11-18-12 My really last day in Portugal…… Travel to Marvao & Castelo de Vide

Road to Castelo De Vide

I wake late after a restless night to sunshine!!  Making my way to the dining room and eating the traditional breakfast of bread, jam, ham and cheese, Tony apologizes for the lack of fresh squeezed juice as the oranges on his trees are done for the year.  He usually freezes the juice after the oranges are all picked but has run out of that too!  Tony and I get to talking, as he mentions the place is for sale, he is getting a divorce and must pay off his fourth wife.   Married twenty-five years this time, it’s the only way to pay her off.  His plan is to buy a motor home and hit the road!  He bought this as many years ago and they added on to it to make it the 10 room rural hotel it is today, hopefully a young couple will buy it and continue the tradition.  It is a great stop off point to places further into Portugal and a very fair price!!  This is Quinta Paraiso on toprural.com for 18 euros.  in Alagoa ( Alentejo , Portugal ) near the Spain border on the southeast side of Portugal.

Tony asks me if i have to head right back or do I have time to visit any sites?  I originally thought I needed to head right back but easily respond with a ‘yes’, there’s always time to see another castle and fortified city, right?   I see an opportunity here I will not see for a while!   I spend the morning and early afternoon visiting two more fortified cities……the first is Flor de Vide, a small town with a neat old fortified city and castle area at the top the hill.  I get lost initially or actually ‘Lee’ (my wanna-be trusty GPS) assists in this and after one U-turn on a flat granite rock and then another dead-end, I ask a local, who points the way as I scrap ‘Lee’ and follow the signs!  Once in Flor de Vide, I follow the sign to ‘Castelo’ and wind up a really really cool, scary one way sidewalk they call a road!!  Once in this labyrinth, which is fortunately well signed one way roads it is claustrophobic and I have literally inches of clearance at times, sheez……very scary…..hilly, blind corners with steps to houses right there, real close!!  Cobbled or square granite stones, pretty cool except for the closeness of the buildings and not knowing what was around the next corner!!!  Or when I’d get out of that area…. I guess the locals know to look before stepping out of the house!!  Sheeezzzz……..what a stressful morning……in a cool kinda way…..I wind my way up as far as I dare go, through a skinny arched bricked gateway that gives me a couple inches clearance on each side and it opens to a rock area for a handful of cars to park.  There are only two others parked there and I decide this is it, no further as I see another blind corner available….this is the area inside the fortified walls, ‘Castelo de vide’; it is small and neat, no businesses for the strangers traipsing though their plant decorated, quaint, well kept village.  I walk through the center, hit a few towers and walk the wall in areas, then follow the wall around.  I discover modern bathrooms, inside a wall area, dark and cool.  After  I use the facilities and go out side, I smell peppers and meat roasting, as I go by a couples bar-b-que.  The woman smiles a toothless grin and I tell her it smells good in sign language!  I know I need to press on as I still have that long drive and one more town to visit!  I just don’t know how to get out of Portugal!!

The next town is Marvoa, a fortified city where the ENTIRE the town is within the walls.  It is perched high on a mountain top and the views are promising as I climb up the road, I am not disappointed.  I had a stressful enough time at Castelo de Vide‘s small roads, so I opt out here and park outside to walk the town.  Once inside the walls, I find steps to the wall and climb up the tall 4 steps.   I am rewarded with 360 degree views as I walk around the walls of town!!   The walls changes in elevation in different areas, steep suddenly; 30-50 feet high the width fortunately the same and no railings appearing!!

Steep stairs up to fortified wall….

The wall walkis wide enough so I don’t look and stick to the side with wall to lean on!!  The wall is build in and around granite rocks meshing easily into the structure.  Homes are here and lines of clothes drying in the sun are everywhere.   Fortified walls, clothesline; it is

Great views walking the wall

normal….the castle area is in the far corner and I climb up the neat gardened area past people basking in the sun.  I unfortunately see a gift shop and decide to look.  Mistake.  I buy cork  and wood items, just what I need!  It’s as if I see it as a last chance or get souvenirs and go for it,  will my luggage make the weight goal??  No matter as I hand over my visa.  I’m hopeless!

