Day 2: Vala do Carregado

Day 2 on the Camino. Our intent was to walk 25 kms to Vala do Carregado and, from there, take the train to Azambuja where we had confirmed reservations for the night. We would then take the train back to Carregado the following morning to pick up walking where we'd left off.

It was another hot day, 27+ degrees, and there were many stretches of walking along roads with a fair bit of traffic, but very little shoulder room for pilgrims. We stopped for lunch in Vila Franca de Xira where I discovered that "sopa pedra" (stone soup) is a very bad choice for vegans since it contains a mishmash of meats including bacon, chorizo, and pork rind just to name a few.

We arrived at Carregado to discover we had just missed a train and so we had to wait half an hour for the next one, which arrived an additional 12 minutes late. When we finally got to Azambuja, we were all looking forward to a nice shower and a glass of something cold and wet. However, when we got to our accommodations, we discovered that our confirmations were bogus and they had no room at the inn. In fact, there was no room at any inn in Azambuja. We had no choice but to go... and drink beer... as we searched for something a little more comfortable than a park bench for the night.

In the end, Anita found us something a short Uber ride from Carregado so we hopped back on the train to go back to where we were and when we finally made it to our new accommodations it was well past my usual dinner hour and we were feeling tired, dirty and very hungry.

We were rewarded with a delicious meal at X Food - Anita and I both had a scrumptious mushroom and asparagus risotto.

We never imagined it would be so difficult to get accommodations, especially since we've hardly seen any other pilgrams on the Camino. As much as I would have liked to have the freedom of booking rooms as we go, we decided that to be prudent, we'd better book several days in advance.

I wish I could say that all's well that ends well but the truth is, none of us had a good night's sleep due to the incessant barking of a neighborhood dog. It was ruff, ruff, ruff...Leer más