Day 17 - To Oliveira de Azeméis

Last night Barbara took her turn to sleep rather badly for some reason, I slept badly a couple of nights ago. Maybe she was too warm. We'd had to ask for the heating to be turned on earlier in the evening as the room was decidedly chilly, but when it eventually came-on it became much better. I slept OK, but the bed felt as old as the hotel and was not very comfortable. 

Breakfast was not included in our room rental and nobody was around when we were ready to depart. We had heard some voices last night that seemed to be from the room next door, but everything was silent as we left. I took the opportunity to take one or two photos as we left, there hadn't been chance yesterday.

These, I hope, give a little of the feeling off the place. it's like a time warp.

Yesterday we had a very nice coffee break as a cafe very close to the hotel and, at that time, checked their opening time for breakfast. The very cheerful owner said that he was open from 7:00 to 22:00 and he would happily serve us with breakfast. We took him up on his offer this morning and went to his cafe at about 8:15. It was rather busy, but the owner instantly recognised us, told us to sit at a table, and a few minutes later was with us deciding on suitable breakfasts for us. We both decided on fresh bread, cheese and ham. These  were soon prepared served with excellent coffees. A little later, when we'd finished, he came over again for a short chat. We suggested that he, somehow, arranged for an advertising sign nearby as the cafe is just off the obvious route for people on the Camino. He should get lots of custom with the correct advertising.

After great goodbyes and thanks from us we made our departure. We hope that his new venture is successful, he deserves to.

It took us a little while to get out of the town and on our way. The route moved into forest walking quite quickly, again we had problems with very rough and/or flooded tracks from time to time, but nothing impassible.

We did have a rather unsettling incident though at one point. At the time we had just left a forested area and we're walking on the road near to a large convent and religious centre. Here Barbara noticed a bloke on a moped in the large car parking area that ran along side the road that we were walking on. He was following us, as we moved on so did he. As we moved on he eventually left the car park and followed us about 50 metres to our rear at a walking speed for about a quarter of a mile. At one point I deliberately stopped and turned around to face him, he just sat there, not moving on until I returned to walking and left him about 100 metres behind. We shortly afterwards left the road and went back onto a forest track. He didn't follow us and we saw no more of him.

The incident made us remember the young woman, Ava, that we had met a few days before. She was travelling alone, and camping out most nights. We wondered how she would cope with such an encounter. We hadn't seen her, other than in our meeting the other day, so she would probably be further away by now. 

Our forest walking gradually changed into more "urban" walking as more and more buildings intruded into the countryside. Eventual we were walking through rather dreary areas.

The Camino route seemed to be deliberately taking us through all the backstreets of somewhat rundown areas. It was still hilly and the weather had become very humid. All in all that part of today's walk wasn't very enjoyable. To crown it all there was also a great shortage of either suitable sitting points or anywhere to take a break and a coffee. We had found one place at about 11am where we got a drink, but that was off the Camino route, we'd just noticed it marked as nearby on the map.

Our steady progress, through the unimpressive countryside, continued for some while until at lunch time we were again looking for somewhere to rest and get a bite to eat. We'd seen that another cafe was shown, nearby, on our map. We eventually reached it, it looked fine from outside so we decided to go in. As we entered, through a central door, Barbara turned left towards a spare table just as I glanced to the right to see Ava sitting at another table. It was a great coincidence seeing her sitting there after discussing her only about an hour previously. She was fine and making good progress, still sleeping "rough".

We talked for a long while before she decided to move on, she'd already been at the cafe for about an hour recharging her phone etc and needed to move on to get planned stopping place for tonight.

We had our lunch and enjoyed the break, eventually starting the last stage of our planned the for today.

The weather had changed a little when we came out of the cafe, it was somewhat fresher, with a little breeze, much nicer to walk in. Also the countryside was a little more interesting. At one point the footpath shares a rather narrow bridge, under a road, with the local railway line. The path simply runs alongside the track for about 100 metres, no sign of a fence or other protection.

