09/25/2023 Bikepacking Spain Day 48 : Bem-vindo a Portugal!

Happy to have good weather and be feeling good today. Took a little nap from 6am to 7am which fixed me up! Also good weather continues, marking for fun touring! —

No, it’s not a forever pool.. it’s a big tank in the mountains for helicopters to come and dip tanks for fighting fires. No swimming allowed. Don’t worry, we didn’t swim. It was 48F out! —

Doh! The whole reason we came to this part of Spain was to see a canyon that had good topography on Google Earth. Then in our haste, we accidentally skipped a big chunk of our route and missed it. Rather than ride backwards to see it, we decided to make Portugal be the next interesting thing instead. another reason we came this way was to go to Galicia so we Could say that we have been to every province in Spain. Somehow we missed that too - definitely I big deal and an excuse to come back to Spain. If Janet ever said to me, “I would like to move to Spain,” I would quickly agree. We have been to a lot of countries, and Spain is definitely a place I would enjoy living… though it would be somewhere in the Pyrenees- closer to where we began the trip. But first choice would still be the US… the US is like so many countries in one with its geographic and cultural diversity… but homogenous language. In case you’re wondering, I think Mexico would be my 3rd favorite after Spain. —

Suddenly in Portugal. It looks like Spain.. but it is different. I already noticed in (near) Galicia that the people looked different - a little more like our Portuguese neighbors when I was a kid. Another thing we noticed right away was there were more religious shrines. Lots of Mary statues. It’s only been 24 hours here but I get the impression that Portugal may be more religious than Spain. I keep in mind that my grandma talks to me periodically about “our lady of Fatima” who appeared to some children here. I don’t think we will go to Fatima.. though I am sure that grandma would be overjoyed if we did and sent her a postcard. Maybe I’ll just send a postcard from nearby. She is 97, and I think she spends more time talking to God than I talk to Janet (and after coffee, I can really talk Janet’s ear off)! —

So we came to Portugal not knowing important basic worlds in Portuguese. I think we can fake it with Spanish… but we did look up “good day, and please”. Luckily please is the same and good day feels super close and natural to Spanish. Ordering coffee was almost exactly the same words. Not bad! Janet did a nice “Obrigado”. If you know any Japanese, this sounds very similar to their word for “thank you” also. I love the overlap in languages! — —

A bit messy of a scene, but details our nice campsite - again with water flowing out of the mountain, a stone picnic table, and a tree to block the dew. It’s along the dirt road, but in the 15 hours we were here, only one car went by! —

My 3 year count down to move to Spain has already begun. I’m not sure I have the courage to follow through, but I’m exploring the option. Girona is tops on my list, but I’m curious about Huesca.

Brian L.