I convinced Al we could walk to the beach. The one I wanted to go to was only a little over 6 miles away. We were in Vila Nova de Gaia, I wanted to walk to Miramar and the beach of Senhor da Pedra.
We walked out of town and zigged and zagged all over the place. We got to this small narrow road and as we walked along I saw a barbershop 💈. Al was in need of a haircut and those little scissors on my Swiss Army knife wasn’t going to cut it. Ha!
I stepped in the door and asked the gentleman there if he would cut Al’s hair. He explained that he was actually retired but he did cut hair by appointment. He looked at Al’s shaggy head and said come on in. His shop had one chair and a keyboard, a guitar, a music stand and books piled everywhere.
He talked to Al the whole time he was cutting his hair. He was a 3rd generation barber. He pointed out a picture on the wall, he said the boy in the picture was him and that this shop had been in his family since his grandfather’s time. He had started out washing hair as a boy. He had enlisted in the Army, same as Al. He was a Sargent, same as Al. They talked and talked. Then he said Al could also use a shave, so he did that too.
By this time another man had entered the shop, turned out to be the barber’s best friend. More talking. When Al was done he asked if Al would take a picture with him.
It felt like we were leaving a friend behind when we walked on from there.
We headed in a straight line to the beach after that. They had what appeared to be a non-stop boardwalk all along the beach. It was actually the Camino heading up from Lisbon to Porto.
We had packed our lunch and ate on some rocks watching the waves. Then I walked the beach and Al the boardwalk.
We left the beach behind and saw that a street festival was going on. We got some ice cream cones and looked at all the booths. Then we saw all of these fountains and checked those out.
We decided to take the train back and mapped to the station. Then we waited with a bunch of people for almost an hour.
Tomorrow we start another Camino, the Portugal Coastal Way. Until then.. be well..