Day 12 Hike the Point; Ceramics in Caldas

Today the weather was sun with some passing clouds, a high of 17C.

This morning we hiked up to the point on the opposite side of the bay entrance from where our condo is located. In order to get there we had to hike up a hill beside the sand dune hill, which I think is in the sister town to Sao Martinho. It is called Salir do Porto. The view from the top of the sand hill is quite good. This sand hill is treated like a snow hill in Canada, kids mainly slide down it on krazy carpet type apparatus.

There is a little chapel at the end of the point at the bay entrance to the Sao Martinho town bay. It is quite a scenic spot.

First, here is the view from the condo balcony this morning…..

Then, the views from the hike……

This is the view from the opposite side of the bay from where are staying

The town of Sao Martinho do Porto is in background

In the afternoon we went to Caldas da Rainha, where Gale had a ceramics class scheduled. The ceramics class had been booked for some time. Gale had been emailing Mariana Sampaio since December 2022 to see if there was a class that I could participate in while in the area in the spring. We had first heard about the studio from watching a YouTube video on Caldas de Rainha. So we researched the website and reached out to the owner of the ceramics company. Mariana turned out to be a sweet and very talented artist. There were six people taking the course that day. We were given the opportunity to learn the traditional method of Portuguese tile painting. It was a four hour class and worth every minute. So much fun!

Here are some pictures from the ceramics group…..

While Gale was at ceramics, Dave went to a museum, walked around and did some window shopping and sat down at a street cafe for a beer and an expresso (for 2.2 euros for both, tax incld)…..

Dave also visited the Bordallo Pinheiro store. Bordallo is a famous Portuguese artist, known partially for illustrating sarcastic humour in some of his work. In Caldas they are known for a particular ceramics where a piece of the male anatomy is put in a tea cup, or displayed in other ways……you will see it in the pictures below of some store windows that are all over town……