Day 4 – Day off in Santarem

A day off from the walking. Wandered around Sanrarém – an old fortified city on the top of a hill that survived many attacks and earthquakes. It has many examples of gothic architecture.

Camino Tales:

55km in one day is a lot. Stack that with 37° temperatures and it can be a bitch.

About 45km into the walk, I was starting to experience the symptoms of heat exhaustion.

The next shade I find (walking under the sun in open farmland) is the end of a grape row- not unlike that which you would see in Sonoma county.

I throw the pack down, drink some water, eat a banana and a piece of scrumptious trader lies dark chocolate and lay down to rest with a basic awareness of the drone of farm machinery in the background.

Not 10 minutes later while I was blissfully disturbing all of the wildlife in the area with my snores m, the tractor exited the row I happened to be snoozing when a leaf-trimming-spinning-blades-of-decapitation-and-death tractor exited said row and came inches from the snoozing pilgrim.

Now you must understand that under normal conditions, anyone would move quickly, but in a fatigued, snoring state, my movement was – a miracle.

After giving the tractor operator a freight – never mind my own, we chatted amicably 30 minutes while I learned all about his vineyard and it’s operations.

Friendships made in challenging circumstances.

Day 2 – Aspirate to Vila Franca de Xia

Maybe if I threaten to skip the -next- reported bad section, I’ll actually do it all. I’m behind schedule but there is something really nice about saying ‘screw the schedule’.

Another 20km walk today. This one was

Much better as -most- of it was on trails or country roads. Then there was the 4km or so on that busy-ass-no-shoulder-heavy-transport-vehicles-waytoofast-waytooclose road that was scary as shit.

Day 1: Lisboa -> Alpriate

Day One – an easy stroll in the heat and on hardtop. My feet are not happy with the asphalt. Unfortunately, it looks like the next 70km is on similar surfaces although not as industrial as what I just walked.

There’s an aviation museum tomorrow at 10km and a nice comfortable train ride to the next albergue. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Things to note:

Rural Portuguese is NOT the same as metropolitan Portuguese

My Spanish is not getting me as far through heavier accents, less exposure to Spanish and local colloquialisms

No worries – just another challenge. It’s a game to see if I get what I think I am ordering. And if not, I’m trying something new.

2017 Camino Portuguese – Lisbon, the start of a new day

It’s always a bit disorienting flying to a new city, taking the metro and popping up somewhere. Which exit you came out of and which direction you are heading the first (and sometimes the second) time is something that you must figure out before randomly following the crowd down a street.

As I was intent on getting to my hostel, lots of people were taking a picture. So I turned around and found this elevator and room above. Not sure what it is/does but I’ll go back in the daylight and find out.

I have a whole day to explore this part of Lisboa before I head out on Thursday. If things go well on the camino, I will have 2-3 days extra to wander around more.

Enjoyed he too-warm weather and thankful it will be cooler tomorrow when I have my pack on.

I’ll head out again tonight and see if the city came to life other than the shops. Most bars and Places to listen to fado were closed.

Tomorrow will likely be a short day but I will end up traveling 60Km. I’m going to bypass the industrial suburbs of Lisbon and take the train to Azambuja. Then again, I might not. I guess tomorrow will tell.