DAY 8 - Porto (bridges and canels)

We're a few days behind on our FindPenguins, so this one may test the memory. We were up a little late and running out the door to make our next guided activity. We jumped into a van and drove through the Portuguese countryside to Arouca. It was a small and very cute town where we checked out the church and grabbed some breakfast. Scott somehow managed to order our breakfast from the lovely lady at the cafe who didn't speak a word of English. Shortly after, we were back on the road to the starting point of our hike, the Arouca 516 Footbridge. The bridge was built for purely tourism purposes, and the views were pretty incredible (even if it's no longer the longest pedestrian suspension bridge). We ventured on our hike without our guide crossing the bridge then being our decent down the Paiva Walkways. The almost 8km travelled down to then along the river and ended at the bar where we replenished ourselves with a well deserved ice cream. There were a few moments of concerns for Meg's knee but we made it! As far as wildlife is concerned we didn't see an Iberian lynx (much to Scott's disappointment) but we did manage to see a couple of turtles as a consolation prize. Once the group recouped, we headed back to Arouca for a traditional slow cooked veal, cooked in a clay pot, paired with some Green wine. This was an absolute treat even if Scott over ate and drank. We made a quick stop at the beautiful holiday destination, Costa Nova. The houses here were originally painted different colours to help fisherman find there own home after extened periods of time at sean, now its just for show. Our next stop was Averio, an old fishing town built around canels (it's slightly unfortunate for them that Europe already has Venice). Before arriving, our guide handed us all a ribbon to write a few words in relation to friendship. In Averio was went for a quick tour checking out the canels and salt flats. One of the bridges has been dubbed friendship bridge where we tied off our ribbons. This tradition was originally started by the uni students in the town and has really caught on. We then had a bit of free time, where we grabbed a quick drink. The owner offered us a job if we could identify the exotic fruits in the beer. Meg remains unemployed in Portugal, but Scott may have just found a new job after picking out the smell of passionfruit (unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, he was only offering beer as payment). We then jumped on traditional styled boat used to harvest seaweed and toured the canels. For dinner in Porto we went to one of the fancier restaurants recommended by our tour guide (fair to say Scott loves monkfish). After a long day we headed back to our apartment for an earlyish night. Tomorrow we back our bags and travel to Lekeitio (not too sure how we will go with driving in Spain).Read more