Fishermen’s Trail Day 9
The bed at Casa Antiga, where we stayed overnight, was very hard, so we didn’t get the best sleep. We had a bad experience with the owner yesterday, and we were curious about what breakfast would be like.
Breakfast was served in the restaurant in the building next door to the hotel, truly wall-to-wall as these old white buildings are in the narrow cobbled streets. When we entered the breakfast room, I felt transported half a century back in time when Portugal was still a dictatorship. I’m old enough to remember that era, and the revolution that happened on April 25, 1974, when the dictatorship fell. The revolution was later known as the Carnation Revolution, and the date, April 25th, is reflected in many street names in the small towns we’ve passed. This was the year before Francisco Franco died in Spain, and the entire Iberian Peninsula got rid of its dictatorships.
Back to the dining room and breakfast. There was no buffet as there usually is. Each table was set for two with a white tablecloth. On the table, there were four slices of bread in a basket, three slices of ham, and four slices of cheese. In addition, there was a small bowl of jam, two apples, and one tangerine. For tableware, there was a small plate turned upside down and cutlery. The interior was old, but the windows facing the garden we couldn’t find yesterday were from after the Carnation Revolution. We sat so we could look out into the garden we didn’t get to use.
Then waitresses came and served an orange juice of unknown content, but we recognized the taste of carrot. The taste was surprisingly good. After a while, another waitress came and asked if we wanted coffee or tea. We understood what she was asking, even though she couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t speak Portuguese. The coffee was also surprisingly good.
The waitresses went around serving drinks to all the guests, but there was no offer of more food, only coffee. While Inger enjoyed her second cup of coffee, I paid a visit to the toilet, just beyond our table. It was a brief visit, just to the doorway, as the toilet was from long before the Carnation Revolution.
It was 9:30 AM when we started hiking to the town of Zambujeira do Mar, which is today’s goal. As the name indicates, it’s located by the sea. From Odeceixe, which is four kilometers (2.5 miles) inland, it’s 20 km (12.4 miles) to today’s destination. We started by walking the four kilometers out to the sea. Then we followed the cliff edge northward, interspersed with a few beaches, until we reached the small town of Zambujeira do Mar. The town center streets, which were surprisingly wide compared to what we’ve seen before, were a large construction site. New cobblestones, curbs, and plants are being installed. It will be really beautiful when it’s finished.
We had booked an apartment in a house right on the edge of the cliffs. The apartment was disappointing. Most disappointing was that the owner hadn’t gotten rid of the hundreds—I’m not exaggerating—of small flies that were there. I managed to catch most of them when they gathered on the two windows.
