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Published: September 12th 2016
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Day 14 – September 6, 2016 - Coimbra, Portugal to Mealhada, Portugal - 16.3 Miles After having a wonderful breakfast and saying goodbye to the awesome employees at Hotel Vila Gale, our day begins. We start by following the busy street under the bridge for the I-10 before turning right onto another busy secondary road. As we proceed up the road we pass under the railway bridge and continue to the petrol station where we turn onto an old asphalt road leaving Coimbra behind us. We now walk alongside an overgrown canal parallel to the rail line.
As we continue walking we soon pass through the small village of Ademia and then onto Fornos. While we were looking at a sign in Fornos for Casa Morais which was formerly a medieval pilgrim inn, we are greeted by Rosa who invites us to her home which turns out to be the Casa Morais (casa turismo rural). Here we met her sister Palmira and the ladies offer us coffee and brownies. In visiting with the ladies, we learned they both had lived in the United States -- Rosa in Cleveland, OH and Palmira in Scranton, PA in the 80’s for four
months where they trained for the CIP (Concierge International Program).
After bidding Rosa and Palmira goodbye we proceed out of town and pass by a pasture of goats before walking up a steep hill that of course must then go back down (great on the knees). As we walk through the small village of Adoes we pass by a husband driving a tractor pulling a cart with his wife sitting on top of a load of firewood.
Upon entering the town of Santa Luzia, we pass by an old cart loaded with what appeared to be different types of squash. We finally find the Manuel Julio restaurant where we stop to have a cold drink and a short break. After leaving the restaurant we are so excited to be leaving the busy N1 behind us and be on a woodland path. Shortly after we enter the woodland path we pass by another husband and wife bringing in firewood for the winter.
While walking through the forest we enjoyed the smells of the eucalyptus trees and the sounds from the cicada signing. About half way on the woodland path we come upon a dog just lying in the
road and when he sees us he gets up and leads us into Mala where we stop for lunch.
After lunch we proceed on and soon reach the small village of Vimjeira where we meet two pilgrims headed to Fatima – one from Transylvania and the other from France both looking very hot and tired. Upon leaving Vimjeira the road now drops down to a path that winds through olive trees and grape vines.
When we reached the little town of Rotatoria, we spotted a park with a picnic table in the shade that was calling out to us to come and relax as the temperature was over 100 degrees. While sitting at the picnic table these two cute little boys came over and showed us their pet chickens.
Now that we have cooled off some, we leave the park and pass by the statue for god Bacchus who is sitting astride a wine barrel. It’s not much longer before we reach the city of Mealhada where we find a little café and stop for a cold beer that sure did taste good since we both were so hot. After finishing our beer, we walked by what
I named the “Iowa Hawkeye Pig” and then a yellow metal figure of a pilgrim before reaching out hotel where we crashed for the day.
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Norma Wiebe
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This area looks very nice. Been to Fargo all weekend for football. My nephew the wide receiver was a star but the team lost in overtime by a point. Very sad