Friday, May 15, 2015

Coimbra to Mealhada May 15 - 24/25kms

Another 6:00am start but this time into a decidedly cold morning. I was pretty layered up for the first few hours but it was refreshing to walk in a cooler temperature and a chilling breeze. This was a fairly unremarkable walk this morning. Our first cafe stop was welcomed but they only had herbal infusion tea, bitter and not much use in getting one revved up for twenty more kilometres. We passed some school kids waiting for their bus and, when a huge double decker tour bus pulled up to collect them, we couldn't help but think of our kids bumping along in their old yellow school buses. Then we met the pastry truck - another brilliant idea along the camino! Now we had a bit of a sugar high as a pick me up.

The walk this morning was not particularly long or hard but, for some reason, I felt like I was moving through peanut butter all day. My feet are feeling pretty good although, sadly, Dayton's are a little worse each day and that is tough but he just keeps soldiering. Even after stopping at a Super Marché and the Post Office, we were in our room at the Residenciale Oasis by 12:15pm. In our opinion, this hotel certainly lives up to its name. We have a huge room with both a single and a double bed and an equally huge private patio terrace exposed to the afternoon sun and perfect for drying our laundry. We took advantage of this to wash and dry as much as possible because often hotels don't have anywhere to hang stuff up to dry.

The beauty of this oasis is that it also includes a restaurant, one that specializes in the roast piglet for which this area is renowned. I don't have to reiterate that this is of interest to me only as a comment of information. We did indulge the proud chef by taking a picture of his roasted wonder. I have discovered the satisfying vegetable Portuguese soups and, with warm rolls fresh out of the oven, that was ambrosia for me. Eating a late lunch seems a better idea than finishing eating at 8:30 or 9:00pm and then going straight to bed on a full stomach.

Once again, and maybe for the last time, our friends from Malta are staying at the same hotel so maybe instead of dinner we will share a light dinner or just a cup of tea or glass of wine and have a quiet night. Tomorrow it promises to be back up into the 30s C so that early start will be critical to getting ahead of the heat.

 

The friendly pastry truck and 'pastrista.'

 

 

Our patio / laundry, right off our room.

Dayton's dinner tonight!!!!!

The local school bus.

 

 

2 comments:

  1. A cool day at last. Happy that you were able to find a nice spot to rest and clean up a bit. Interesting looking entree...Pass the soup please..Keep smiling.

    John and Robin

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  2. I can't see any pig's ears, Dayton eat them or Karen? Cheers. J.

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