A short gentle walk yesterday so we could explore the Portuguese border town of Valenca before crossing the bridge to Tui, Spain. One of the first things we noticed were yellow flowers sticking out from letter boxes, on garage doors and on cars. On 30 April the people gather Portuguese Broom and place it in any openings to the house to guard against evil spirits, witches, and the evil eye. I saw this in 2019, back then the flowers were not on cars.
Valenca is the last town before you cross into Spain. It has an old medieval fort which dominates the skyline. Inside the fort are many boutique and souvenir shops. Yesterday was a public holiday so it was crowded. Crossing into Spain is as easy as walking over a bridge, which has a border marker half way. The first bar we saw was, Murphy's Irish Bar. I just had to have Guinness, but Jay is underage so decided to move on. At the next place we had our first meal in Spain, calamari, another new experience for Jay.
Today is a planned rest day before we begin the last 100kms to Santiago. This morning we booked flights from Santiago to Barcelona, and then updated our phones so we now have Spanish Sim cards. In Spain you have to 18 to have a mobile phone, so Jay's card is in my name. After brunch of scrambled eggs and bacon we set out to explore this medieval town. In the centre of town is the church of St Francis. I've seen lots of gold in churches. But this had to be the most I've seen in one place.
The historic cathedral is very different. Between the 11th and 12th centuries a Jewish community lived at the top of the city. The different religions and cultures lived alongside each other until an edict in 1492 forced Jews to convert. In the cathedral cloister there is a 13th century Menorah carved into the stone.
We wandered through the streets until we got to the river where Jay found a playground, and exercise area. Having been reminded in the mobile shop that they is 'just a child' Jay made good use of the equipment. Oh, to have the energy of a 13year old!
Tomorrow we walk to O Porrino.
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