Walking the wall…..Marvao Portugal

I climb the square fortified area in one corner and it has wonderful cathedral ceilings that I notice and as I take pictures, there is an awesome echo.   The simple click of the camera reverberates!!  I am alone and for some reason start to sing to hear the echo, I guess its better than yelling “hello…hello….llo…..lo…o…o.o.o.o…”……Amazing

The square room is the acoustical magic room Marvao Portugal

Grace comes outta my mouth and I sound awesome!!   Really, the voice is resounding and I awesome!  This room is magic!!  I draw out the ends of the verses, it is so cool!!  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!!  I have to do a repeat I am so pleased, until I notice a young man politely leaving me to my madness right outside.   Yeah, I gotta get moving!!

The Staircase into the acoustical room….
Marvao, Portugal

With six hours to go, I call my brother who is disappointed I am not going to be back earlier, with the three year old son having to stay up for my drive to Malaga to return the car and Brigette in the hospital with her Mom.  I sure forgot about life while gone!  Nothing to do now but bee-line it back!!  Once I see a castle lit up on the hill above the city…….I drive on!!   I get into the driving and now am use to the cities I have to drive through, even running red lights like the locals!!  (I do see the yellow!)  Sometimes a local follows me thought the red!!….when in Rome….. Bee-bop, techno, rap crap on the radio, I scan often……We get the car back with scarcely a mention of the late hour!  Yay!   I visit with my little brother and we call it a night……back in Fuengirola, my other life is knocking on my door as I ignore it for another day!

Saturday 11-17-12 Last day in Portugal….. A continuing solo journey….

Lucinda has the traditional breakfast fare for me, fresh squeezed orange juice she apologizes for having to put sugar in, as the oranges are a tad tart.  She heats up these really good little tart shaped pies, that are custard like and simply delicious.  Lucinda is making fresh bread today, it is Saturday and I see her kneeling on the floor kneading dough in a huge bowl.   She explains it is easier.  Her son is coming (the name sake to my room,) and she has invited friends, they are going to make traditional cabbage and meat soup, baked bread in a huge clay fired oven, feast and socialize.  She shows me the downstairs where there is another kitchen, the old-fashioned kind.  It has a huge adobe/clay style oven she is starting a fire with wood and brush, after if heats up sufficiently and the coals turn white she will bake the bread.  On the other side is the cook stove area, there is a huge pot hanging from a cast iron hook.  Lucinda tells me this is how her mother always cooked, now she has hooked up a large two burner propane unit they use for industrial size pots.  She has invited me to stay and join them and when I find it will be two hours I feel I must go…. I later realize I should have, as the rain continues all day long and when I get to my next destination, I wind up staying inside for a couple of hours.  I make a lunch with some supplies I have bought and am off.

Lee, my GPS bud winds me thru some small mountain towns where the road goes between buildings and homes close to the road and then the road has had some serious work and is half dirt!  I am in the forest, then brushy area and nary a soul as I wonder if Lee has made a mistake.  After a half hour or so, I do hit larger towns and a once again in civilization.

I hit a major motorway and fear a charge coming but when I exit after what I am sure will be close to 10€, nothing.  Not sure why it kept saying .93€ & 2.12€ at intervals on the road, I added it up!!!  I drive into nowhere it seems.   It rains and rains and rains.  I was also told I should go south past Lisbon and only briefly thought of it, glad I didn’t as when I get to my destination I see an unusual tornado has struck the south coast and they have one life lost and at least four injured at that time.   It is historic as the last tornado was in the early 1900’s.  Our planets weather is truly changing.  It is scary and I just hope the collective consciousness we are all comprised of takes notice and we continue to make serious changes.  My vacation escape does not escape everything.