The rail line however sees to be hardly ever used. The rails are very rusty, but with just a faint sign that a train had run along there at some time in the last few weeks. We didn't see any today.

Finally we got near to our destination town, Oliviera, to see the reality of what we'd already seen on the map. We've spent a lot of time today climbing steadily, sometimes descending a little, but the map showed that the very last stage was severely uphill into Oliviera. And that's what it was, a long, and in some places very steep, uphill climb towards the town centre. It seemed never ending as it became very steep towards the top

We were unsure what we might find when we eventually got to the top and the town. There were two albergues listed but one had a very damning review with it, warning pilgrims try stay away from "a filthy place". After last night's place, which eventually was just about OK but expensive, we decided to book into a four-star hotel. 

We did get a good rate when we said that we were weary pilgrims, which at that point was perfectly true. The place is very nice, totally different to last night. We'll enjoy it here.

Day 16 - To Albergeria-A-Velha

I slept on the top bunk last night, in our room for two.  It's the first time on the top bunk since the last Camino. Normally they don't bother me, but last night was uncomfortable. Quite late in the evening the heating in the room turned on, which was quite nice at the time, as it had become rather chilly. However it stayed on all night, with the result that I was rather hot, not sleeping too well. 

We had opted to have breakfast at the albergue this morning, at a very reasonable €2.5 each. We didn't expect to have anything much more than coffee and bread with possibly some jam or marmalade for that price, but we were presented, instead, with a feast. We had a choice of color meats, cheeses, cereals, various fresh fruits, different breads etc.  And excellent coffee, the best in Portugal so far. Very good value.

Les set off at about 8am and was soon followed by a Danish lady that we hadn't met before, but who is doing a solo Camino. We later met her again, briefly, out on the trail.

Today started out with nice weather and we both chose to walk without our legs on. The removable legs of our walking trousers of course. Barbara removed hers a day or so ago, but I only removed mine yesterday. It is much cooler in the warm weather we've had over the last couple of days.

Looking back at our albergue from last night we were glad that today's walk didn't start with the long climb that we finished with yesterday

Our route today gave us two options, one was to walk to Albergeria-A-Velha, a distance of about 16kms or go on to the next town adding another 7kms or so. We opted for the shorter distance, partly to allow us time for washing/drying etc. Our social late afternoon and evening yesterday was very nice but it meant that some things we needed to do didn't get done, so a short day today should help.

Shortly after leaving our albergue we were walking through an industrial area, and not too sure about the way the route went, when a young woman came to us and asked, in good English, if we needed directions. She, she claimed, was also a Camino pilgrim, having walked to Santiago a year or two back and she envied what we were doing. She was just on her way to work and decided to help. "The Camino will provide", goes the legend.

Our route today was, again, very nice countryside. One or two hilly stretches, as is normal around here, but very pleasant. On one stretch we walked along what is claimed to be a Roman route, now bypassed by a modern road, which suddenly became a very long many arched low bridge over a large lake on one side leading to the river on the the other side.  

It is a beautiful place, lots of bird, and frog, songs to entertain you. Up to fairly recently this part of the trail continued across over the river on a higher-arched old (Roman) bridge.  This is no longer possible as the centre arch collapsed into the river some time ago. Instead the route now crosses the valley by means of a very modern, very high bridge.

This gives great views down into the village below, and also saves a lot of descent and ascent across the valley. Shortly after the end of the modern bridge we rejoined the old trail to walk through some more eucalyptus forest and on to our destination town.

There are one or two places to stay here, but we decided to stay at the local pension, the "Casa da Alameda". This has obviously been a very upmarket place in the past, the long past. It's a decidedly funny place, a snapshot of sometime between Victorian and 1950s.  There seem to be lots of bedrooms that are simply storage for assorted furniture and fittings, with staircases that should lead elsewhere but are now cordoned off by strategically placed armchairs.  Everywhere is either very dark-brown wood furniture and muddy cream walls, or is painted dark-brown to match the woodwork. But we have our own room and bathroom. We did have to request that the heating be put on as it was decidedly chilly. 

