Hi,
Good news! We had a more successful weekend. We managed to accomplish our objective; find and accomplish a second; and attempt a third, but not finish it. Two out of three isn’t bad, especially since we only set out for the first one. I call this Sunday a win.
Our primary objective was to visit the geodesic marker at the center point of Portugal (MVV9+WR Vila de Rei). This marker is located in Vila de Rei, and it is a little more elaborate than most of the other geodesic markers in Portugal. We’ve seen many on our trips across the country. Some are simply concrete obelisks a few feet tall on top of a hill, and while they are interesting to find, they don’t compare to this one. This one has its own museum, gift shop, restrooms, and food stall. These were all top-notch, but even so, they couldn’t compare with the view. I never tire of standing on a hill (or mountain) and looking out at the countryside. Sunday was an overcast day, but the scenery did not suffer from the lack of sunshine. Beautiful.
To augment our outing, we also stopped by Fonte de Vila de Rei (MVX9+VQ Vila de Rei), which we had spotted on the roadside into town. This is a small pull-off on the side of the road (the N2, Portugal’s Rte. 66, which runs from Chaves in the north of the country all the way to Faro in the south). Road-side fountains are not uncommon, and this one seemed interesting, so we pulled over to give the dogs an opportunity to sniff around. The water fountain there has potable water (not all of the roadside fountains are potable) and the google reviews of this water speak highly of it. We didn’t have any containers for sampling the water, so we cannot speak on it. But I don’t doubt it is sweet.
High on our successes, we also decided to detour at Castelo de Germanelo (2HG9+GR Rabaçal). We had no idea what to expect with this castle, but the sign on the side of the road said ‘castelo’ so we thought, why not? There were easy markers to follow, and we soon found ourselves on a wooded hillside with only a footpath ahead of us. It was getting late and rain was coming in, but we decided to see if we could find the castle and snap a few pictures before continuing home (we still couldn’t see the castle from that point). Alas, after ten minutes of climbing the hillside, Chris deduced that we were on the wrong trail and we would have to go back down and start over. Eying the sky, an executive decision was made that we should call this off and head home before the rain started. This was not an easy decision to make, but the rutted dirt road and the prospect of rain did not make me enthusiastic about the prospect of driving out of the area in the dark (yes, it was close to sundown). We hadn’t gotten close enough to the castle to see it or take a picture of it, but here are a few pictures of the trail leading up to it. Maybe we will be back sometime to get pictures of the castle for you.
So, we failed at Castelo Germanelo, but overall, the day was a win. The dogs had a great time, and we were all glad to get out of the house.
Nola