After a few hours in Quinta Paraiso, my 18€ toprural destination, I decide I have to get out and explore before it gets darker!  Dusk is knocking and I’ve spent a couple of hours indoor listening to an English movie!  In Portugal if a program on TV is in english, they use Portuguese subtitles, they don’t just dub over the language.  Which sucks me in!  It seems there is also a bit more English spoken, even if broken.   Renee Zuewillger is an adorable Bridgette Jones.  When I looked on the Internet, (since  my host has put me next to the server and I get it in my room), I see it claims there are no sights to see near Alagoa, this can’t be true.  I need to get out so start towards town.  Alagoa is the village next to Quinta Paraiso and I think of having dinner there, but decided since I had sandwiches and snacked enough, I skip it.   It is the type of small town they look at you as you pass, a foreign oddity. and soon see a sign to ‘Flor de Rosa’ and drive there.   It seems you don’t have to go far to see another fortified anything, castle, wall, monument.   It is a 12 kilometer drive thru the plains of nowhere (it seems).  It is dark now and lit up nicely, open for anyone to walk into and the display is in both Portuguese and English.   It is the The Monastery of Santa Maria de Flor da Rosa , also called the Monastery of the Order of the Hospital of Flor da Rosa, in the parish of Flor da Rosa , municipality of Crato, district Portalegre in Portugal .

Considered the most important example of a monastery fortified existing in the Iberian peninsula.

Another quaint small town that has gone to sleep as I see no one in the streets.

Tony, the hosts shares a shot of his sweet homemade wine and I relax for the evening.

Friday, November 16th, 2012 In Portugal, touring the local sites near Leiria…. Solo trip continued……

Warm and cozy in my bed, I awake to inclement weather.  Lucinda has set out breakfast, coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, bread, jam, ham and cheese.  Spanish and Portuguese breakfast seem to be fresh bread sandwiches a lot.  After  I make a lunch I am off.  I plan on touring a few of the many local sites of Churches, monuments and beaches.  The first is a Large Gothic Church in Batalha; Mosteiro Santa Maria da Victoria; “Saint Mary of the Victory”, commonly known as the Batalha Monastry.   Erected in commemoration of the 1385 battle of Aljubarrota and serving as the burial church of the 15th century Aviz dynasty of Portuguese royals.  Impressive as one of the best and original examples of the Gothic style in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style.  When I get there I go to an older, not yet totally restored section.   The walls both inside and out are black with mold and weather, moss, agae and greenery growing from some areas.  In one section a maid is working with a bucket and mop, the evidence of restored areas looks great, most has been cleaned and restored and it is evident it takes quite a bit of money and time to restore old churches left to the weather for a century or so!!  The majority of the church is cleaned, scrubbed and restored.

My next stop is to see the Porto de Mois ‘fairy tale’ looking castle.  Originally it was a Moorish fort, different in design than any I’ve seen, small perched on a small hill, yet very beautiful.  Porto de Mós Castle has an irregular pentagon in shape with a tower at each corner, its peaked green turrets giving it the ‘fairy tale’ look.  It was captured from the Moors in 1158 by King Afonso Henriques and eventually converted into the awesome looking fortified palace, notably in the 15th century by King Afonso V.  The castle, is perched on a hill above the town and I envy those who get to look up at it on an every day basis!!  I love this castle!!

I am told of caves nearby but change my mind on a visit amongst the buildings and commercial looks of the place; next I go to Fatima, since I am so close.  I have been Fatima before, yet feel a draw to revisit.  Pope John Paul II has a new monument, I see since my visit in 2001.  Behind him a huge (100’+) cross in bronze.   I walk around the grounds and basilica dedicated to ‘Our Lady of the Fatima’ and the story of the three shepherds who first saw the apparition in 1917.   May 13th to October, once a month on the 13th this apparition appeared, a Lady in White, with a message of prayer, repentance and consecrations.  There is an area where you can buy candles and light them in the ‘torchiere’.  I light candles, visit the church and say prayers; hey! I was brought up Catholic!  Although I am not a practicing Catholic.  I see so much religion on this trip, starting with the faith of the muslim world, Catholics, Jews, Baptist; the wars between so many, then the commonality being the good will and love, divine spirituality and faith, installations’ of values, morals, ethics, trust and honesty, (etc.)  We all see the same God other religions do, find it impossible to think a solo belief is the only God.   There is one, called many many names, based on locality of upbringing, often not a choice but a belief we are given from birth and accept.  The sadness is forgetting the message, as the evidence eons of wars represent and are ever-present.  Is this what anyone’s God preaches?