Anyway we've had a restful and useful afternoon, and as a fortunate side-effect, missed walking in some very heavy rain that occurred not long after we arrived. This evening we had a short stroll around the centre of town finding a rather good cafe for our breakfast tomorrow. The place is run by a local man who lived for some time in Montreal in Canada where he learned his English, amongst the French of course. But he was very eager to practice English again and refused any attempt by us to try any of our very sparse Portuguese. " I must practice my English before I forget it " he claimed. He also repeatedly said "You are very welcome here", something that we've noticed all over Portugal so far.

Day 15 - To Agueda

We set off today with a totally clear, blue, sky and brilliant sunlight. As we tend to, we had decided to have breakfast on the trail. At the first village there was nothing available, but at the second village, Aguim, we had delicious sandwiches and coffees. The cafe was a little off the Camino track and we only found it by accident. They really need to put a sign on the Camino trail and they would get a lot of business. On through other places including Anadia, after we walked through a large, totally deserted sports and athletics complex. It had become a feature of this trip to suddenly come across large modern structures that seem to be completely unused and deserted, probably due to the economic crisis that hit Portugal a few years ago. 

We continued steadily, coming across various odd features from time to time.

Things like a very artistic garden arrangement

the two headed goat,

footballing lions

and the dragon goalkeeper.

Later we stopped for a coffee break at another small village, Alfaloas, where the cafe owner, very kindly, gave us a leaflet for an albergue for tonight, and showed us her book of comments from other pilgrims, also stamping our credentials. While we were there we were joined by the youngest pilgrim that we've met so far on this trip, a young lady called Ava. She was originally from Belgium but currently living in Norway, and obviously wanted a chat with someone. She is walking the Camino by herself and camping out every night. Not something either of us would like to do, even in better weather than we've been having. It must be pretty horrible in the rain we've had over the last week or so. I heard, about a week ago that it's been, officially, the wettest April in Portugal for many years. 

We had a few more kilometres of countryside before our lunch in the early afternoon, again at a very nice little cafe with a very welcoming owner, she actually gave us two very nice meringues on the house. 

Somewhere along the route we passed a rather surprising, very modern, structure. This is a communal wash house for the village with the water being supplied from the local stream.

It seems rather a throwback to mediaeval times, but it is obviously very new. We've seen many other similar structures before, most villages have them, but most look very old and unused.

The other item we saw was this Camino marker. One part of it shows the direction to take on the Camino, but the other gives the distance to Santiago de Compostela as 303kms.

As most guides quote a distance of just over 600km between Lisbon and Santiago it means that we are just about halfway there. By evening we definitely will be.

The guide we're using describes the next stage into Agueda as a long slog through an industrial area. That sums it up entirely. It was a hard uphill climb through factories and warehouses, followed by similar downhill stretch into the centre of Agueda, followed by another long, steep uphill stretch to our albergue. 

We soon checked in, the receptionist mentioning that another Englishman, Les, had already checked in.  Later, as I caught up with my laundry requirements, he and Barbara walked back down the hill to the local Lidl to get two bottles of wine and some nibbles for later in the evening. We also ordered some takeaways to be delivered as an evening meal. High living on the Camino - partly to celebrate the halfway point, mainly for the hell of it. We were also joined by Bernard, from Germany, whose English improved greatly as the evening wore on and the wine took effect. 

All of us were fairly tired and retired to our rooms by about 8:30, me to work on this blog and Barbara to catch up with The Archers on the BBC Radio iPlayer.

