We woke this morning with a long rainy day ahead of us. Ibuprofen is my new best friend at the moment and my ankle every morning would continue to plaque me. We had a great walk though! It was made even better by one of the most memorable Camino nights!
Azambuja is a pilgrim welcome spot! The ladies, Cristina and Ceu at the pilgrim hostel are angels!!!!!! When we showed up the pilgrim auberge was full (we had seen pilgrims at bus stations and true walkers are supposed to take priority) but no fear they had a back-up plan! They greeted us with open arms in front of the church and said there was a nice lady from the church who welcomed pilgrims!
We would be escorted through a cute neighborhood where Maria Rita would arrive carrying food for us!
All three of these ladies are true Camino angels!!!! Maria Rita is a widow and works for the church. She sat with us through dinner and almost fed Aynsleigh as she was so tired... We were all exhausted. We walked at least 35 kilometers today.
Cristina and Ceu were full of great, positive energy!!!! They said they had the perfect place for us to stop the next day, it was only 16 kilometers away. We instantly said,”no!”... that is way too short! We were pretty opinionated that that was not an option. Then as if a light bulb was going off over my head I looked at these two angels like, “ they know best”.
Something told me to trust their instincts. It was so weird as I did a total 180 and had such peace as they stood before me. Phone calls were made and we were set to stay at Quinta da Burra the next night!
Great food, true angels in our paths!
We needed this!
We woke up in the fire station having had a wonderful sleep. Magdalena stuck around so she could get a stamp, had she not we would have said our goodbyes last night. She had to wait for the Commander of the unit to arrive. The girls and I decided to walk a few steps backwards to a super market for some food, pastry and coffee.
Many of the supermarkets have a nice selection of pastry to be enjoyed there. As we started up the hill to the supermarket my left ankle was killing me. I couldn’t have a normal stride, I had to bring my left leg up beside my right to even walk. It was raining and with this gait I was really worried. While at the grocery store it occurred to me that this town seems to have everything, I had a good report with the commander of the fire station and thought I should see if I can get my ankle medically looked at. The pain was obvious in Sintra but today it was obvious I can’t hike without getting this taken care of.
The commander walked with me about three minutes away to a medical clinic where I begged for a cortisone shot. At the same time, I was texting one of the Emergency Room PA's back home asking his advice. Jeff (my PA) said he thinks it’s my shoes. I initially thought it was the shoes too but was in denial. The thought of getting news shoes when already on track is unimaginable! The Doctor signed off on giving me an injection that clearly wasn’t the injection I’ve had before for shoulder pain. The commander of the fire station said I should rest, she was super! She stuck with me for my clinic visit (a real quick experience, and only 35 Euros). And the girls and I had a lazy day at the fire station.
We were determined to get an early night's sleep. About ten minutes away from tucking myself into bed a Zumba instructor full of energy comes bouncing into the gym to say he had a class that was going to take place there. We thought we could entertain ourselves for an hour, it ends up behind him was an orchestra coming until 11pm!!!!!
We then went into the stairwell and fell asleep with the orchestra in the background. Not a bad way to fall asleep!
Today was a long, but fabulous day. We left Sintra by train, enjoyed coffee in Lisbon, and had to stop at the pharmacy because my left heel is in some pain all of a sudden.
We headed to the cathedral and enjoyed our walk out of town hitting an area of Lisbon we had not yet ventured to. Lisbon went on and on....
We then stopped at a grocery store and bought some supplies. We didn’t know where our heads would rest tonight and highly entertained camping out under the stars.
While having a nice pastry and coffee at the grocery store overlooking the street, we caught a glimpse of a young lady with a shell on her backpack who looked so put together. Compact pack, light clothes... you could tell she was a seasoned hiker and athlete. We left before she did, with no exchange of communication.
As we walked, Aynsleigh mentioned she thought she left her buff at the grocery store. Buffs are one of my essential items! I wasn’t convinced because I always do a double take and didn’t see it. I had images that if she had left it or dropped it that this unknown pilgrim would catch up easily to us and would maybe notice it was ours and to pick it up.
We joke we are “purist” pilgrims, our intention is to walk every inch of our hikes on foot, no cars, taxis, buses once on the Camino. If a side trip presents itself that’s different, we are specifically talking about the walk to Santiago. We do realize that is a want, and of course if the need arises and things need to be altered, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. But so far, even with the five kids last year, we stuck to that. Today probably challenged that a little. Along the river was a neat cable car opportunity that would cover 1km to 1.5 km.... so it would spare about fifteen minutes of hiking but took probably about fifteen minutes. Bad pilgrims that we are we said “it would be rude not to....” and there we were sitting on the cable car ...with the river to one side and a gorgeous boardwalk filled with life on the otherside.
We enjoyed it so much!!!!!
Immediately upon hopping off, up came the pilgrim who we had seen in the store with Aynsleigh's buff. It ended up that Aynsleigh had dropped it somewhere else from where we sat. This sweet gal brought it to us!
What an impressive young lady. We would walk with Magdelena for the remainder of the day. She is a strong hiker and I thank her for choosing our company over speed, - lucky us. She is from Poland but an Engineer in Germany. Travels well, lives well and just all around impressive! It’s gals like this my daughters are meeting. It’s been a treat having them meet lovely young women, global minded citizens. It’s wonderful seeing them in discussions with young strong women.
We had a beautiful walk, the sun started going down and when we reached “our town” where we planned to stay, it ended up there was no albergue. It was offered for us to taxi to a town that had one in which I guess we would taxi back here in the morning.... I didn’t like that idea, cable car is one thing... but not really wanting a taxi in my Camino.
Magdelena glanced at her guide book on her phone and was quick thinking, we pow wowed and agreed we could keep walking. We had all started today’s walk between 1pm and 1:30pm. She had just arrived via plane, we trained from Sintra. We made our way to Santa Irene where a young man offered to put us up with scout troop seeing that we might help. A lovely young man and crew! We instead, with their guidance, made it to the Bomberious, the Fire Station. We were greeted there by an adorable fireman and shown a gym where a pilgrim was already asleep with the only blankets offered. Strong ladies that we are we all slept off in a corner with our sleeping bags, nibbled on goodies in our packs and fell off to sleep.
In the morning we were going to start later and said our goodbyes to Magdelena knowing she has a tight schedule and is fast! She assured us we’d see her in the morning as she wanted to stick around for a stamp from the fire fighters for our credential books.
What a great day, great night and great camino friend! We are thankful for a place to put our heads as we did not see any trees that convinced us they were strong enough for our hammocks AND spaced appropriately for them.
We felt like birds being kicked out of the nest.... We loved our little hostel so much! Anna was a gem and they offered us to stay... we will be back!!!!
We are going to pay them another visit before we finally head home!
Great friends were made, tons of drawing done, games played in the big common area, wonderful food made and shared.
We woke up to a wonderful breakfast and lots of really amazing energy among the group here. We joined a tour, a free tour, to venture around. It included tidbits about the best pastry, Lord Byron’s love for the town, education on the prominent historical buildings and an amazing walk all up hill through amazing gardens. Many of the same plants actually grown in North Carolina.
We had an wonderful lunch, visited a museum that discussed the myths and legends of this fantasy spot.
As a homeschooler who follows Charlotte Mason teachings, poetry has always been important to me. The boys first memorized poem for recitation was Lord Byron’s "The Destruction on Sennacherib". So it’s super neat being in a place he loved.