Next is the beach city of Nazare, a beautiful fishing village I visited before.  It is as gorgeous as I remember, fishing finished for now.   Rain follows me off and on throughout the day.   More huge Vesta windmills dot the coastline and next door a forest with cut bark and cans to hold the ‘bleeding’ resin of the trees.   They are pine trees, the resin collected to make turpentine, resin, paint products and even has medicinal uses, once commonly collected from the 1920’s ( maybe prior also) to 1970’s; trees were heavily planted until the 60’s; the practice went by the wayside, yet with unemployment on the rise, it is another income source practiced again.   Large scars cover the pine trees in one area.  A coastal route back and I am back at Lucinda’s.  ,

A continuing solo journey, Now in Portugal……Chorense November 15th, 2012. Thursday

 

Morning brings blue skies and the three-foot rock walls hold in the heat perfectly.  Joaquina squeezes fresh oranges for my juice and sets up the queens dining room for me.  Excellent fresh bread, ham and cheese with a variety of jams she has canned herself.  The abobora (squash) jam is my pick.   I wish I could try all of them but I have been eating a lot of bread!!  For as much bread as I have eaten on this trip I am surprised I have actually lost a bit of weight and not gained!   Hummmmm, should I stay here??   Eggs are not a normal breakfast for the Spaniards or the Portuguese.   The coffee is hot and she has warmed milk for it!!

There is Internet here and I tune into my local radio station to feel a bit of home here, it is very nice to hear American music with the commentary on English; ah……while I love the travel, home will always be home!!  On the road I hear American music that I don’t hear in the US.  They do like our pop and rap mixed music…..I hear a little bit of classic rock, but the bebop, techno, pop rap stuff is more prevalent…… What is up with that??  There is a reliable classic music station too…..

 

As much as I like sitting here with the three-foot rock walls and classic rock boomed in from Mendocino California, good ole’ USA, I should move on.   Get my local meil (honey), abobora jam and head to my next destination nearer to the sea…..

 

It is a long drive, I try to hit the coast but it is challenging, I find it several times, but the roads often end at the beach eventually and then I am back on a regular road.  Once, I do get a road that takes me right up to the big Vesta windmills.  These things are impressive and scary up close.  Scary because it is windy and the windmill is actively moving and I park right underneath it!!  I want to move once I get out but I let reason rule and know it is very unlikely that that HUGE propeller will leave its attachment and crush my human being.  I am directly underneath this massive structure as it spins around making a LOUD, really LOUD wind swoosh sound that is impressive and you can actually FEEL…..The whole time I am taking pictures, I am filled with unreasonable fear.  It is that loud and surreal.

 

I get to Lieria; the town my reservation at Magnolia B & B is in and get totally lost.  I am close but Lee is not helpful and the address is not exactly found, close but no cigar.  I look at the map I took a picture on the iPad with and it is not helpful, the translated directions are not helpful, Lee is not helpful.  Calling is not working, my phone does not seem to work.  The amazing thing is, I am calm throughout the whole hour plus ordeal of being lost in the city with no real safety net, it gets dark and I am still lost.  I look up the park it is next to, to no avail.  I drive in the same area many times and I am still amazed that I am calm and totally expecting to find it somehow.  I remember a second (international) phone my brother has given me to use in Morocco and use it to call, no answer.  After driving around some more, plugging in a local park, looking for the address, I get a call!!  Yes!  She received a missed call!!  Lucinda comes to get me and brings me to her home.   She admits there is an issue with the GPS‘s interpretation. She rents out rooms as her family is grown and gone.  I get Paulo’s room as signed on the door jamb!  Two other teachers rent from her and she rents other rooms out as a B & B.  I find that is a normal B & B here, many people will rent out a room in their home and make breakfast.  Which I believe is how they all started out!  It is very different from my experience in California and the west coast with B & B’s.  I head to the mall to look for a carry-on luggage as my flight is starting to knock on my door!  My Tia was right when she told me “Life is Short”!  I get seriously lost on the way to the mall and look at my iPad to the pleasant surprise that the GPS works on it and while it doesn’t ‘map’ out my route; it does track it, so I can see when I turn wrong.  I had no idea!!  I do buy local wine and find myself being frugal even here, wine is 5-8 euros and up and I still want to buy the stuff I see is 50% off!!  I can’t help it!!

