Romanesque Amarante

After a couple of lazy days around Tabuado, we woke up feeling a bit restless this morning, so we decided to try something new. While we still need to do many of the typical chores from back home – groceries, laundry, cooking, etc. – it is nice to have the flexibility to follow where the day or the mood takes us.

Today, we took an Uber up to a nearby Romanesque town called Amarante. After a few failed attempts at finding a driver (we’re fairly remote, so it can take some time), Micheka was about to come to talk to me about a “Plan B” for the day, but the gods intervened and we secured a driver just in the nick of time!

After taking a picturesque drive through the Portuguese mountain countryside, we arrived at the town square 20 minutes later and began our exploration. First words out of the girls’ mouths: “We’re hungry!” Of course. LOL However, we did manage to find a hat store for the girls to get bigger hats and the shopkeeper was happy to put her sales skills to the test and despite the language barrier, we found a winner for Katia! Emmeline found a similar hat later.

We found a cute café nearby overlooking the water while enjoying some refreshments and quick tosta mistas for lunch. The girls quickly locked on to the paddle boats on the water and we agreed that after food, we could go. We had always wanted to do paddle boats in Stratford, Ontario but it never worked out. The ones in Amarante were four-seaters, so it made for the perfect family fit!

After exploring the town centre by boat for 30 minutes, we switched back to foot and continued along the river path to some nearby waterfalls we saw from the boat. However, when we made it to them, we found a hidden gem just past the Antigas Azenhas do Tâmega (old watermills of the Tamega River) – a beach on the river!

We were previously told about some watering holes by locals that we had yet to explore and we decided that today we were just going to wear hiking attire and explore the town, then come back again with more specific plans in mind. Nonetheless, the girls talked us into taking a dip in their clothes to cool off from the hot day!

It was a pretty cool setup and nothing like you would ever see in Canada! There was the beach (of course) where people were tanning, hanging out, and cooling off in the water but there was also a water mill, a natural pool for taking a dip, and a walkable path directly across the waterfalls!

After FINALLY coaxing the girls out of the water, we took the waterfall path across the water and continued our explorations. Conveniently, there was a municipal pool right across from the beach (we will likely return to this), as well as many other trails branching off from this area. We couldn’t help but remark how this place reminded us of Waldorf nature principles and it definitely showed given how comfortable and exploratory the girls were in this new town!

Aside from picturesque architecture and bridges, the town also has a 16th-century Renaissance monastery known as Igreja de Sao Goncalo. Unfortunately, we did not make it inside today (the girls were still wet when we passed by), but will plan to return on another visit to Amarante.

Another stop the girls begged for was to visit the natural island in the town centre over the footbridge (again, not a design you’d see in Canada). Walking through the foliage on the island, again we were reminded of how beautiful this was (again, think Waldorf) and the girls were in heaven, once again playing in the sand at the tail of the island.

Once our exploring was done for the day (and everyone was walked out), we found a simple burger joint for dinner tonight, which turned out to be just what everyone needed! The girls even seemed half passed out on the Uber ride home!

On reflection, it was an amazing, yet unexpected day. Although we knew we wanted to visit Amarante during our stay in Portugal, our only regret is we didn’t make the trek sooner. Good thing we still have three weeks left until our departure!