Aveiro

We stayed at a youth hostel in Aveiro. At hostels the price includes breakfast, which is nice. We don’t go to restaurants, we eat from the grocery store.

We walked down to the canals where their are brightly painted boats that take tourists for rides. They are prettier then the gondolas in Italy. I’d been hoping to send some postcards, however Portugal doesn’t have many postcard shops, unlike France.

I was happy to see a shop with postcards out on the sidewalk. We went over and I went in and looked around. It was a little narrow three story building, white with bright yellow trim all around. It was called Casa Marques. It was owned by two very old parents and their adult son named Jadaom. He started talking to me in English and I was happy to talk to him. I bought a little chicken (called a Cock in Portugal) with a miraclous story about it, of course. I also bought my postcards.

Then I noticed that the little lady, his mother, had put a 6 Euro sticker on her hand. I joked with the son that if his mother cost 6 Euro I’d buy her to take home. He said that we would have to negociate the price, she was worth gold. I replied, “of course, but don’t forget I’d have to pay her way onto the plane”. He told her about our joke and she laughed a lot. We had a good time with them. We told them that we were going to Costa Nova and asked if he knew anywhere to stay. He had a brother in Coata Nova who rented rooms. He called him and made arrangments for us. So nice. They chose two pictures; Multi-colored leaves and one of the dancing stamins of a poppy that had lost it’s peddles.

We arrived at the Cathedral of Sa´, which means the Seat or Source, during mass. The priest was dressed in purple robes and had long hair in ringlets down past his shoulders. His name was Fr. Fernando, like the valley I where I was raised in L.A. He was young and had a very good repore with his paritioners. After the service he and his alter girl and boy proceeded out the front doors with a hugh cross and stood and greeted all the people as they came out. Later he stamped our Camino Passports.

As we came out of the Cathedral of Sa´, we were standing in the large plaza with a statue of a man on a horse inthe center. There was a round-about around the statue. A woman stopped her car on the round-about so everybody had to go around her car and ran over to us very excitedly. She was all smiles. She asked us if we were from America. She wanted to invite us to her home, make us dinner and talk with us. Her name was Fatima. She had a farm in Aveiro and a home in Lisboa. We told her we were going north however we could visit on our way back. She said that depending on when that was, she might be able to meet us in Aveiro at her farm. We exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. I gave her the multi-colored daisey picture with our info on the back. She had to run back to her car because her husband was feeling a little put out about being stopped on the round-about.

Then we were off to Costa Nova.