 

Lucinda’s home is nice and spacey, comfortable and I am given full use of the home.  Tomorrow, I’ve got a lot of touring in Portugal to see!  Then I head back to Spain……Night night, life is short!

 

 

 

November 14, 2012 Solo travel into Northern Portugal and the Romans tracks…….

Beautiful blue ocean and sky greets the morning.  Sofia squeezes fresh orange juice for me.   Breakfast is hearty with a local made sausage, more turnip greens from last night as I so want my greens and eggs because it is breakfast after all…….…I am enticed to make my lunch and am given a bag of lettuce to consume, it was soooo good from last night….I bid my wonderful host goodbye and head east into the hills.  My next destination is Chorense, next to the Geres National Park and The Geira Trail, an old Roman trail with evidence of rock wall sides, rocks with deep wear marks in them and upright circular stones that acted as billboards for the emperor or other such important commemorative.

 

My next stop is only one and a half hours away and once again ‘Lee’, my Australian GPS buddy tries to send me down dirt roads or skinny rock lined roads suddenly; when I protest and tell him to just deal with it and recalculate!  He does.

 

I arrive early and after settling in and speaking or not doing much speaking to the Joaquina, the housekeeper who speaks, Portuguese, German and Spanish I take off for a drive to the Park.  I go through Brufe, a gorgeous authentic town with water running through it channeled in rock corridors, over roads of granite and right through town, leaving town I see the source coming down from the hills.  I later learn that stream runs year round, right through town like that….I drive over a reservoir dam and around, stop to have my sandwich and then loop back to Chorense.  ‘Lee’ serves me well.

 

At my home base, I get out my laptop to catch up and relax until my host, Paulo mentions he will arrive.  I am the only guest!  Paulo arrives and after a chat with Joaquina; the housekeeper, he sits and chats with me about the area.  We end up driving to the Roman track nearby and walk for a spell in the footsteps of the Romans.  He has only had one American guest and is enjoying practicing his English, Paulo is well spoken and a Guest Professor at  University of Minho nearby teaching industrial electronics at the computer department.   We walk on the old Roman trail, past rock walls, ruts cut deep into the rock from the old carriages and an upright post with markings engraved into it commemorating something.  Paulo tells me please don’t ask him to read it!   We discuss many things as he mentions that the Portuguese do not seem to appreciate their rich heritage and land, they take it for granted.  Sofia my last, host said the exact same thing!  Both of their views about Americans are not jaded either!  Often I have heard how Americans can be stuck up and demanding when traveling.  All you travelers, remember you are representing not only yourselves but your country!!  That perception is not alive here!     Whewwww……we walk and talk until the sun tells us we should head back before we ‘lose the light’.   Paulo has more to show me in the form of pictures in his laptop and since mine is already open we share our respective areas (a town buried under the reservoir water nearby with the government just telling the inhabitants to leave) and our love of making sushi, both of us have pictures of!!   After awhile he asks if I want to try their local wine, only produced in this region; Vinho Verde, a mild fruity white wine.  I do not drink much white wine yet want to try the local fare and join him for a glass.  He must leave after spending a few hours with me as he lives in Braga and his wife is home.  I love this trust they have as we discuss relationships and their thirty year marriage.   After he leaves, Joaquina; the housekeeper, prepares my dinner of local red meat (its been a long time since I’ve had a cut of meat), rice and a great salad (I had been missing my greens!) with a nice red wine Paulo has picked out.  I feel like quite the princess (maybe I should be a queen now-do we ever have to grow up?); as I am alone in the beautiful dining room set up just for me.  I bask in the three-foot walls and deep window sills of rock with local decorations.  My thought as I write this is; if some would rather have a companion and company.  Yes and no is the answer.  If someone were here to enjoy it would me it would be wonderful.  With no one here it is divine.  ‘Why?’, you may ask?  I am able to realize more, that comes from one place, my mind, I notice everything with no distractions, I am able to rejoice in the act of simply living with no agenda, no worry about the next move, no thought until I decide to spontaneously.    I’m simply being, in the moment, sipping red wine from Portugal and knowing I am lucky to experience the joys of living, knowing we are all ultimately alone.  To find someone to share life with is a blessing no doubt, yet in not having that; living is also a blessing.   Lest we forget to live.  Having a life mate is not the end-all, although it is a desire, life still goes on.   The heart beats the same, the experiences are still divine.  I don’t wait for the mate, I mate with life!

