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Tough night’s sleep last night trying to deal with our jet lag. We got upgraded to a private room though. Looks nice right?

We got a late start today which means we’ll still be walking late into the afternoon which isn’t great. We met a girl from Australia and her friend from Argentina when we stumbled down to the breakfast room.

Todays’s 23K walk was a combination of woods, trails, rocky stuff, etc. We enjoyed the various terrain but it was a very lumpy up and down walk that took its toll on us.

We were surprised to meet so many different people so far as we thought this part of the walk wouldn’t have many Peregrinos.

We met Eric and Jen from California while we were sitting off of the trail to rest our feet.

Tonight we are staying in the dorm room at Albergue O Lagareiro. Nice owner (Vítor) great place. So far there are seven of us here.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…..Jack Klingert or maybe it was Lao Tzu.

After planes, trains and automobiles, we had a tired 6K walk from Cortica to Alvaiazere.

Most of the walk was on cobblestone county lanes.

Carlos Pinheiro owns the Albergue we stayed at and he takes a lot of pride in his special “credencial” (pilgrim passport) stamp……cleaning the bathrooms…not so much.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”…..Mark Twain

Back in May 2022 we walked 9 days on the Camino Portugues from Lisbon to Cortica and had to return to the US due to a family emergency. We will be headed back to Cortica today to pick up where we left off on the Camino Portugues Central route.

Three weeks before leaving Beth suffered from excruciating sciatica pain. One week before, we got cortisone shots for our foot neuroma and then our feet got worse. Not sure if we are in shape for this now. We’ve bought better fitting backpacks to alleviate back pain that we both have and we also will be walking with two trekking poles as opposed to just one to take some of the pressure off of our lower joints. Our backpacks weigh 14 & 15 pounds with water. We’re just playing the hand we’re dealt now and see how it all comes out.

We like walking the Camino as you get to see a country at a very slow pace. Additionally, we get to meet other “peregrinos” from all over the world. It can be interesting, boring, fun, sad, lonely… It’s like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get.

Our plan for the first day is to take the red eye fight from Newark to Lisbon, metro to the train station, take the 2.5 hr train to Tomar, then half hour taxi ride to Cortica and begin our 6K walk to Alvaiazere. What could possibly go wrong?

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” ……Anthony Bourdain.

Bom Caminho.

Heading home now. My mom is in the hospital. Looks like she had a stroke.

Got out early today (0615) as it will be 26K day with almost 2500 feet of elevation. There aren’t a lot of cafe stops so we are carrying extra food and water just in case.

It turned out to be a nice mix of trails and quiet roads. We even had one local homeowner ask if we needed water. Nice

We met a bunch of new peregrinos Nania and Jessica (Australia), Sonya (Austria) Roy(UK/US) as well as 4 others. The amount of peregrinos traveling each day on these stages does appear to be 10 to 15. We don’t all walk together as we have a different walk pace. Luckily the Aussie peregrinos caught back up to us for our final 3K and made the end of our walk easier with their pleasant conversation.

We arrived at our albergue at 1:30. Quinta da Cortica – Casa da Torre. Later on Mike and David (Ireland) showed up and are our bunk mates. Patrick(UK) also came by to stay here. The place actually has a pool and it felt good to soak our feet in it.

Today was a rest day in Tomar. Beth was feeling better today. We went to visit the Convento de Cristo and Templar castle. These buildings were built from 1200 to 1500 . It is a massive labyrinth of rooms.

We actually caught up with Andy(UK/Austria) and also David and Mike (Ireland) as well. It is one of the nice things about traveling slowly.

Tomar is a pretty town with so much cobblestone. It feels good to just relax for a day. Hopefully Beth has improved enough to make it through the next 2 days as these will be the longest, steepest and most remote days that we will have on the Camino Portuguese.

Just as an side note, if you pull a string coming out of the wall in the shower, it does not operate a shower fan or light. It sets off the hotel alarm for that room.

Because it’s Sunday, most places will be closed which makes it more difficult. We caught a break as there was no rain and the peak temperature was 15 degrees cooler. Max temperature today was 75.

The first half of the day, was a lot of climbs and descents. There never seems to be a place for us to sit down so we can air out our feet. Most times we are just sitting in the dirt

At one point, we were walking down a street and at the other end was this huge dog staring at us with no one around. Luckily he did not show any interest in us as we walked by.

The second half of the day took a turn for the worse. Beth got lightheaded, etc and struggled at the end. We finally got to within a mile of our hotel and I had the hotel call a taxi to bring us in. This is not an easy Camino and we are trying to be smart about it and not walk big miles. Today was around a 24 K day. Luckily we planned a day off tomorrow.

Had a good night sleep in private home stay in Azinhaga. Today was a short 17.6 K walk to river town Vila Nova da Barquinha.

First cafe stop was in Golega. More pasteis da nata with a chocolate eclair chaser. A Macy look-a-like was resting on the cobbles nearby.

We met a friendly local who was walking with his son. He said after Tomar it will be hilly and to watch out for snakes. I said if you make noise don’t the snakes just slither away. His son said “sometimes”. Ugh.

We stopped on a bench in front of a closed albergue in Sao Caetano to air out our feet and have an apple. The albergue owner was cleaning up inside and then came out and asked if we needed to use the restroom and opened the door for us. Nice.

We came off the Camino for about a mile to stay at the Riverhouse Hotel since accommodations are not great on these stages. Feeling spoiled but that will change soon.

For lunch we had a great meal at Reiberinho restaurant. We both had a delicious seafood lunch. We had a traditional Portuguese bread soup type of side dish called Acorda. Not bad.

Decided to visit a Templar castle (Almourol) on the river. Originally built in 1200s.

Tomorrow the heat wave ends and it’s supposed to rain. Big day heading to Tomar and our first rest day.

Following the way marks out Santarem was a little difficult so we used the Camino Ninja app to make sure we were not off course.

Later on that day we were on a small road with a lot of cars wizzing close by us and it was several miles before we realized that we were not on the Camino. We eventually picked up the camino but not sure how both of us missed the waymark for that.

We finished the day again where it was over 90 degrees. Normal weather in May for Portugal is around 75. Beth is struggling with blisters on her toes each day.

We made it to Azinhaga and went to the only restaurant in town. It was over 90 degrees…..I’m talking inside the restaurant. The waitress couldn’t speak English and we don’t know Portuguese so she started to Google translate when the customer behind her said something to her in Portuguese. She picks his plate up and shows us….yes, we’ll have two of those please.

As we come out of the restaurant we met this Irish guy who struck up a conversation with us about the Camino. I then realized it was John Brierley who writes the guide books for the Caminos…..so cool. To me it was like meeting one of the Beatles.

Today we did another 20K day. Only one coffee stop at 3K mark then nothing but farmland until we hit the final 2K climb into Santarem.

We met up with Andy (UK/Austria) and walked with him and his 8 pound lighter backpack. Still huge.

I’ve got to work on my selfie face

Starting to get pretty funky. We try to avoid making eye contact with mirrors now.