12 March 2024
Our first pilgrim arives
Our first pilgrims guest calls me! She is on my Ladies-in Portugal-FB group, so she is not a total stranger. She has her own company and works as a (Dutch) guide for tourists in Lisbon.
It is her first ‘caminho’ and she just wanted to know some things all pilgrims are curious about. For example if you need a pilgrims passport and where you could get them. I told her about this pilgrims book, you could buy in churches or in the pilgrims hostels. I don’t have them yet. She replied with something like: “You have your first booking”. This was a super surprise. So, I need to rush to make Casinha da Lima ready for the first knock on the door.
First mattress arrived
And what a coincidence: The first mattress arrives also. One bed is ready, exactly the same day. Almost all the ingredients for a stay are present. The fire extinguisher, the signs, which light up in dark for this extinguisher and the emergency exit etc. I will not bore you with these details. Other more important stuff such as reading lights, chair, place to sit, hang your clothes and curtains to sleep well are all waiting to be used.
I was just preparing the signs of our Casa da Lima alongside the route. Now, I will bike to the points to put the ones for the Santiago route there quickly. This way she and other pilgrims after her, will not be lost. But I need to ask permission from some neighbouring people to have signs on their walls of the garden, it will take a while. The pilgrims just pass our house, without knowing they could sleep at our Casa da Lima. No problem. We take our time here. In time everyone will know where we are. And in the meantime, I am just resting from a relocation, and a renovation.
Casinha da Lima is open
We didn’t set a date or have a deadline to receive pilgrims. No use planning if your builder doesn’t plan and doesn’t have deadlines.
But it is easy, this date when Stephanie arrives, is our openings date.
It is very rainy this week, actually it is raining this whole month, so Stephanie is very brave just ignoring that detail. Luckily it is very warm in our ‘Casinha da Lima’, so it is ready for her.
The rain stopped
You just have to go, and throw away the weather forecast from your phone, that thing just gives you stress. It is dry since the day she left Sunday!
After three dry days Stephanie arrives. She saw my two signs on the way but passed my house because there is no sign yet. Then she sees three bikes parked outside, and she thinks: “These are the Dutch I am looking for”. She walks back and when she hears me speaking Dutch in the garden, she knows it is Casa da Lima, in… what a strange name: Ribeira de Alcalamouque.
Meeting two special ladies
Getting to know Stephanie for just 10 minutes, a car honks the horn in our normally quiet dirt road to Santiago de Compostela.
“Who is that?” It is a quiet place with only tractors and pilgrims passing by.
It is another lady from that FB-group, with her dog. Obviously she stayed in Lisbon at Stephanie’s place and forgot to give the keys back to her and by coincidence she is staying in Figueiro dos Vinhos, near my place… just a half hour drive. Still with me?
We chat for a while. It is Lia, it is great to meet the ladies from a ‘digital’ group’. She tells me there is a lunch with other ladies in Coimbra coming Friday, she organizes it. I saw that announcement on FB but forgot all about it. But now I know. Hope to meet more ladies on Friday!
