula Cloth has already paid for itself.
Then, a snack break. Because it was Spanish siesta time (after 2pm-5/6pm), and we had missed the opportunity to eat at American lunch time.
But, we found a bar that was open! (Most bars sell tapas and drinks during siesta. This was literally the first bar directly in the path, after what must have been 6 miles of absolutely nothing but forest (and some roads). The next one wasn't until 5 more miles. This Coke was refreshing! And, didn't last long...
After using the WC (water closet), we walked some more. Until we found the next (first) open bar in O Porriño.
From there, after obtaining our stamp, we called our taxi to take us back to our hotel in Tui. The next day, he would drop us off so we could begin walking from the same area.
We walked TWELVE miles today.
Even though I was in love with the Iberian ham dish from the night before, I decided to try something new from our hotel's restaurant--veal steak. While not a religious experience, it was still very delicious! Just what I needed to finish off such a long, hard, absolutely hot, and actually somewhat crappy day. ((The temps were around 86 degrees, but 'felt like' 90.))
Tomorrow promises to be almost as long, and even hotter. Le sigh.
