18k to Rabacal

              Tiny Portuguese hamlets

Nice little park. Did you bring the picnic? 

Nice walking 

Once again the grapes are ripe!

Some observations. There is so much fruit just dripping off the vines and hanging heavily from the trees.  They have gardens filled with fat pumpkins, squashes and gourds.  Apple trees,  lemon and lime, figs and raspberry bushes.  It brings back memories of childhood before everyone just didn't want to deal with rotting fruit in their yards and subsequently cutting them and our way of living down.

I love the church bells ringing in every town.  Sometimes they even play what sounds surely to be a hymn! There are roosters crowing around every corner at all hours and yes, dogs barking.

Old men sitting in doorways swatting flies.  Families in cafés speaking in their loud and demonstrative ways. The smells are indescribable. ..in a good way.

Today we took a round about way to get into the small town of Rabacal.  We went through a pretty little village called Alvorge, which has a cafe,  bank,  mini Mercado and a brand new albergue for any future Portuguese walkers who may be interested in alternative accomodation.  The Camino path does not seem to take the most direct route.  I learned this as I sought to cheat and check my GPS to see how much further.  2 miles or 48 minutes?  Ok, that's doable even though my feet hurt like hell. An hour and a half later after winding around fields of grapes and whatnot, cursing under my breath at John Brierley and the Camino,  we arrive at a cafe!  Awesome! We could have walked along the main road and gotten in an hour earlier.  Two large Sagres for one euro twenty made us forget all that. We stumble down the street and find 3 other pilgrims waiting outside the Casa de Turisimo.   A German couple and Ellen from Belgium who stayed at the same hotel as us the night before in Ansaio. We didn't have to wait long for the person to arrive who would check us in. We got a nice private room with a bathroom.  Lovely!  So far on this Camino,  we have not needed to use our sleeping bags at all.  Even the alburgue beds have sheets and blankets! I've not had to use my camping towel either!  Cardboard towels at every stop. Better than my small square from REI. Sweet!

The room was sunny so drying laundry was a snap. Showers and a stop at the Mercado across the street for a bottle of good Duro Tinto for a couple of euro, some supplies for tomorrow's lunch and we were set.

Met Ellen and walked to the corner café. Soup, delicious ham and cheese omelet and wine served in Terra Cota jugs and cups ended our day. Tomorrow we will try to split another stage in half.