Me and Vasco and Ferdinand

Friday, September 21, 2018

Guimaraes, Braga, Portugal

Salamanca - The view from our balcony. ....

After spending a day and night in the beautiful town of Salamanca, Spain, we struck off for Portugal yesterday morning, mapless, but confident. ًFor in our possession were not one, but two hand-held, electronic navigational devices. When we arrived to the hills over Portugal’s Douro Valley however, neither of the damn things worked. Signage was poor and the day had grown long. We found ourselves using the setting sun as a navigational tool. And what better place for this than in Portugal, where explorers Vasco Da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan used the moon for that very same purpose.

Elenka smiled grimly when we arrived at Guimarães, the 9th century historic birthplace of Portugal. “To Hell with hand-held devices,” she said, shaking her head at the fool before her. “I told you we should have bought a bloody map.”