Offbeat Eats

After leaving Viano do Castelo, our Caminho hike returned to the coast. Unlike the stretch of the Caminho down by our start in Povoa de Varzim, for the rest of our hike most of the hiking was along fairly quiet and undeveloped coastal stretches. This was one of our longer days (14 km), and almost the entirety of the hike was through undeveloped areas and beaches, with one exception, the town of Amorosa. Amorosa is the settlement associated with Praia Amarosa, one of the Minha’s best-regarded beaches for surfing, but the town itself is nestled behind the dunes with two separate settlement centers: the older village along the southern Praia, and the new city that’s block upon block of large apartment buildings built for vacationers. I’ll be honest, the newer part of town seemed pretty soulless to me, especially in the off-season, and we ran into the reality than in October, with the beach running only a few die-hard surfers, pretty much everything in town was shut down, aside from two places in the village. We decided to check out one of them, Pastelaria Amorosa.