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Published: November 2nd 2017
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Poem by Fernando Passoa written on our room's wall Saturday, October 28th, Tomar, 2nd day, Hostel 2300 Thomar, 15 kms. Two weeks ago we got on a plane for Lisbon. I have to say that so far the Portuguese Camino has been an entirely different experience than the Camino Frances last year. There are much fewer fellow pilgrims, much less support along the path (places to eat and stay), less knowledge even of the Camino by the Portuguese people. Today it began to feel more “Camino-ish.” It got hillier (downright steep at times), with more off-road hiking through forests and olive groves and along rivers. We were walking towards our half-way point, and the heat and hills were getting to me. We had 2 alternate routes to choose from ahead of us, and we took the one with the café where we could wait for our ride back to Tomar. Unfortunately, it was highway walking with narrow shoulders. At the café we called our ride and was told it would be 45 minutes (not the usual 20 minutes). Almost 2 hours later our ride finally picked us up. We got to a vigil Mass at 6:30 in a beautiful old cathedral. It surprised me that it was packed – it
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River Nabao from Tomar bridge. seemed to be a Mass to honor scouts. There were about 60 of them, boys and girls. The priest kept stopping to address the kids – Charlie said there were 4 homilies! An hour and a half later we finally got out. Hostel 2300 Thomar is an interesting place to stay – lots of artwork on the walls, and in the hallways messages written by past guests (we added our names). We were in the Fernando Pessoa room, one of Portugal’s most famous writers who wrote as almost 100 different personalities - “heteronyms” he called them. Some say he just created them; some say he had multiple personality disorder.
Sunday, October 29th, Alviázere, O Bras Residential,16.2 kms. Another hot day. We were brought back to where we left off yesterday. Today was mostly back roads and a little highway walking – 1 moderate traffic, 1 not many cars at all. We walked through eucalyptus forests and passed old cork trees and through several small villages. We missed our turn once and was quickly corrected by Google Earth and a couple who stopped to point in the right direction. We are staying at a residential – I think we’re the
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Templar Castle - our hostel is on this street. only ones here. They have a restaurant, and we booked a 7 pm pilgrim’s meal for dinner. We showed up at what we thought was late – 7:15 and got scolded. Then we discovered we were early, that Portugal had switched back to standard time (who knew?). They were very gracious and explained it to us (mostly in Portuguese) after we sat down – we were the only ones there in the restaurant. We had an incredibly satisfying meal – Charlie an assortment of different meats and me a whole grilled fish, both of which were delicious – the best meal we’ve had so far. I’ve never eaten a fish that was looking back at me before. And I drank a little too much vino tinto.
Monday, October 30th, Ansião, Solar do Rainha, 15 kms. We had much the same scenery and weather as yesterday. Up and down hills, the last 2 really rocky and hard on the feet – narrower paths through the forest and olive groves. The olives are being harvested now. It seems like they harvest the olives and prune the trees way back at the same time. According to Brierley there was a café in
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Medieval bridge Ola, 3.3 kms. from our start, but he lied! Nothing! Nada! Nothing that looked like it used to be a café. I felt betrayed. It was a long slog without a café or bathroom all day until we got to Ansião. We’re again the only guests at the Residence/Restaurant. We had a nice dinner here. The meals in Portugal are so huge that we asked to split one. I think they gave us twice as much! Mama (the cook) brought out her pumpkin jam to sample and was so proud of it. They washed our clothes for free – only they weren’t done until morning.
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Nicole
non-member comment
So beautiful!
Charlie and Mary, Thank you for the pictures and allowing us to "walk" with you in spirit. This looks like such an amazing experience. Praying for you guys. Please keep our kids in your prayers as we leave them for the Weekend. Much love! Rob and Nicole