Last days in Portugal

Castelo Mendo was a beautiful place. Very quiet with a few farmers tilling the fields, and taking their goats out every morning. Marty fixed an old guys chainsaw when we first arrived and his wife brought us a huge bag of walnuts that she had gathered from the trees around the village. The village was as usual mostly deserted, a few old people, one younger guy with a new puppy who said he worked in the fields. We were luckily there on the day when the bread truck and the “store” truck came by as even the little cafe didn’t sell any groceries out back. Caleb would regularly run up to the clock tower where Marty had discovered an outlet where we could charge our devices. Most of he bell towers in the small towns have resorted to amplifying bell songs to announce the hours ( or in some unfortunate cases the quarter hour!). Marty took off for a bike ride to the giant bridge in the distance and stopped in at a town for a drink with the old guys who were amused at his descriptions of what he was doing in Portugal. The kids and I played a lot of cards, followed the donkeys, and did some homework. It was a restful place where we felt welcomed. We rode to Almeida, an old village and then fort where I think the portugese fought off the French for the third time (they don’t share a border so I’m not sure about this, but I know Napoleons army came through here). Camped on get outskirts of a village last night and are headed off to Spain today. Portugal has been good to us.Les mer