The Glimmering Neon Cityscape, Twinkling Away Into The Distance
Monte De Santa Luzia, Viana Do Castelo, Minho, Portugal
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The Glimmering Neon Cityscape, Twinkling Away Into The Distance
Friday 16th of January 2009
Monte De Santa Luzia, Viana Do Castelo, Minho, Portugal: 15:00
1. Before I do anything with Viana do Castelo, I simply have to go down and say a quick hello to my friend the Atlantic. In the crisp sunlight, there's a squat ruined fort, a small curved beach, a playground of jagged rocks, and these fantastic atlantic rollers crashing in in slow motion. Y'know, this'd be a great place to spend the night, wake up dreaming of big atlantic waves.
2. Or then there's the Gil Eannes. It was built in Viana shipyard as a hospital ship in 1955, and served the fishery workers off for a few years. It was rescued from the scrapyard by the good folk of Viana, and now serves as a museum, and a floating city hostal. It's amazing to stand by it and see its huge bulk moving around on the rising tide, creaking its ropes like a dinosaur gently breathing. Slept on a few ferries in my time, but never slept on a ship. I'll admit I'm tempted.
3. Anyway, first I've got to go up the hill. The trip up involves one accidental drive into a hospital carpark, and one detour through a municipal park, which would have been very embarrassing to explain if I hadn't been able to perform a quick u-turn. The chapel on Monte Luzia towers over Viana and anytime in a praca, or if the streets open up, you look up and she's there, glowing in floodlit yellow from above. But nothing quite prepares me for the glimmering neon cityscape twinkling away into the distance, the harbour cranes, the wide coastline, the sheer scale of the view. So anyway, I crack open a spanish cerveza, and never quite make it back down to options 1 and 2.
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