Shorter 26 km today.
At the first stop spoke a bit with a woman (Brideen?) from Ireland. She does the walk with shorter daily distance from Lisbon and will be stopping in Porto. Also, an English guy Jim starting his first day from Coimbra.
Second stop in Mala, the whole from yesterday except Julie (still behind) at the same cafe for food and drinks. I left first and before Mealhada, reconnected with Brideen on the road. Last opportunity to chat as she will be staying in Mealhada and given her daily mileage probably the last time I will see her. That and one more stop in Mealhada for coffee with her. The Italian ladies and Ricardo passes by. The albergue is in Sernadelo (1.5 km outside Mealhada). Saying bye to Brideen (she's got a hotel in Mealhada) and a short walk later and day's walk is over at 2:40 pm. Good day to do my laundry. Ryan was not here (no idea where he ended up).
I like it that many of the albergue here in Portugal are actually hostel that normal cost 30-40 euros for a private room but have pilgrim level beds for 10-12 euros. Usually that means also the same place for food especially when it is a small village.
Julie came in later. I helped her again (last night too) to puncture her blisters (difficult to reached heel area) with my needle. Like Carolina, they got them when the weather turns hot while mine was way back during the wetter days.
Today's walk is not as good (hard road walking) as the previous few days from Tomar to Coimbra.
Nice roast pilgrim dinner menu with roast pig. Superb, and only 9.50 euro. This time with Jim from UK with us.
Julie decided to take a bus to Porto tomorrow.
And then there are four...
Maybe five again if Jim join us at the end of tomorrow's walk.
There are other French walkers here too but they pretty much stayed to themselves. Then came an old Korean couple came today. They walked the Camino del Norte from Irun to Santiago then head south here. That's around 1100 km in 46 days. Tomorrow they will end their walking days in Coimbra, then a bus to Fatima and Lisbon in the coming days to end their trip.
Suddenly it is now 10 pm. No idea where all the extra hours went, probably from all the.merry making with the pilgrims.
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