8 June 2024
Saturday walk
Of course, here is the corrected version of your text in English:
I walk the route from Alvaiazere to Casa da Lima, stage 7-8 from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela. This is the route that pilgrims take before they knock on our door. Together with my friend, I start at the Albergue of Carlos Pinheiros. He is famous for his great wax stamps and a large Templars graffiti on his albergue wall in Alvaiazere. I ask Carlos which way we need to go because I know I will get lost; when I walk with Inge, it means I am not paying attention to the signs. And yes, within minutes, after seeing only one sign, we are lost—no camino signs, nada. We decide to follow the street, and our Google Maps will get us to Ansiao, but even then, we miss the dirt road. After a while, a man in a car tells us we are walking the ‘wrong’ way. We have a chat with him, follow his route, and finally see the Compostela signs again! We pass a pilgrim who started at the Albergue this morning. Later, we also see other pilgrims. I decide to talk to each one of them to tell them about Casa da Lima because there are not many pilgrims in our house yet.
Meeting other pilgrims on our way
We pass a group of three people who ended their caminho day and stayed in Ansiao. I tell them we are heading to another village where I live and where I have a house for pilgrims. For them, it was too far. It is lunchtime. We have a nice, long lunch at our favorite restaurant in Ansiao: Sabores de Avenida. Next to us, three young pilgrims from America are also having lunch. One of them has a very small Portuguese-English dictionary, and another is walking in a black garb. He is a priest and proudly shows us his beautiful stamp from Albergue Pinheiros; for priests, Carlos adds a small rosary to his wax stamp. They also tell us that they walked from Fatima to Alvaiazere yesterday. That’s a long way, almost 50 km. They laugh, saying they do these crazy things.
I also do unusual things today. While the rest are still enjoying their dessert and coffee, I quickly head to the hairdresser around the corner. If I’m the only one there, I’ll be finished in no time. But if there is somebody else, it will take a long time, and I’ll have to skip it and continue our walk. Luckily, I am the first after lunch, and with my short hair, I quickly continue our caminho to Casa da Lima.
Heavy rain for a short while
Ansiao is located in the middle of our walk. When we pass Venda do Brasil, it starts to rain. After sitting and waiting at the gas station for a short while, we continue walking and arrive in Vale Florido. This is our endpoint for today. We have a birthday party with friends close to our house. We eat some cachorro and other Portuguese snacks and call it a day. We definitely walked 30 km.
Friendly note next day
The next day we are not at home but when we come back, we see a friendly note on a small piece of paper. They met us on the way yesterday and thanked us for the nice garden where they rested and sat down, just now. There was a drawing of three people on the note, so I knew who they were.
No benches in Portugal!
It is true, there are no benches or places to sit down and rest alongside the caminho in Portugal. Sometimes you see a place but full in the sun, so you’ll skip it. You just sit on the floor, on a stone, trunk but… When you pass Ribeira de Alcalamouque, you are welcome to rest in our garden with a table and chairs!
