Tuesday September 23, 2013

We left Albergaria under sunny skies at about 9:15.  The forecast was for more rain, but the plan was to get to Coimbra by the most rural route we could find.  Ralf plugged Coimbra into the Garmin and road cycling and away we went.  The direct route along the N1/IC2 was approximately 60kms, the safe route was 74kms.   It was a lovely days cycling, through lots of small villages and towns, a little hilly but nothing major to worry about.  The car drivers, even in the small villages had little regard for us or other vehicles on the road.

We stopped at a small village for lunch where there were already four “pilgrims” walking the Portuguese Camino.  Two were from Kingston, Ontario and the other two from Perth Australia, a third couple walked by us as we were chatting – one was from Quebec and her partner was from Latvia.  We had a chat about their route and they all seemed to be enjoying Portugal, except for the traffic.  The lady from Kingston, said she had a near miss with a car yesterday.

The Portuguese really like their tiles.

Occasionally we come across diversion signs.  We will often ignore them and hope we can get across the road works.  Nine times out of ten this works out for us and the road workers, wave us through.  We had to take the diversion on this occasion!

We arrived in Coimbra at about 3:30 and noticed the train station.  I went in and asked about trains to Lisbon, there are trains leaving Coimbra tomorrow.  Ralf and I discussed whether we should take the train and decided to “get the hell out of Dodge”.

After we left the train station, we tried to find the pension that the Australian woman had told us about.  But couldn’t work out how to get up the steep cobble stoned streets to the main square.  We spotted a lady with a map and asked her where she got it.  This lady was from Quebec.  We chatted to her for a while about her vacation and our adventure.  She had also noticed the extreme poverty as they were travelling through Portugal.

We went to the YHA and spent a couple of extra Euros for a private room, then we got a discount for being “pilgrims”.  We made our own supper and for the first time in a long time we are on budget!

Tomorrow, we are either heading for Lisbon, Castelo Branco, (Portugal) or Bodejas (Spain)!!