Alvorge

Walking along these mountain or wooded treks, these little shrines would just pop up.

Most towns have fountains for water. This is one is a great example.

This church has been restored (a few times!), but look at those building in the background (pictured below).

---

Booking mistake turns into a trip story! I thought we were booking a room .6 mi from Alvorge. We walked probably 7 hrs to get there, started at 7:15 am, stopped a little over an hour for lunch. After arriving in Alvorge and conferring with Alexa who gotta directions, it turns out its really 12 km away! And even if we cancel, there doesn't seem to be even a hostel room available in Alvorge, and not a taxi or bus in site to help us get there to our booked room.  

So our hostess, Beatriz,  agreed to send someone to pick us up. It's voting day, we waited right near the primary school voting site (lost of people in small cars coming and going) across from a very raucous cafe (where everyone was enjoying beer, and kids were running around outside). A very older man in a snap-brimmed hat drove around the square. In a tractor, pulling a woman in a cart!

Finally, along comes Sylvie (she works for B) along with Beatriz's grandmother and Sylvie's daughter. In a very small car. Daughter speaks spec of English, Sylvie speaks a bit of French. The grandmother chatted incessantly in Portuguese. It was pretty funny. 

Btw, daughter is in her last year of university at Coimbra (the oldest u in Portugal) studying bio-technologies. Sylvie will drive us to Coimbra tomorrow after breakfast.