Camino Portugues Day 13: São João da Madeira to Porto

Long day today.  Today hurt.  We met in the breakfast area at 7.  The American girls no longer wanted to walk with us now that we showed them the dogs were not so scary.  We leapfrogged them several times during the day and waved.

The weather was pretty good today.  First time I wore my sunglasses.  I walked most of the day in shorts.  Mostly sunny with a lot of blue sky.

The first 5km or so was quite pleasant walking through quiet neighborhoods.  After that it was a lot of busy noisy roads.  These really seem slow because you cannot carry on a conversation.

We got coffee regularly.  Today felt like a grind to me.  We opted to take a more direct route bypassing Grijó.  I think it was about the same amount of traffic and a lot shorter.

We had a very good lunch at 5 Amigos.  We are finally getting the ordering right.  We ordered an appetizer, soup, salad and a single roast chicken entree.  This was just slightly more than the perfect amount of food.

As we began the descent to Porto we stopped for a rest and coffee.  The lady running the place tried really hard to pair her 45 daughter (still living at home) with Francisco.

It finally ended and after having trouble finding a place for a beer we found one.  Mike met us there and we stayed way longer than were should have.  3 rounds later we staggered off to our hotels.  

We met for the legendary Francesinha at Café Santiago.  We ate and drank a lot.  A fun evening.

Camino Portugues Day 12: Albergaria-a-Nova to São João da Madeira

At first light it looked like it could be a nice day.  When I walked out the door it was raining.  I met Jeanne at the bakery nearby.  Later the girls joined us.  And then Francisco made his triumphant return having escaped the clutches of all the women his uncle and his aunt tried to have him marry.

It was now pouring.

We walked, had coffee, put on the ponchos, took off the ponchos.  Today was a lot of poncho.  Our feet were wet and the traffic sprayed us.  I never took my phone out as it was always wet.  I don't remember much of the walk but there was a lot more up and down today.  We seemed to be walking through a lot of connected small villages where people drove to work.

Francisco in his time away went several days walk north of Porto with his family.  It took his uncle a few minutes to drive him from where we left him to the bakery.  Cars are certainly faster than feet.

We found a little place for lunch with about 5km to go and had the special of the day.  For less than 9€ we got a lot of food.  Sorry I was too cold and wet to take a picture.  It was soup, fries, rice, mixed grill, a drink, coffee and a salad.  I had trouble finishing and left 90% of the rice.  We did dry out and I put on dry socks which helped.

We pressed on.  Lots more up and down.  Lots more rain.  Once the sun came out for a few minutes and it was wonderful.  It rained more.

At the edge of town we stopped for a beer.  More accurately, Jeanne and I stopped for a beer.  The others hid from the rain.  It was coming down pretty steadily right up to the hotel.  We all booked the same place which was convenient.  It was great to get warm and dry.

Francisco, Jeanne and I went for a beer.  The guy was giving me the evil eye because he wanted to close.  We went to dinner and Audrey joined.  Fun dinner.  I got very tired by the end.

Camino Portugues Day 11: Agueda to Albergaria-a-Nova

It looked nice this morning.  My view across the little valley was colorful and sunny.  I went down to breakfast and had a light snack and coffee.  Two female Pilgrims were also eating but we did not communicate beyond "bom dia". They may have been Spanish.  I think they are next door here with me tonight.  I know there are two other Pilgrims here and there are so few it probably is.

I saw Jeanne coming up the hill.  Actually I thought I saw her coming up the hill but it was some guy in a pink sweatshirt.  She was just behind that guy.  I took a picture of both of them.

We stopped just up the road to get a coffee at a very empty McDonald's.  While there we saw some Pilgrims go by but clearly enough to know who.  We were walking on a main road for a while and as we passed a night club with little umbrellas. Jeanne had to have one.  She picked one of the rougher looking ones and broke the cable ties holding it.  She says she will carry it to Santiago.

Not much further we passed a bakery and the two American girls were there.  They asked to walk with us because they keep getting attacked by dogs.  Later we would make fun of them for that.  I also said on the Caminho you don't need to ask if you can walk with people, you just join them.  

We had speculated about Katerina and Audrey since we first encountered them.  I said they where probably 25.  Jeanne and Francisco thought much younger.  After walking together for about 1 kilometer Jeanne could not wait any longer and had to ask.  She was very disappointed when Leo was right.

The four of us walked together for the rest of the day.  With about 5km to go we were in a good town for lunch.  Before going in Jeanne and I had a baby bottle of beer from the takeout counter as we stretched out in the sun for a few minutes.

We went into the restaurant which was occupied by a football team.  I tried to ask them if they had won today but by the lack of enthusiasm I assumed they were losers.

We had a nice lunch with the third brand of vinho verde that Francisco told us about.  I'm really liking vinho verde in the afternoon.  The girls have not been going to restaurants since coming to Portugal and this was their first sit down meal.  Audrey is a vegetarian so it makes it a little more difficult, but she had huge salad, fries, ... quite a lot.

At the table next to us was a Portuguese/South African/English woman with her mother.  The mother had dementia and you could tell it had been a few days since the woman had had any conversation.  She thoroughly explained the menu to us and over the next hour gave us a detailed medical and financial history.  She was very nice and helpful but it was hard to get a word in.

We only had 5km to Albergaria-a-Nova leaving the restaurant but we had at least 15 different types of weather.  We also had to navigate many large puddles.  The ponchos went on, they came off, it got hot, it got cold, it got sunny and it poured rain.  It was very strange.

I left the girls at the albergue.  The Korean guy was there too.  My place was great.  They had cold showers.

At about 6pm I met Jeanne and Audrey and we went to the one restaurant at the crossroads near here.  It was a small old place.  The old guy running it didn't talk a lot and he kept disappearing.  The cook was his mother and you could bearly see her behind the bar.  The food was good and we had lots of wine.