We got up early and walked to the local cafe to get coffee as breakfast wasn’t until 7:40. We left the room key thinking we didn’t need to lock our room as we weren’t going to be gone long and everyone else was asleep. Unfortunately we didn’t realize there was a fob on our room key chain that would let us back into the BnB! Michelle, being ever resourceful, hopped a fence and let me back inside. We got chewed out by the owner, though neither of us remember her saying anything about the key fob. At least we got back in time for breakfast.
Soon we were on our way, meandering through more paths, walkways and cobbled streets. The views of the mountains were beautiful as we descended through little towns.
On the way to Valenca, we stopped by a medieval bridge, bought a pirogie from a very chatty Belarusian woman selling them from her yellow van, and got stamps from a church and a masseuse. We didn’t stop for a foot massage, though it was very tempting!
Today was a much shorter day, only 8 miles with little elevation gain, so we made it to our hotel by noon. This gave us extra time to explore the fortress just across the street from our hotel.
What a fascinating place! The fortress was built in the 13th century and was reconstructed in the 17th century in a star shaped style. Apparently it is considered to be one of the largest and most well preserved fortifications in the world.
We walked around the streets, checked out the churches and saw several cat houses. Not sure if it’s because they love cats here or they have a mouse problem!
The afternoon became hotter so we picked up lunch supplies for the next day, shocked at the 15c price of fresh baked rolls and less than 2 euros for a bottle of wine! No, we didn’t buy wine for lunch!
After refreshing showers we headed back out to the fortress, stopping at Bom Jesus Restaurante (happy Jesus) for dinner. We were both happy with the excellent food, Theresa was particularly impressed with the delicious (and large!) sangria.
After dinner we walked around the fortress and were treated to a gorgeous sunset! What a great ending to the first half of our Camino adventure!!
