Dinner last night with Olivier and, another French couple and a Brazilian guy Aurelius (Olivier's room mate). When I return to my room I discovered I too had room mates, two backpacks besides the other double bed. Two blonde ladies came in later after I had just fallen asleep. Hard to know where they are from judging from their whispers. Good thing non of them took showers (maybe they plan to do it in the morning).
27 km today, much like yesterday.
It was hard to keep track of the new people walking today as there are many starting from Porto and they kept coming and going, some slowed down to my pace to chat for a while. Yup, I don't think it's the heel now but the tendons around there. 😣
Darn, it might like that all the way to Santiago.
Yay! The lady at the cafe this morning understood my coffee order (cafe galāo), probably because of my stuck nose early in the morning. Portuguese is hard for me to enunciate especially those nasal sounding vowels.
The bridge in the morning is the reason why I chose the central route. 13th century, comes with everything, ducks, mist above the water, etc...
With the heel issue and slight pain, my engine is only at 70 percent. The 200 km marker 12 km before Barcelos.
I had lunch at a place with no pilgrims (only local) next to the gas station with around 8 km to go, the cafe/restaurant at the end of town. Most of them stopped at the fancier first cafe in town. Saw a local young man eating breaded pork cutlet. I want the same! Normally lunch is a small sandwich and/or nut/raisins/muesli-bar for me so when the opportunity and timing presents itself, another heaven. For my cutlet I chose veg and rice, plus coke and coffee after that. I got slightly more than 4 Euros change when I pay with a 10 euros. Is that even possible?
For the last few km I was chatting/walking with a young German Leon? (still in university). Decided to try the association's albergue together with him (probably like 6-8 euros). It was full. He checked his phone guide and said there is municipal one another km or so into the city of Barcelos. Not me (especially with the heel), when told there was a hostel 30 meters away I jumped at it. 15 euros including breakfast, 3 beds a room, out of Leon's budget. He moved on. Our conversation will have to continue another time, provided we see each other again.
One backpack was already there in the room. Some washing on the sink (a patio to hang our clothes to dry) and heavenly hot shower later, when I got out, there is Olivier on the 3rd bed. Later, we see who took the first bed, Aurelius from Brazil. We never saw each other at all walking today. Such is the camino.
Since I had lunch, it will be a simple dinner for me before bed. I will cross the bridge to the north side of Barcelos tomorrow. It's 34 km or 37 km tomorrow to Ponte Lima depending on which guide is used. No way many here including myself (my situation) will do the stretch. That could be situation for lodging vacancy on the small places before Ponte Lima. Let's see then, tomorrow is another day....
