a city upon a hill

CAMINO PORTUGUES Day 6

Another day of walking on dusty farm tracks; this time the fields of tomatoes were interspersed by lines of corn and grapes. We were passed by many, many cyclists but only saw a couple of pilgrims. It is obvious from the almost empty hotels and hostels we stay in that Portugal's hospitality industry is suffering during the pandemic. At some places we have to show our vaccination certificates to stay, but we haven't yet been asked to take a test (apart from the one before leaving the UK). It's noticeable here that almost everyone wears a mask, even for walking along the street or in a park.

Today's photo is taken from a park in Santarem - the Jardim Portas de Sol - and shows the Tejo river and its fertile floodplain along which we are walking northwards. Santarem is on a hill and we could see it as we walked. It is an important historic city which has been occupied by Greeks, Romans and Moors, and the park is on the site of a citadel. We sat up here for a couple of hours as we had arrived to early to check into our accommodation.

A nice meal out in town tonight, once we discovered that due to Covid, the menu was all online and we had to access it from a QR code on our table mat..that part had somehow got Lost in Translation :-)