Spain and Beyond

We are off on the bikes! We start to get a taste of the beautiful coast, but the rain starts soon thereafter. Luckily, it does clear up for a bit and the cows ring their cowbells and some of the sheep do too. Little lambs play in the field. Phillippe said that we’d fall in love with Portugal and he was right; we have fallen in love at first sight. However, the last leg it is not just raining hard, but raining sideways. It wasn’t cold the entire trip though, and because this is the first day, we still consider it ‘fun’. We end our day riding on the cobblestone streets of Vila Nova de Milfontes and show up on the doorstep of our B&B looking like drowned rats. They quickly usher us to the fireplace, hang up our clothes as we peel them off, feed us hot tea and homemade chocolate cake, and give us slippers. They are so welcoming even though we can’t speak a lick of their language. Drew is able to use some of his French with one gentleman. We really want to stay forever at this place; it reminds us of a typical grandma’s house.

Dinner tonight is better planned and we look at the photos on the restaurant’s website ahead of time and try to remember until the time comes to order. Drew matches his up correctly with beef kabobs, but I don’t see mine at first and end up ordering a shrimp paella(?) which isn’t my favorite. But at least I got the shrimp part right and didn’t get octopus! The two grandma’s and grandpa let us wear their jackets because ours are still wet. We are stylin’ now!

Slippers are mandatory – is this a Portuguese custom? I was too tired to open my slippers at first and I got in trouble with a “no, no, no”. Oops. As we try to do some work, we chat with a nice Holland couple who was staying there also. We run into them the next day and they take the awesome picture at the statue for us.

My favorite spot on the entire trip is a little beach cove in Porto Covo. If it were closer to home, we’d have our wedding here. Instead we renew our ‘engagement vows’ and reenact a proposal. 🙂

Breakfasts are an interesting mix of breads, jams, cheeses, thin deli meats, fruit, and sometimes scrambled eggs. Any place that provides eggs receives a bonus star from us.