 

 

 

11-13-12 Into Portugal! A solo journey, continued…….

Waking up in Vigo I want nothing more than to eat and get outta town.  Breakfast is included for three euros and I have my traditional bread and coffee with some jam in a dining room I have all to myself.  I pack my things, climb in my car and only backing up twice to pivot out of my spot, I beat feet out of the city, well burn rubber I guess.   I do take the ocean front route, just cuz’…..and enjoy the harbor sights.

I have a room at a bed and breakfast I think, at any rate, in a home in Viana de Castelo just south of Vigo.  I want to drive the coast, so pick small towns on my GPS to keep me there.  It is very nice with vineyards and their granite poles to hold up the vines, just as easy as we use four by four wood. The sun is making an entrance not seen in days and the warm greenhouse effect of the car is stimulating.

The GPS takes me through an old part of town, skinny one way cobbled stone or square granite rock streets with high rock walls or buildings and blind corners until it hits a main road and finds Sofias without needing to go through that old part of town at all!!  Dang GPS Lee from Australia!  Sofia comes down to greet me.  I really have no idea what exactly I’ve arranged, I sent out so many emails!   We go up to her fourth story apartment with a full view of the ocean, very nice!!  35 Euros and breakfast.  She leaves me the key to her home and apartment and we go our separate ways for the day.  A surprise and welcome feeling.

The weather is the best I’ve seen in weeks, so I’ve got to get out.  I go to a place Sofia has told me about with an old fort on the beach.  Forte de Pacos located a few meters from the ocean, it was rebuilt in the seventeenth century during the restoration wars, having played an important role during the Napoleonic wars.  It is a small rock thickly fortified fort, neat and tidy.  It is a beautiful little beach to walk barefoot,  ahhhhhh…..and watch a fisherman fishing.  The lull of the crashing waves is always rhythmic and grounding.

After the beach I head to the hills……I see a large building I will guess is a church and after finding my way to the top, I arrive at The Monumental Temple of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Santa Luzia.   I walk around it and have a captivating view of the city, ocean and Port below.  I see people at the very very top of the church and know that’s where I want to go, I didn’t even know you could go inside!  For 1 euro you can ride an elevator almost to the top.  I decide to walk and am amazed at the many granite steps.

Serious carved granite circular staircase…..

Claustrophobic granite stairs @ The Monumental Temple of the Sacred heart of Jesus in Santa Luzia

The end being a very skinny turrent-like area with two sets of circular stairs to get there; the first one all granite encased on the side of the building, it actually looks like once piece carved out, very claustrophobic and steep; the second set is open in the center of the room to the top.  The view was even better up there, obviously!!

I do a bit of window shopping in the local mall as I need a carry on luggage for the trip back to lighten my big luggage load and haul my stash of souvenirs home.  I find a bit of English, spoken.  After I get home Sofia and a friend make dinner and we laugh and talk about all the worlds problems, countries mistakes and wars fought as I try new fruits, tomatillos, apples and their fare of fresh butter lettuce salad with olive oil, tomato and onion (which I cannot get enough of!), cabbage soup, sautéed turnip greens and chicken, all very good.  They are expressive, honest and open.  We miss words and meanings at times and get out our trusty computers to communicate and clarify.  Ah, the wonders of our times!  I am their first American visitor and we bask in each others similar interest and opposite lives.   I have bought a local wine, I try some of theirs and we also try a local cognac, sleep is easy……..

