Last day in Portugal

Woke up this morning to furtive rustling and lights on too early- sleeping in hostels means you must resign to the fact that everyone is on their own journey and your timetable may not concur with the other pilgrim’s schedules- our haste to get on the road forgives them, we say a morning prayer of thanks for a safe arrival last night, look forward and off we go! We first stopped in at the beautiful sanctuary atop of the mountain- dedicated to San Luzia- the church and the views outside were magnificent. Today we hiked and hiked- 17.7 miles! - strenuous going through some mountain paths with rocks and boulders to scramble over- also altitude changes and some serious uphills climbing over and down - we encouraged each other and leaned in to this trial. At last we made it back to the coast and some small villages- at one café we were treated when a local woman arrived with a homemade tart de Santiago and insisted that we all try some and then refused to let us pay her- such generosity! By the end of the day we were exhausted- we arrived in A Guarda at 7:45 pm- such a long day! But we certainly appreciated the beauty and kindness of Portugal and its people- we enjoyed a typical Portuguese dinner in the down square and collapsed gratefully into our hostel- tomorrow Spain!!Read more