In a week from today we will be on our second day (halfway) in
Porto. Time goes by fast when you are having fun. Portugal is an amazing
country with beautiful scenery everywhere, but it is much too touristy for our
taste. It is to be expected when you are in a country that has double the
tourists than there is population. This week the children are on vacation and
there are lots of people on the beach.
Today we went to Galé again to finish our trail that we had not finished
on Tuesday. This last half was much more picturesque with lots of cliffs, rocky
shores, little bays and hundreds of mimosa trees. But phew I'm tired. There
were lots of hills and bluffs to climb or go down. We left early (8:00) to be
sure that we could finish in time to catch the last bus home. We made it with
plenty of time to spare.
We spent the evening watching and waiting for the procession that
started in the chapel in front of our apartment. When we saw that the door was open,
we went down to have another look inside. What a beautiful chapel. They had
music playing all day coming from a speaker in an upstairs window. They covered the road with some sort of
branches that gave off an odor of some kind. I have no idea what it was. People
were lined up on the road with candles. There were men in hooded capes carrying
big placards. I think they might have been some stations of the cross but there
was only half a dozen or so. They finally started at 10:00. It didn't last
long. The priest did a short prayer (In Portuguese) before they headed off. It
was very different from what we are used to on " jeudi saint".
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| Waiting to start |
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| Here we go |
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| Notice the man carrying the speakers and the priest with the mic on the left |
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| The morning after. Everything was cleaned up by mid-afternoon |