Day 14 - To Mealhada

After our none-walking day in Coimbra we returned, with somewhat of a vengeance, to the task of walking the Camino today. We were up and out by about 08:15. There were no breakfast facilities at our hotel, but we had coffee and a nibble at a small cafe just opposite. Getting out of Coimbra was somewhat difficult because, as so often happens on this Camino, there seems to be several routes. The first route we followed just seemed completely wrong, it was going in totally the wrong direction. Looking closely at the route shown on a map it seemed that it would like to take you all around the town and cathedral district that we'd looked at yesterday.  Eventually we found a satisfactory route, initially by the river and canal, past the station and eventually out into the country.

We strode out at a steady pace, overtaking some other pilgrims stopping on the way for coffees, etc as necessary.

At Santa Luzia a big market in the centre of the town was just finishing. All the stallholders were clearing away their stalls. It looked as if it had been a big event. We saw Erña and Jurgen, from Holland and Denmark, from time to time, near here. The route then followed a track through a eucalyptus forest.

Just as we rejoined a paved road, after several kilometres of forest track, we saw two pilgrims approaching us from the opposite direction. Initially we thought that either they or is were lost. Almost as quickly we realised that they were pilgrims, but heading towards Fatima, which is now well south of us. We confirmed that with a few words, each wishing the others a good Camino and went on our ways. These are the first Fatima pilgrims we have definitely seen.  We've seen plenty of signs pointing guards Fatima and some possible pilgrims, but these were definitely going there.

The new route we had just followed is to avoid an equally long walk totally avoiding the main road. It eventually took us into the smallish town of Mala, where we had delicious, freshly baked, sandwiches for lunch.

The last stretch was from Mala to Mealhada, which seemed to be fairly endless, very pretty through the various types of countryside but it took a long time. When we arrived at the Pension that we had chosen for the night we were told that it was full. That was a bit of a blow, as the next place was about 2km further on. However it turned out to be a far better place with very good facilities. We had a very good evening there, over a meal, with various other pilgrims. We had already come across most of them, but this was was the first time that we'd had time to talk together. Our group consisted of Barbara and myself, Les from Brighton, he's only walking as far as Porto. Louise from Perth, Australia, and is hoping to walk to Santiago, but is having some pretty severe foot problems, and Alex, the youngest of the group at 42. He originally came from Sao Paulo, in Brazil, but now lives in Berlin, Germany. He was hurrying along as he was meeting sometime in Porto in a few days time. We will, hopefully, continue plodding along all the way to Santiago.

Day 13 - Non-Camino Day In Coimbra

We'd decided a long time ago that we would spend a day in Coimbra. By coincidence our original schedule put us in Coimbra on our wedding anniversary, but because we effectively missed a day, way back, when we took a bus ride out of Tomar, we arrived in Coimbra a day earlier than scheduled. Nevertheless we had heard that it was a good city to spend some time in. We'd reserved our penthouse apartment for two nights allowing us to spend the day just looking around. 

I deliberately didn't head this blog as a "rest day" as any exploration of Coimbra is not restful. It is a very hilly city, rivaling Lisbon for steep streets and developments at many differing levels. The lower part of the city is mainly commercial, but with some interesting old buildings and the riverside. The higher levels are where there University of Coimbra is mainly situated. Many of the main university's older buildings were officially royal palaces and registered buildings but we're handed over to the university several centuries ago. The university is a very old establishment and highly regarded.

Enough waffle, let's have a look at some photos.

In the lower part of the town is the hotel we stayed at. Our penthouse is the one at the top with the balcony. 

We made our first encounter with some of the students who were doing a street performance to raise money for charity.

Many students, make and female, wear long cloaks around the than, often with black suite underneath, some sort of traditional uniform presumably.

The last photo is of Barbara in the library jail, you could be put in there, in the past, for damaging, losing or simply not returning a book on time. We visited the chapel, library and some function rooms all situated around a grand plaza high in the town.

