Rest Day in Ponte de Lima

We are taking an extra day to rest and recover from our two long days. A couple of our group have some serious blisters that require a bit of extra care.

Foot taped from a previous injury and requiring blister treatment as well.

Ponte de Lima is a nice little town to spend a day in. There were no alarms to wake up to and we could spend the day in exploring the alleyways and and idling in the sidewalk cafés watching the world go by.

Our hotel the Merceria de Vila.

There is a Roman bridge over the river with a bit of a legend to it:
In Greek mythology, there was a river, the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Now, legend has it that in 135 BC, the Roman general Decius Brutus, who was engaged in conquests on the Iberian Peninsula, arrived on the banks of the River Lima together with his army. The soldiers were terrified by the beauty of the river and were convinced it was the Lethe and that they would lose all their memories if they crossed it. The general was the first to cross the river to the astonishment of the soldiers. When he got to the other side, he said the name of each soldier in the legion one by one, and only in this way did he convince his men that it was safe to cross the river. In order to remember this episode, statutes have been put up on both banks of the river: General Decius Brutus is on one side, and the soldiers on the other.

Warren recreated this feat after dinner by swimming across the river like Decius Brutus, and then back again. I think he is now ready to conquer the rest of the Iberian peninsula...

 

 

Cheryl became quite attached to one of the Roman soldiers...

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