It rained through the night last night. Karis and I slept great but the water hitting the roof on our “shed” kept Mom awake. Our alarm went off at 6am and I desperately moaned that we needed another half hour. Thankfully Mom agreed. At 6:30 we were up and all feeling like we had been beaten by a bat. I couldn’t even fathom the thought of having to put my itchy, hive infested feet back inside my boots. I talked them through it and shoved them back into their sweaty chambers and off we went. All of us with unimpressed feet and legs.
The weather was so nice. Cool and overcast. We even walked with long pants on. Karis found a cat to feed some leftover ham to that she had been saving. The cat loved the ham but kept a suspicious eye on Karis.
The walk from Lavra to Vila do Conde was spectacular!! Stunningly gorgeous. I’m so glad that we were able to walk this in the morning and while feeling refreshed. Almost all of the trail was boardwalks and the beaches were unbelievably perfect.
We stopped at a small cafe for tea, juice and pastry and continued on. We saw more pilgrims today than yesterday and many more friendly people who pointed and showed us the way when we appeared to look unsure!
And a cafe that we stopped at for orange juice (and to change into shorts) there was a couple at a table nearby. They full out, blatantly stared hard at us without diverting their eyes. It was so awkward and so funny. We really have no idea why, it’s not like we are the only pilgrims to walk through! But the stares are SO bizarre!!
We wandered into Póvoa de Varzim early at about 1:30. We decided to stop walking early because the next albergue is 16km further. That seemed a little aggressive seeing as we were feeling so sore.
Just down the street from our albergue is a church. We thought we would pop in to stamp our credential. We climbed the stairs at the side as two Portuguese Women were exiting. They gestured us to go in. I opened the door to see the church was full and a wedding going on. I slowly backed my stinky, sweaty self out and tried to quietly shut the door. The Portuguese woman was still there and she was insisting that we go in. I said, “I don’t want to go in! There’s a wedding!” She aggressively insisted and the only way she was leaving is if we went in. I stepped in as quietly as I could and crossed my fingers that she left. Mom and Karis were in the door frame with me and when we popped back out we were so happy to see that she left. We hid in the stairwell for good measure for a couple minutes until we dared step out. Thankfully she was gone. We think that she thought we wanted to go in to pray but all we wanted was a stamp! 😬
We are settled into a great municipal Albergue in Póvoa de Varzim. We bought some groceries and made pasta in the kitchen with the other pilgrims. We are in a quad with a girl from the Czech Republic. She walked all the way from Porto today! We are amazed! She went to bed early and is planning to leave early. I’m sure we won’t see her again!!
Off to sleep. Hoping for an early morning ourselves.