 

11-12-12 The twelfth day of the eleventh month of 2012….. On the road again….. A solo journey through Northern Spain…..to Vigo Spain

Restless sleep for I hear the church bells five times, then six, then seven; missing the solitary ring at the half hour mark.  Today, I leave Picos de Europa and continue west, destination unknown.  It is chilly outside and I start my fire again.   The house stays comfortable without the heat with it three feet thick rock walls.  The fire is started with a very flammable brush gathered nearby, arguma, in Spanish.  The scientific name is Genista Occidentalis.  Native to northern Spain and France I see it in the woodpile areas of many homes I go by, an excellent fire starter I use every time, one sticker filled branchy limb and it lights up!

I am still not used to the common practice of a small glass wall next to the shower, open the rest of the area.   The Spaniards must have great restraint in showering as I often get water everywhere, perhaps the reason for the large drain often in the middle of the bathroom.

Breakfast is eggs with smoked salmon lox, local mushrooms, red peppers  and local cheese.

Today is drive day, the northern cost of Spain

One thing I did not miss about the US is the way some of our youngsters wear their pants as a fashion statement (?!), half way down their ass or more.   I am reminded of that today, as I see a young father do the same.   At least his underwear was clean…..

I am without internet and have no real plan for the night, so I just drive west.  I try to get internet at Micky D’s and it is once more unreliable, it has it, just doesn’t work for me.  A café con leche later, I call my network; Ivar, my brother and travel agent for a room anywhere.  He has forgotten about me again, which I’m gonna guess is good.  With my café con leche, I receive a coupon for 3 cents off a gallon at Cepsa Fuel stations; I’m in!!  I GPS a Cepsa station and use my coupon for one euro off!  Hey!; I’m gonna use that one euro coupon with pride, I have contributed enough to the economy here, I’ll take my euro thank you very much!   My brother books me in a room in Vigo, Spain just south of here, in the middle of the city because that’s what he does and what most people want.  I just need a room and go for it.  It is a cheap (33 euros) yet nice two star and the GPS finds it a couple of hours later.  It is dark and the city intimidating with its skinny streets and crowds of people in the center where I drive.  The road the hotel is on is also skinny and I follow the local custom and double park with my emergency flashers on.  When in Rome……  After check in I ask where to park and with great challenge we communicate that the street is free till nine the next morning, paid parking is twelve euros.  She tells me that I can park an additional two hours till 11:00 the next day for 1.30€ for the time from nine to eleven.  I want the free (and little bit of pay) parking and remark how hard it is to get it.  The young patient sweet receptionist tells me she will help me as she looks up and down the street for parking.  I look anxious as she explains, just wait; be patient and sure enough within minutes a spot opens up just four spaces behind us.  She indicates to the driver that I will take it as I back down the street gingerly as he waits.  Once I am past the car, he pulls out in a car smaller than mine!  Which means the spot is equally as small and in another world I would pass it up, yet in this world I cannot!!  I am do not parallel park often and now I have the test!  Dang it, as I have to try twice before I settle for bumping the bumper behind me to ‘feel’ the space and get in as good as I want to at least two feet front the curb! I am awful at this there is one foot; I kid you not; ONE foot between both cars!  ONE FOOT of room!  I am stressed, embarrassed (with no one to see or know me) at myself and tired of the city already!!!  I vow to find a small town next!!  I leave the car and figure it will be okay one night!  I walk away as if it doesn’t belong to me.  I must admit though I like the way the cops drive their cars with their blue lights constantly on; then flashing when they are in pursuit or have a call….great warning sign!

Once in my room; (after a trek to the city and window shopping; hey! I gotta take it all in!) I google rural places and email many accommodations.  Sleep finds me in a hard bed with a stiff mattress and blankets piled high as I have no idea how to turn on the heater.