Labruge

Last night, after a short trip to the local mercado, where we purchased bread, tomatoes, salad leaves, Philly, peaches, yoghurts and a large bag of crisps (oh, and a beer each) we very happily made our way back to our room and ate a simple, but hearty supper! After showering and repacking ready for our next day, our first camino day, we were flat out by 2200 (well, I was, Julie, not so 😴).
We left our room at 0900 this morning as we didn't have to be at our next stop in Labruge until 1500, and with only 18km to walk (ahem), that was tons of time! Our walk was fabulous and we strolled along for about 6km until we reached Matosinhos, where we stopped for our second breakfast, the first being yesterday's yoghurt and a bread roll. My second was some sort of thing with ham and chorizo inside and a caffeine kick with a coke zero, Julie's was a cake and coffee 😋. Sid and Mog managed to get stuck in, as well! Then it was back on the sidewalk and a stamp at the information office, where we came upon the mourning ladies, fantastic bronze sculptures remembering a tragic storm when 152 crew lost their lives leaving 72 widows and 152 orphans 😥. We met a couple of Swiss German ladies on bikes who wanted to know how to get to the bridge that took us over the rio Leça and, between us, and using English, my basic school girl German and Google maps, we managed to show them the way! We continued walking over the bridge and through Matosinhos until we found a lovely little chapel where we stopped again for a drink and a look out to sea, and another bilingual chat with the ladies. We watched a couple of divers and were a little worried about one who seemed to be being washed by the waves a little too close to the rocks! He obviously wasn't worried, though, so we left him to his snorkelling and joined the boardwalk, the start of a great walk to Labruge on bouncy planks of wood that were good for the knees 😄. Timing was good and we were on track to arrive at our accommodation by 1500ish, so we stopped for another coke and an ice cream - much needed!
We also passed some gorgeous little fisherman's cottages and, if you look closely, you can see the cat nestled amongst the nets😂.
Continuing on our way, we reached the turn off for Labruge so I switched on the Airbnb message for directions. BIG MISTAKE!😂😂😂 It took us inland for a few kilometres, that was fine, but then directed us across fields of some crop or other🙄. Hmm... what to do? Actually, using Google maps was a good idea and brought us to our night's accommodation, with just an extra 3+ kms walked 🙄😂. Should have known😂.
Our room is very nice, and we've managed to handwash some smelly clothes (not easy when there's no plug in the sink!) and it's so warm it's already nearly dry 👏. I must admit to walking most of the way today with yesterday's wet knickers pinned to the back of my rucksack. You can take the girl out of Liverpool...😂
We were very sensible and stocked up on provisions before we reached our room, and have enjoyed tuna, tomatoes, bread and an orange for supper. With, of course, a beer. Wouldn't be a camino otherwise, would it?
The little village we're in is lovely, surrounded by farmland (and don't we know it - tractors and smells...😱😄) but has a lovely church and an unusually large cemetery which seems to be having a makeover by the church commitee ladies. Fresh flower arrangements were being laid on graves and the whole place was being swept clean. Wonder what for?
We've planned our route for tomorrow. Just 22kms... Yeh, right 😂😂😂Read more