So happy…green
New architecture using old materials…
The big chook – symbol of Barcelos and of Portugal…
Today was a great walk and FINALLY …FINALLY it has the hallmarks of what we had hoped we would be seeing – green fields, tracks, rural life happening- and at the start of the day we had 208km to go to get to Santiago.
We headed out of Arcos after breakfast and have started seeing Peregrinos on the road – behind and in front…just like last year. Lots of quiet chatter. Interestingly we have been walking at about the same pace as a fellow Australian, but we haven’t done much more than greet him along the way when we have seen each other. He is travelling with a group and is clearly staying in the albergues and so that group has formed. We have been walking around people that were with us at last evening’s accomodation at Arcos which has been a new experience for this trip. We anticipate that some of them will be here at the same accomodation as us in Barcelos. Last year one of our group seemed to play the role of organising the “group” for dinner each day – it was a task that he took on of his own volition and perhaps that was what created the “group” that we walked with.
Heaps of corn and rye fields – grape vines, kiwi vines and ACRES of domaci kupus (for the non-Croatians that = Croatian style Kale). We were so happy to be off the asphalt and walking on trails and tracks – although most of the day it was drizzling – there were two very happy vegemites in Portugal today.
We also began to notice that clearly some of the folks building up here are starting to play with their architecture – echoes of the past with materials that are the same – but interpreted so differently. Lots of stone and steel and timber and the biggest change of all – big windows and no roller shutters…
We are in Barcelos tonight and will head shortly with jackets and scarves and wet weather gear on to explore…and Spain is getting closer.
The green is just magnificent… the time has flown… when do the Perth crew join you?
They fly tomorrow night and we will be waiting for them at the border towns – Tui/Valencia on Saturday – they get one day in Porto…
Loved the new architecture in your photograph. The stone with corten steel and whatever the other material is -maybe aluminium sheet- is just stunning. Loved the chook as well. Hope that the last third of the journey remains rural and that you have left the asphalt and industry behind.