Stapleton Travel Blog

Last night we had dinner with another peregrino who was staying at the Hotel, Teo from Finland. The conversation was interesting and the restaurant people took good care of us. Simple moments like that are what we like about the Camino.

Today we got on the road by 6:15 knowing this will be our longest walk in years.

It was a 26.5 K walk to our bunk house albergue in Agueda. We got caught in a brief rain shower but the walk was flat and the day was cloudy. It was a long, hard day but we got through it.

We met a bunch of new people today on the road… Jean Claude (Switzerland), Maria (Russian from Brooklyn), two young Italian guys, and Kako (Tokyo) … all of them our staying at our same albergue.

We headed into Águeda which has some kind of touristy umbrella theme in town.

We met Kako again in town and walked the final 1.5K climb to Albergue de Peregrinos Santo António.

The normal routine at all albergue stops is shower, hand wash clothes, hang to dry and relax. Tomorrow is another day.

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great”- Tom Hanks in A League if their Own

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.

Today was an 18K walk. The amount of ups and downs is surprising us. The cobblestones are taking a toll on our feet now. Hopefully we get some flat walking soon.

We stopped at a shady bench in front of a church to air out our feet. We stopped trying to go in churches since so many were closed when we started our Camiño. I tried to see if it was open and was surprised that it was.

As we got close to Coimbra, we came upon Santa Clara church and convent. Too spent at this point to explore that historic site.

We arrived in Coimbra and are treating ourselves to a stay at Hotel Oslo. We asked for a lunch recommendation and the clerk said “do you want to eat like the Portuguese people do”. How do you say no to that statement? I finally got to try “Chanfana” (Portuguese stew). Without that recommendation, we would have walked right by “Adega Paco do Conde”. We felt a lot better after getting a good meal in us.

No hotel stop is complete without the trekking pole clothesline.

We gathered up whatever strength we had left to climb the stairs to see the Se Velha Cathedral.

Afterwards we made our way down to the Monastery Santa Cruz and Beth lit some candles in memory of our son Brian Stapleton. His birthday was today.

…..everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, be kind always.

Still not sleeping much. We started earlier today around 0700. We only needed to walk 20.5K today. Beth woke up feeling lightheaded but headed out anyway. She is a strong person.

After 8K we stopped in Rabaçal to get some food and drink which helped a little bit. We met Salvatore and Viviana from Italy throughout the walk today which was nice. They were our bunk mates from last night. Salvatore gave us an apple knowing Beth was struggling today.

A short time later, we rested on a bench in the shade and were joined by 6 ten month old puppies. That helped take our mind off the walk which was surprisingly harder than we thought it would be. Puppy love.

We stopped for lunch and a tour at the Roman ruins of Conimbriga dating back to the first century. It’s the mosaic floors which is the cool attraction here.

We are settled into out Albergue which has 8 bunks but only five of us are here. Salvatore and Viviana are our bunk mates again. Tomorrow a shorter walk to the city of Coimbra.

If you’re mad go for a walk. If you’re still mad, go for another walk….Hippocrates

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.