Last night was hectic. We needed to pack everything ready for the morning, We’d got into the habit of taking most things out in our packs on the previous day’s walks, but always some stuff was left behind as we knew that we would be going back in the evening. Tomorrow we need to take everything we have, as we are leaving Lisbon.
I was up early to complete my packing, which had been delayed last night, and we were fairly soon off to the station with all of our world on our backs. We caught the same time train as yesterday but travelled out further, to Alhandra, where we finished yesterday. This took about 30 minutes on the train, but had already taken us a day and a half of walking.
Leaving the train we rapidly rejoined the Camino route which passes over the railway bridge next to the station, and headed into Alhandra itself. Most guides describe this next section as extremely tedious, and even dangerous. This is because, until recently, the official Camino route had been almost entirely along the N1/N3 road. This is a very busy, but non motorway, main road. This is heavily used by lots of large trucks serving the various industries around the area. That would normally be fine, (not good but fine), except that the road sides do not have a proper pavements. Walkers are expected to walk along the edge of the road and hope.
Recently though, an alternative has been made available for part, at least, of our route today. This is a very new 4km long riverside walk. It is all very swish, well paved, plenty of interest and importantly, well away from the N1/N3 road. Part of the interest is that every 250 metres, or so, there are rest/bench areas, each with a very good piece of painted artwork. Each of the images relates to the river, the path, or something to do with the immediate area. I realised, after about the third image what these were about, and started to lphotograph the whole series, excluding the ones I had already passed of course.
At the next village, Vilafranca de Xira, the new pathway ended and the Camino route continued on a mixture of little used rural roads, across farm fields and through industrial areas. Thankfully these were still away from the N1/N3,. However they were extremely boring. On the whole, they were deserted, dead-straight, roads through completely flat land, often near to the railway.
I mentioned yesterday that we’d meet Stuart, anotherYorkshireman He was walking rather faster than us yesterday, and so we expected that he would be far in front of us today. We had exchanged emails yesterday, and today I received an email link to his blog. Later, I responded to that and asked how he was progressing. To our surprise he replied that he was staying at the Ourohotel. We had just checked into the Ourohotel in Azumbuja, so I responded asking if he was in Azumbujsa, to discover that he was in a room just along the corridor. It seems that he had decided to do a short day today after his long day yesterday, and we had done the opposite, having a long day today. We met briefly and exchanged notes, and also agreed to have a meal together tonight. This was very enjoyable, all the better for being unexpected. However his schedule means that over the next few days he will leave us far behind, so our meal tonight will probably be a one-off event.
Being in an hotel tonight has also allowed us to catch up with some much needed washing. This was always a problem in our place in Lisbon due to the lack of proper ventilation due to the small windows and wooden shutters. We are now just about up to date in that respect. It will be nice to get back into the normal Camino routine, walk, wash, sleep, walk again etc.
Tomorrow should be a shorter day, hopefully I’ll be able to sort out the photo uploading problem.
