from the mountains to the sea

Soajo is remarkable. It's a village near the northern border of Portugal with stone houses built from local granite, the oldest of which are hundreds of years old, sprawling over an uneven hillside. There were old women wearing traditional peasant costumes working in fields, tomb-like communal stone granaries from the 18th century around every corner, steps cut out of the bedrock, a cabal of stray cats (and one dog), grape vines hanging over narrow cobblestone lanes...

We woke up early and headed northeast out of town on a path that wound around a few backyards and terraced farm fields and on up the hillside. Parts of the path followed an old Roman road, with stone walls on either side and the occasional aqueduct running beneath it. We were already stunned by the scenery by the time we found a waterfall with a clear blue-green pool beneath it; the sun was getting hotter, so we couldn't resist jumping in.

After a quick breakfast at the local bakery, we drove back along the twisty road and west to the coast at Viana do Castelo. My wonderfully persuasive mother had gotten us a deal on a hotel that would otherwise be out of our price range, with a view of the ocean.

We wandered along the beach at low tide, swam in the pool, and then walked into town where we visited the textile & costumes museum and got some food to bring back to the room.