{"id":3193,"date":"2014-06-22T20:33:40","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T19:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=3193"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:35:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T07:35:47","slug":"something-fell-out-of-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2014\/06\/22\/something-fell-out-of-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Something Fell Out Of The Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"
I swear I did not do it….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Driving up the N14 from Porto on Saturday we played a new game of spot the English words.\u00a0 BP and MacDonalds didn\u2019t count and neither did \u2018stop\u2019 signs.\u00a0 But there were so many and we couldn\u2019t think of a reason why they wouldn\u2019t be written in Portuguese. Men, women, kids, kitchens, made in, indoor karting, snack bar, fitness class, image service, print & design, take-away were just a few examples and they clearly weren\u2019t aimed at tourists.\u00a0 We\u2019re intrigued to know the reason for it.<\/p>\n

As we approached Barcelos, home of the symbol of Portugal, the black clouds dropped their contents, with a vengeance.\u00a0 After spending the whole of our time in Portugal with not a drop of real rain, we now could hardly see through the windscreen; it was horrible!\u00a0 But joy of joys, by the time we reached Barcelos the rain had more or less stopped and as we wandered around looking at copious cockerels, the sun managed to come out of hiding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This
This is one super-sized rooster…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can buy roosters and hens in various colours and sizes, on fridge magnets, mugs, jewellery, tooth-pick holders, bottle-stoppers, jugs, even one in a snow dome! \u00a0We were completely ‘over-roostered’ and so decided to eat one for lunch, which was very delicious with a huge plate of chips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Barcelos\"
Barcelos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We nearly stopped at Viana do Castelo, but the campsite seemed badly situated for a two-nighter, so we pushed on further north.\u00a0 The road across the hills that led down to Ancorra was covered in burnt and blackened trees; it seems they have bush fires here too.\u00a0 Perhaps covering 7% of Portugal with gum trees wasn\u2019t such a good idea.\u00a0 The Campsite at Caminha was in a really nice spot, right next to the mouth of the Rio Minho and over the sand dunes from the Praia de Moledo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"
Forta do Insua from Praia de Moledo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At 8pm we trod the boardwalk over the dunes to the beach and discovered the Barracuda Bar.\u00a0 It was a cute wooden cabin set on the sand beside the river.\u00a0 There were two TV screens, one inside and one outside, both showing the World Cup Futebol. \u00a0I had no choice but to sit with my triple Bacardi & Coke to watch the second half of Germany V Ghana.\u00a0 Apparently it was a good game and when Germany equalised at two all, the eight German customers sitting next to us got very noisy and excited.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t seem too worried about a draw at the end of the game, not as worried as me about walking back to Eileen with wobbly boots.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sunset
Sunset on Praia de Moledo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Sunday morning, no hangover thank you, we walked the 2.5 kilometres into the village of Caminha.\u00a0 We followed the river right to the far end of the village and then when we reached the Pra\u00e7a de Espanha we turned inland to look at the remains of the fort and city walls.\u00a0 Lots of very smartly dressed people were shuffling in to the Igreja Matriz, including little girls in white communion dresses, so we stepped back out on to the street and found that all the way down to the square at the far end, the cobbles were covered in colourful designs made from wood chips, sand, salt, seed pods, ferns, leaves, petals and flowers.\u00a0 No-one was treading on the designs, they were all creeping along the narrow edges left clear on either side. When we reached the Pra\u00e7a do Conselheiro Silva Torres we found two more streets covered in flowers; it was beautiful and must have taken ages to create.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Apparently it is the Carpet of Flowers Festival, held each year for Corpus Christi.\u00a0 We definitely picked the right day to be in Caminha.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Caminha
Caminha Carpet of Flowers Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The 15th C Casa dos Pitos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC02744<\/p>\n

\"Rose
Rose petal and charcoal ladybirds<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Flower
Flower butterflies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"So
So many hydrangea petals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

To recover from our long walk back we grabbed our towels and spent a few hours snoring on the beach, a nice way to end our time spent in Portugal.\u00a0 To accompany dinner, we decided to crack open a bottle of Mateus Ros\u00e9; better buy a candle tomorrow to stick in the empty bottle and remind me of my college days.\u00a0 \u00a0Tomorrow we\u2019ll drive in to Spain and try to remember our gracias and forget our abrigados.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney getting to know the locals<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Driving up the N14 from Porto on Saturday we played a new game of spot the English words.\u00a0 BP and MacDonalds didn\u2019t count and neither did \u2018stop\u2019 signs.\u00a0 But there were so many and we couldn\u2019t think of a reason why they wouldn\u2019t be written in Portuguese. Men, women, kids, kitchens, made in, indoor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8319,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/8319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}