Portugal 2016 05 01 Scenic Coastal Walks

Today, Sunday, is a national holiday in Portugal, celebrating Labour Day, like many other countries.  Many women were carrying gifts of flowers in pots, often orchids.  In the afternoon, multi-generation Portuguese families were out walking, in outdoors restaurants and in bars.

We were promised walks along the beaches of the North Atlantic, and toddled along, not expecting much of a difference from the previous week.

Were we ever wrong!  We started off in a small village, and came across an amazing display of miniature water engineering, giving shape to an astonishing number of small figures doing various mechanical things.  The yard was not big, but the number of small figures doing activity was clearly a sign of a labour of love.  The inventor was working to attach some thin nylon threads to some figures to bring them to life.  A common feature here is a windmill, some old and some new.  Portugal creates 63% of their energy through renewable resources such as wind, sun and water, and are leaders in Europe for that reason.

Once out of civilization, we went up and down some coastal cliffs, experiencing completely different kinds of terrain from the previous week.  Two kinds of rock form the cliffs:  a base layer of lava runs out to the sea while layers of sedimentary rock sit on top.

We are in the midst of a European Surfing Reserve, established in 2011.  The surfing culture here is huge.  Although I don’t have a picture of it, surfers thought nothing of descending a trail with 600 feet of descent, carrying their boards, to get to the beach below.

As we went along the coast, we occasionally came along an old 17^th century fort, guarding the coastline from pirates, perhaps?

Speaking of which, there are some amazing pieces of ceramic art here in the bar area, featuring some of the old bad guys.

As we came back towards our hotel, we passed an area that obviously was home to part of the fishing fleet.  To our delight, we discovered the Titanic is still alive and well.

As a bit of an afterthought, I have to add a few more random comments on Portugal.  We ate lunch at a beach, and then ascended 600 ft. on a series of stairs up the side of a  (consider this whining).  At the very top, we had an opportunity to buy fresh garlic.  Had I known, I would have climbed much faster.

In a country well-accustomed to sun, you cannot take anything for granted.  Here, upside-down umbrellas seem to work even better than the ones we are accustomed to.