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My two bits' worth:
I sense the heart of this discussion is the relative perception of "value of the wine," if I can call it that.
In Spain and Portugal, table wine is so cheap as to seem to locals just a tiny bit more valuable than water.
I can buy a 1-litre box of wine (admittedly, not...
Same is true for us, when we're in small-town Portugal. Here in Canada, people are very private, and as you say, a lot of their/our lives is spent at home. In Barquinha, life is to some degree lived on the street. Although we're foreigners, and our Portuguese is pretty painful, and there's not...
I know it's not so romantic as pulling it from a cask, but much of the time, nowadays, the bulk wine that is peregrino- or menu del dia quality comes in those 3- or 4-litre boxes, so the various-sized glass jugs are quite common.
I've been in Spanish and Portuguese farm-supply stores, where...
Just got an email about today being last day of a seat sale for Vueling in Spain.
For anyone wanting to go to, say, Barcelona, after arriving in Santiago, this might be useful.
Buen camino...
I suspect it's because vegetables--right or wrong--are considered "poor people's food." During the dictatorship years, the division between poor and rich was very stark, and the poor had little access to protein other than eggs and dairy.
The legacy from those hard years is a strong preference...
Also, if Corga is just outside Freixos (looks like it on the map), there is a family health clinic as extension in Freixos (closer):
Centro de Saúde de Ponte de Lima
+351258909280
Open till 8 tonight.
Best of luck!
Perhaps one of the Spanish locals on the forum could confirm or correct this?
In Portugal, and I suspect in Spain too, each city/town/village has a patron saint. The local holiday is usually on or very close to that saint's day.
So if you can find out the saint's day for any towns that you...
Sounds like all is well, and under control.
For future reference for North Americans and others, May 1--European Labour Day--is quite a big deal in much of Europe.
Best to plan for many services to not be available that day and perhaps a few around it, and consider that many Europeans may take...
This sounds about right. There are several out-in-the-open faucets in our neighbourhood. One is marked agua impotavel; the others have no marking. After several years of dealing with Portuguese officialdom and its penny-wise pragmatism, I would guess that the official response to "why isn't it...
P.S. The website just cited, for tourism of the middle Tejo, gives a pretty good summary of things might want to see, or do, in the area! (In English, French and Spanish, as well as Portuguese.)
https://turismo.mediotejo.pt/visitar/
A local (central Portuguese) news source reported recently on the newly marked routes to Fatima from 1/ Serta 2/Tomar and 3/ Abrantes (east of Vila Nova da Barquinha on the Tejo/Tagus).
Here's a link to the brochure, with map and elevation details, that they produced. It is in 4 languages...
This was fun to read. Your Moita do Norte lodging is just up the street from our place. He just turned it into lodgings last summer, and it seems to be quite popular with pilgrims. A bit cheaper than the Barquinha hotels, and essentially located steps off the caminho, with 2 cafés nearby. Sadly...
Having taken the train, just from Vigo, I'd say...take the bus the whole way. The Porto long-distance bus station is right next to Porto-Campagna railway station, so you end up in just the same place with way less hassle...and as railway trips go, Vigo>Porto is one of the less interesting ones...
We just came back from our house just uphill from the Lisbon>Porto section, in north-of-the-tracks Barquinha just south of Tomar. We were often working down in the yard in the morning when peregrinos were walking through. Otherwise, we can see the walkers from our home's back windows. So we see...
Definitely not "top shelf," but in my experience, less than half the price.
We buy from Decathlon in Portugal quite regularly. They make it clear their products are designed for cost-effectiveness and mass use. That being said, they're usually pretty good--they're like the IKEA of sports...
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