We finished our day yesterday with a bottle of wine on the rooftop of Hotel Oslo.
Today we will walk 23.1 K to Mealhada. We left at 5:45 to get an early jump on the day. It was dark for the first hour but there was plenty of street lighting leaving the city.
The hardest part of the walk today was having to walk 11.2K to get to our first available restroom stop. There is a saying from Camiño purists that “the Camiño will provide”….well it better start providing closer restroom stops!
One interesting side note… I went into the “Senor” WC and there was only a urinal so I used the “senora” WC and when I came out an old Portuguese lady is telling me in Portuguese that I used the wrong restroom. Then I’m badly pantomiming to her that there is no toilet in the “senor” WC …hysterical.
The good part of the walk today was mostly flat. We met a couple nice guys from Germany and there was also a group of hard core Peregrinos walking in a group from France I think. We spent a lot of time walking through the eucalyptus forest.
One borderline interesting side note is that the Camino to Santiago (yellow arrows) is in the opposite direction from those doing the Camino to Fatima (blue arrows). The Portuguese greeting that we get from most of the people we pass is “Bom Caminho”.
Only had to deal with a few brief rain showers today.
Just like the AP trail, I think we should have a trail name. Mine is “Quasi Modo” (think me, a backpack and a poncho…..nuff said). For Beth, I gave her the trail name “Pinotgrino” (a Peregrino that likes Pinot Grigio…..that’s a no brainer, right?).
Finally made it to Mealhada before the brief thunderstorm. Due to lack of accommodations in this area we are staying at a 2 star hotel above their restaurant and it has AC with a private patio.
All you need to know is that it’s possible…Wolf, Appalachian Trail hiker.