Day 15 - Border Town Tui

We were awoken at 3.15am by a lot of car door opening & closing noise. It sounded like someone was ransacking our car, but we didn’t have the inclination to get out of bed to investigate. It transpired to be a Spanish couple who had just arrived & had set their small tent up at that unearthly hour.

We got up at 8.30am & slowly but surely dismantled our camp. Apart from coffee & I had some weetabix we had nothing else for breakfast. With everything packed away & after a shower we departed for the the next stage of our trip.

It was a two and a half hour leisurely drive on a non toll route to Tui, a Spanish town on the border with Portugal. Along our journey we passed a municipality of 4710 inhabitants, with the rather unfortunate name of Cuntis. We didn’t stop there for lunch.

As we neared Tui, Jackie contacted the owner of the accommodation we were staying at & asked if we could check in straight away. She agreed, so I asked Jackie to put the address in the SatNav. Big mistake!!! We ended up in the middle of nowhere having driven through a forest on very narrow windy roads.

I had to take charge & we headed back in the right direction towards the outskirts of Tui & met our lovely Spanish landlady. She left us with the keys to our apartment & then we drove into Tui.

We found a large free car park close to the Tui Cathedral, which was the main reason for visiting. The cathedral was open, but not for the audio guided tour that I was hoping to do. It was closed on a Sunday. We entered the cathedral & found that there was just a small roped off area to prevent us walking around. I immediately took a photo, then saw a sign of a camera with a red line through it & underneath it the words ‘No Tourist Visitors’. A very welcoming greeting into god’s house. I saw a chapel off to the side with a sign on ‘For prayer only’. We went in, Jackie prayed whilst I pretended to. I don’t remember praying since I was 13 years old & asking god to let me win my Bosham Cygnets football match that afternoon!!!

We then wandered aimlessly through the old town of Tui. There was not one church that was open to enter, but a couple, notably Capilla de San Telmo, did let you open the doors & take a photo through the iron bars. Our aimless wandering took us down to the Rio Minho river that is the border between Spain & Portugal. We walked the kilometre long footpath that followed the Rio Minho along it’s banks to the Ponte Internacional Tui-Valencia (International Bridge).

We were dehydrated sweating messes when we arrived at the iron bridge. We took some photos & headed back into the old town & found a little locals bar for some much needed refreshments. We both ordered the combo meal & drink for just €9.50. We both had a large beer & I ordered the chicken fillet, whilst Jackie ordered the calamari. Both came with chips and salad. Another beer and a couple of coffees did the trick.

Point of note: we have had numerous cups of coffee on this trip & every single one has been piping hot & excellent.

On the way home. we found a Gadis Hiper store that was open on a Sunday. We had a field day, buying a wooden spoon, fruit, cereal & custard tarts. No alcohol.

Back home it was a cold shower & then we sat on our veranda & did our travel planning and admin.

Song of the Day : Border Song by Elton John.
(Who was headlining at Glastonbury probably at the time of writing).Baca selengkapnya