Clicking Off the Kilometers

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Vila Praia de Âncora, Viana do Castelo District, Portugal
Viana do Castelo to Ancoura 13.2 Miles
We had breakfast at the Pousada and were pleasantly surprised with bread, cheese, ham, yogurt, cereal, jams, fruit and coffee. The breakfast attendant was very “hands on” and offered a lot of advice! 
We thought we knew how to get back to the Camino route, but after asking several locals and never seeing any yellow arrows or peregrinos, we dug out the map. Luckily, we had a good city map that showed the Camino route and we figured it out. It took us to a new part of town and to the most important landmark, the Viana do Castelo (castle). We spent some time taking pictures and headed out of town. From the time we left our accommodations we did not have water or services for almost 6.5miles. We had only one bottle of water.
Walking out of Viana do Castelo was not great, mostly apartments. 
We then began seeing beautiful houses with elaborate landscaping and statuary that had ocean vistas. The Camino kept us off main highways, we walked mostly in cobblestone alleyways with flowers overhanging stone walls. We often had ocean views that were stunning. It may have been the most picturesque day so far, but we saw no one for huge stretches and the lack of water was starting to become an issue as we had just a couple of swigs left. 
We finally reached Carreco which was the first town with services (6.5 miles). The real restaurants and cafes were off the Camino and down by the main road. It sounded a little confusing so we bought 3 bottles of water at the only market/cafe on the route. It was not an appealing place and there were so many pilgrims there that we sat on a wall and had a banana and a Kind bar. 
The next part of the Camino was straight uphill and is the highest point of the Portuguese Camino. It was really rocky and mossy. Again, quite picturesque. One interesting place along the river had a beautiful tiered old convent. The top point had a crucifix and, as we did on our last Camino, we left a stone to unload all of our burdens! The problem was that there were two crucifixes within a half mile so we weren’t sure which would be the true “unloaded” so we left a rock at each. 
From this high point we dropped down into our overnight town of Vila Praia do Ancora. Having not really stopped all day, we were determined to hit the first cafe, but there were no tables. This beach town looked to be large and spread out so we took the philosophy that the second bar is always the best. Wrong. The second bar did not come for over a mile and a half and it was a pastry/coffee shop, Pasteleria  Docelia. We were able to get a bottle of beer and two meat and cheese pastries. Not great, but needed. More importantly, the wifi gps showed we were only .3 miles from our guest house! 
The guest house, Baixinho, is only a stone’s throw from the beach (if you crank your neck out the window, you can see it). Super happy with the place and location. We both took a shower, washed some clothes and headed to the beach for HH. The first one, Ocean Cafe, had Caipirinhas so we were set. Talked to a couple we had encountered a few times. They have an accent so thought they were from Europe. Turns out they are from Rockville, MD! They are Dutch but have lived in the US for 50 years. 
Made a reservation for dinner at a beachside restaurant for 8:30. Took some pics on the beach and in the town square we had walked through earlier when trying to find our guest house. Pretty church with purple petunias accenting the doorway.
Back to the guest house to work on the blog.
Our reservation at Restaurante Victoria Mar was for the outdoor seating area. That section was full so we were happy we made a reservation. We ordered a Douro white wine , a tomato salad and monk fish with prawns. It was so good. It came in a large pot filled with a really tasty rice and so much monk fish and prawns. We were both stuffed, and really happy. We brought wine back to the guest house for a night cap and to publish some blog pages.
Quite different from albergues and pilgrim meals on the Camino Frances!
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