 One of the things missing on this Camino compared with our first one, especially, is any decent graffit. Here in Coimbra we found some, the last one being official, it was just being refreshed as we were there

Day 12 - To Coimbra

We awoke this morning after a reasonable night's sleep, not brilliant in my case as the bed was very hard. We'd been made aware that the local church, just up the street, didn't have any bells on its belfry, just very large loudspeakers that played very distorted recordings of some real bells. Not just a simple doing-dong but a whole convoluted chain of clangs. This occurred every half an hour. Fortunately it stopped after clanging out it's 10pm noise. It did however start it's racket again at 6am, but we were awake by then.

No breakfast was provided at the hostel, another minus point, and none of the cafe-bars were open, so we started without breakfast. The weather was fine but looked rather suspect as we set out, fully prepared for rain.

We walked a nice trail to Zambujal, a small village full of welcoming Camino signs.

We carried on, along some very wet paths, again the tracks were flooded in places and some avoiding action had to be taken. We also had a few showers, needing our larger poncho raincoats, but this rarely lasted very long, but were heavy at the time. Eventually we simply left the coats hanging from our rucksacks and slipped in and out of them 'on-the-go', carrying them in that manner virtually to the end of our walk.

At one point, not long after we were overtaken by Joe, from Belfast, we had to cross a somewhat deeper and wider channel than previously and Barbara fell rather heavily, twisting her knee and ankle. Fortunately there were no ill-effects, and she continued walking without further problem for the rest of, a rather long, day. 

The route turned out to be rather hillier than we had really expected, but a long stretch was through a very delightful valley taking us into Conimbriga.

This is the site of a very important, apparently, Roman settlement. There's a big visitor's centre with a very good cafe, we both had delicious "Roman" toasted sandwiches and coffee. Here we meet with Joe again.  (I realise now that I haven't mentioned that he was the only other resident in last night's hostel, which was were we first met him). We're made good progress to Conimbriga, even with the hills and floods, so we decided to walk the full 30km to Coimbra. We were already a third of the way there already.

The rest of the trip was through little villages, up and down lots of hills of various sizes, often catching glimpses of what we took to be Coimbra in the distance.

In a small village, a few kms before Coimbra we were reminded, in a rather novel way that this section of the Camino de Santiago is also a pilgrim route towards Fatima. The two trails follow the same route but in opposite directions. The Camino is traditionally marked by bright yellow arrows, and you soon get used to look for yellow. The Fatima route is also marked by arrows, but they are blue, so I suppose that pilgrims on their way to Fatima's look for blue.  In the village we spotted a small white structure at the side of the road that effectively combined the two routes and their colours and at the same time, with two boots, the idea of walking somewhere.

The same village has a, very, small house that had the most impressive gatepost artefacts that I've seen for a long time.

As we approached the outer suburbs of Coimbra we crossed over a very wide and busy road. From the bridge we were on, we could see where the main road passed through a large gap in what looks to be a very high Roman aquaduct. We hope that this destruction wasn't done just to allow the modern road through, but it very much looked that way. 

The very last stage was down a very long cobbled road taking us down to river level in Coimbra. Hard on the legs at this late stage. We found a cafe, got long cold drinks, as it was quite warm by now, and looked at the guide books to decide where to stay. We'd already passed a large albergue, but that was way back up the hill, and we couldn't bear the thought of having to go down and back up the hill again every time we needed to on our proposed rest day, tomorrow. We decided to look for something more centrally located in the town. We found one listed in the guide that looked good, it was just over the bridge, near where we were at the time, and on the edge of the old town.

We crossed the bridge and quickly found the hotel, The Hotel Larbelo. It looked OK and was very handily placed for exploring the old town and university areas. We liked the look of it and we're soon checked in for two nights at a special pilgrim rate. Unfortunately this also included it being a penthouse room, on the third floor, with no lift. There are only 72 steps from the reception to our bedroom, great after a long day climbing and descending hills. 

We were soon installed, and took a needed, brief, rest. We'd walked 30kms over 9 hours of walking, including a few breaks. Soon afterwards, after a quick shower and change of clothes, we were out to hit the town. Not too easy on a Sunday evening, but we dined in style at the local Burger-King, both enjoying a good dose of junk food.