|
Arcos to Barcelos. Portugal.
|
April 8th, 2017
After my lazy afternoon a few Peregrinos arrived for the night and I ended up having dinner with 4 of them which was a nice change.
Actually it was 4 women, 2 from Holland 1 from Austria and 1 from Germany, one of who was an oboe player in the Austrian symphony orchestra.
Angelique one of the Dutch women, had done what I think she said was 20 caminos & she had a very interesting and philosophical view of things lots of stories to tell. Almost Yoda like in fact, although blond & blue eyed.
Setting off at sunup (645) to avoid the heat of the afternoon & with a packed breakfast from the hotel, I enjoyed being the only thing on the road. Locking in great movie soundtracks I was flowing along quite nicely easing into the day. (Pink Panther bought back a few memories).
This route was 20km mostly through woods & farmland down some dirt roads until hitting some well to do villages 5 clicks out from Barcelos. The scenery is really quite pretty and when in the Eucalyptus forest, the scent was really strong.
For some reason it was a hard 20 k’s from about 6 kms in. I stopped & had ham, cheese & a yoghurt for breakfast in a forest & then kind of rambled my way through to coffee time, stopping often at Roman churches or to take photos, but the bag felt uncomfortable and I couldn’t find my rhythm.
Changing the music set to Walking on Sunshine lifted my tempo to the point I was getting smiles from the locals when there was a bit of disco going down, although to be fair I did have a bit of a boogie on.
I met a few Pilgrims on the road including an older couple from Arizona who were chatty and had walked from Lisbon, but I tend to walk faster than most of them, so just chatted on my way past.
Arrived at Barcelos at 1245, to the best sight of the day, when a gorgeous young lady arriving at the church for a wedding and wearing a long flowing number with a high split, got an upward step & a breath of wind at the same time and left me searching for the Portugese word for commando.
The afternoon will be spent sightseeing around the town (particularly the church steps) which looks very pretty, before finding somewhere for dinner.
STEPS: 33,723
MLC THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Baggage. By the time you get to 50 we carry too much & either the weight of it slows you down or makes you uncomfortable if you don’t stop & readjust.
WEIGHT: 87 holding steady
PORTUGESE: 2/10. Getting better at ordering coffee entirely in Portugese now
BODY STATE: 6/10
WILLERTONS WORLD 