We easily drove across the border into Portugal and quickly got off the main highway to take the scenic route. We ended up stopping for lunch in a small festive town, Vila Nova de Cerveira. Colorful umbrellas hung across the cobblestone streets and we found camino shells lining the narrow road we went down guiding the Portuguese Camino route. Unlike much of Spain, the waiter spoke pretty fluent English and French. We discovered lots of French tourists throughout Portugal. And the Portuguese seemed to be more fluent English speakers than the Spanish or French. I enjoyed a traditional northern Portuguese meal of sausage and beans; very different than the Spanish meals we had been having. We hopped back in the car to drive further south to our destination of Viana do Castelo. As we made our way to another historic old town airbnb, we were flocked by crowds of people and the main road next to our apartment was lined with spectator stands in preparation for the start of the town's big festival, Nossa Senhora da Agonia. Our airbnb host had prepared us for this stating how fortunate we were to be arriving at the start of the festival. And he was right; the day after we arrived, we stumbled into a drum band playing right outside our apartment entrance. The drums were incredibly powerful and very loud; mostly played by young men. We walked through the main plaza in the old town district on our way to the funicular that took us a very well-maintained and nicely restored basilica with great views of the coast and town. In the evening, we enjoyed an upscale meal (for us) with Porto wine and port, and then headed to the street for the first of a series parades. We found front row seats in the stands and waited with thousands of others for the parade to start. The festival lights hung over the streets with images of flowers, dancing women in traditional full skirts went on and off, finally on for good and the crowd clapped. We then heard the reverberating sound of the drums as the parade started and came closer and closer. Soon the drummers were in front of us pounding the drums, sweat coming off their brows. This definitely looked like a serious work out. The noise was deafening and the bands kept coming, followed by women of all ages dressed in traditional garb characterized by red and blue scarves. The scarves were for sale all over the town and Katherine picked up a blue one. The energy of the performers and the crowd was pretty incredible; the Portuguese appear to be just as good at partying as the Spaniards.