Friday was our first full day in the mountains so we agreed to stay local and do one short, easy hike then be lazy. Simple plan, what could possibly go wrong?

We had breakfast in Vieira do Minho, the nearest real town. For reference.. the sort-of-near-each-other-clump-of-buildings we’re staying in seems like a stretch to even call a hamlet. The same is true for lots of tiny hamlets along the narrow mountain roads. You literally see the name sign, see 1-4 old stone buildings (half of which appear to be uninhabited) and then you see the end-of-name sign. Quirky but cute as hell! Anyway.. we ate at a delightful little cafe called Flor de Cacau.

Savitri had her customary coffee and we both had our now-standard fresh squeezed juice. I couldn’t resist trying their Chocolate Quente..

Notice the viscosity?! It was like eating solid chocolate. Thicker and tastier than mousse. I still can’t decide if I regret or savor the experience.. so I guess both.

After breakfast we walked the town a bit, looking for a laundromat, a bakery, a supermarket, etc. We found.. a hardware store! I forgot to bring an extension cord with me, instead bringing a couple multi-plugs. Those work great and pack light but I find that old hotels and rentals (especially in Europe) often have very few outlets and the ones they have are inconveniently placed. As a result it has been hard to find a location to set up my portable monitors and peripherals since our big place in Lagos (where I borrowed an extension cord that was already there). I’ve been looking for a hardware store in every town with no luck, including Porto! They’ve either been too distant or closed. Well not in our sweet little town of Viera do Minho!

Even Savitri was impressed with the selection of modern tools and reasonable prices.

We confirmed that we still didn’t know where the laundromat was (turns out the tip we had been given sent us to a drycleaner), then wandered around a bit more.

We bought some fresh bread from a local baker for dirt cheap.. and by “bread” I of course mean “bread and pastries”. Savitri and I walked down the main street eating pastries shamelessly, flakes of pastry, bits of chocolate, and powdered sugar falling in our wake. We may not be typical American tourists but we’re sure as hell not typical locals either.

We found a big supermarket- turns out there’s a Lidl here as well.

I just love that you can buy milk one aisle from where you can buy chicken OR cheap surf boards.. in a mountain town distant from the coast.

Groceries in hand and food in our bellies we were ready to tackle the remainder of our planned lazy day! We went “home” to Casa d’Henrique (I am fascinated by how “home” is a relative term and can have several parallel meanings. Around here home is where our stuff is!). We prepared minimally to hike to the top of a prominent hilltop within sight. In fact it had been in sight and in mind since we first entered the region the day before so I was eager to figure it out. Remember this picture?

The top of that round hill with its many stone monoliths is visible from all over town.

Savitri and I walked down the tiny road we stay on, just absolutely enjoying the country setting.. the smells. the colors.. the sounds.. it’s a European Corinth, VT in many ways.

This is within the Vinho Verde wine region (as we learned at Sapateiro!), so many vineyards still use the traditional tall vines on trees around the edges of fields to conserve space. They tower up to 10m tall, whereas most grapevines around the world are maybe 2-3m high. The old way apparently yields much more acidic, bitter wine that some people prefer, but it’s not for most connoisseurs. That said.. they LOOK beautiful, especially mixed in with orange and lemon trees!

Ok so this “hike” we were on.. It was more of a puzzle to figure out how to get to a visible location. Using several digital maps, each of which had some things right and some wrong, I was able to keep us on track.

It turned out that the trails from this side of the target hill haven’t been used for years. That didn’t stop us.. although maybe it should have. We bushwhacked our way through brush and pricker bushes, constantly relocating the faint trail. We eventually got on a slightly better trail with horse tracks and got to the base of the top of the hill. We were able to get within about 100m of the top but couldn’t find a real trail. I stopped and did some internet research (yes this is a little late in the day/story to do the preparation!). I found that the entire top of the hill is an archaeological site (Castro Vieira do Minho) and doesn’t appear to encourage hikers.

We turned around and called it a successfully terminated adventure! Here’s somebody’s YouTube video showing the top that we could only sort of see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8D4B6XQIFE

So back “home” through all the rural beauty, no complaints!

Did we mention that we love it here?!

I’d be remiss to skip dinner. It seemed a little out of line with our glorious nature day but it was special in its own way. We went to O Ronca for dinner. It’s a popular local burger and steak joint. Like has happened to us several times on this trip, we walk into an almost empty restaurant, sit down awkwardly, then blink and the room’s full of locals. I guess we just eat a little early..

The special meal is burgers so we both dove in. I got the Ronca Hamburger Special, which is essentially a huge lean beef burger with lettuce, cheese, and ham (which they call bacon) inside a big fresh bun. No not done yet.. then melt more cheese over the whole thing, put a fried egg on top, then place it in a shallow bowl of some herby, tomato-y, cheesy sauce..? I’m not really sure what I ate really but it was surprisingly good!

We’re all about decorum so we had fries and Coke with it, and we’re very health-minded so we shared a salad too.

That thoroughly ended our happy taste-of-local day. Ahh..