Pousaflores

Finally! A break in the weather.

Today was much more comfortable with a high of about 70°, but was cooler than that while I was walking. Most of the day there was also cloud cover keeping the hot rays of the sun away. It even lightly rained a bit. Todays walk was on country roads and wooded paths. Although today was the farthest that I've walked so far on the Camino it was easier than some shorter days because of the cooler temperatures.

I started out walking at 6am with Alain from France who had stayed at the same albergue as me. We caught up with Craig from the UK who I had met a couple of days ago in Tomar. We were all walking at different paces, but met up 19 km into the walk at the first café that we found open.

Alain and I stopped at Albergue O Lagareiro in Alvorge where I had reserved the only private room. It turned out that we are the only two here tonight.

The albergue is attached to the only restaurant in this town of 1200, and since it was 1:30 on Sunday it was super busy. It took a while to get the attention of the owner and finally get the key to my room.

After a shower I took a short nap. When I woke up I found Alain who told me that he wasn't sure what was happening for dinner, since the restaurant was closing in ten minutes at 5:00. Furthermore, there were no stores open to buy food. I was starting to worry that I wouldn't be able to eat until sometime tomorrow!

The owner of the place doesn't speak English, but fortunately speaks French, so Alain was able to translate for me. After some conversation between those two I was offered either beef or octopus for dinner. I chose the beef, which came with vegetables, potatoes and chocolate mousse for dessert. I also got a bottle of chocolate milk and packaged pastries to take with me for breakfast.

The whole thing was just such a strange interaction. I'm just happy that I got to eat tonight!

Despite the strangeness, I would definitely recommend this place, since the facilities seem really new, and it's the nicest and cheapest room at 25€ that I've stayed in.Read more