I’d no plans for today, just to wander around Viana on a day “off”. I started off down by the waterfront and went Right down to the fort at the corner of the river and the sea and found a large Street Fair happening. As big as the one in Palm Desert but with vendors shouting out their cheap wares, and shoppers digging frantically thru clothes, looking to grab their great deal before others can get to it.

I hadn’t brought my hiking hat and I was already feeling the morning sun so I scoured every aisle looking for the hat section. Alas, none! But the very last row had one stall with a few, so I bought a €5 ugly sun hat to get me through the day.

I can’t understand Portuguese, there’s lots of “susch-ing” to their words but the written language has many similarities to Spanish so I’m able to figure out quite a lot. However it was pure sign language that completed the transaction with my salesman.

I thought I’d take the funicular up to see the church high on the hill overlooking town but I had a hard time figuring out how to get to it as the train station/railway line was in the way. Eventually I walked through the shopping mall and found an exit onto the correct road.

The Saint Lucia Basilica is very nice looking from the outside but I’m a bit of a history snob and as it was a modern church from the 1920’s I didn’t bother to go in. It really was the view I came for.

Just for fun I tracked my day and it ended up being 6 miles! I’d better take it easy this afternoon or it’ll hardly count as a rest day!