Tamel to Ponte de Lima – 24.0 km, 5.75 hours, Friday, 20 September

Sometimes you get just what you asked for.  Portugal needs rain and we got some last night. It’s even better that the rain was at night because, by the time we started to walk at 8:30am (after a light breakfast and the Uber from Barcelos to Tamel where we walked yesterday), the rain had stopped, the air was clean and cool. It was still overcast but it was perfect walking weather. The problem was that I was praying for rain. I never specified to God that I meant only at nighttime. An hour or so into the walk, a light drizzle started, so light we didn’t even put the rain covers on our bags until it got a little heavier a half hour later. By that time, it was “almost perfect” walking weather.  “Almost perfect” lasted an hour or so then it got even heavier and we had to put on our ponchos. We also passed a number of pilgrims at this point who were sheltering under bus stops and church porches. We are used to it though and we just kept moving. A little water never hurt nobody…. but it did drench us!

I forgot yesterday to mention the hotel we stayed in last night. I really should have told you that it was the Flag Hotel in Barcelos, just in case someone was needed to come and identify our bodies. It was definitely on the spookier side of the range of hotels we have stayed in.  First, the hotel looks like it was shoehorned into the two upper floors of a dismal four story mall – either that or it was built as an afterthought on the roof of a two story mall.  The dark hallways were decorated with moldy but flammable wood paneling and the overhead lights were triggered by individual motion sensors to light up one 5m section at a time as you walked down the hall. We found and got into our room okay but it was a very tight squeeze through the narrow entrance way. We had to put the door key in the light switch to operate the electricity in the room and it needed it badly. It was pitch black in there. Several times the lights turned off automatically and we had to feel our way to the card key to remove it and jam it in again. The drain in the sink was permanently closed which made shaving, brushing teeth, and handwashing clothes a little more difficult.  The shower was just the right size for me – if I was in the market for an upright coffin. While showering, I was always in contact with one wall and two sides of a shower curtain. The other side had the waterworks on it and if I exhaled, I was close enough to the faucet handle for my belly to turn off the water. It didn’t matter much though because the shower head was directing the water to about 50cm above my head on to the curtain behind me anyway.  In the bedroom area, there was a desk as well as about 50cm wide walkway around three sides of the bed. There was also a balcony but the door was designed to open inward but the floor level disagreed with the designer and put a stop to any escape that way.  Other than that, the room was lovely. 

Back on the trail, about 5.5km before Ponte de Lima, the rain stopped and so did we – into one of the very few cafes on this section of the Camino.  I don’t often recommend places along the way but Snack Bar Bom Caminho was exactly what we needed for a light lunch and ice cold drinks.  The young couple that run the place are so sweet and welcoming.  As we were finishing up though, three other water-logged pilgrims walked in an walked to the opposite side of the room but I recognized their backs right away.  It was Jessica, Avis and Livia from Hong Kong who we had a dinner date set up with for tonight. What were they doing there at this cafe though?  They left Tamel two hours before we did and they arrived at Bom Caminho’s at least 20 minutes after us.  It turns out that they walk pretty slowly and they also spent at least 20 minutes under cover during the hardest rain.   It’s okay though, we got to have a nice lunch AND a delightful dinner with them later in Ponte de Lima.

There was one more story from the trail today that scared me.  As you know, we are having our main backpacks forwarded each day by a transport company.  This morning, as instructed, we tagged our bags and left them in the appointed location in the lobby of the hotel. Unfortunately, the small hotel front desk was unattended at 7:30am. Anyone can walk in and take our bags.  The bags only have clothes in them but our walk would be over without them.  I was a little worried.  Periodically while walking, I checked the location of the AirTags to see if the bags had already been delivered. By 11:30am, they appeared to be still at last night’s hotel.  At 12:00 noon, it appeared that the bags were separated, one two blocks behind the hotel and one two blocks in front of it. That was scary and unexplainable. Ten minutes later, one of the bags appeared to be heading south instead of north. Ten minutes late, the other tag appeared to have moved to the other side of downtown Barcelos. What was going on?  I contacted the transport company and their only reply was that “the bags will only be deliver to Ponte de Lima between 2:00 and 2:30pm. That didn’t help at all.  Later, one bag appeared to be heading to our next accommodation but the other one stayed in Barcelos.  Ugggghhh!  What to do. That’s when we met the girls in the cafe so I didn’t do anything.  By the time we started walking again, I checked and both bags were safe, in our new accomodation. It turns out that the bags were likely at the bottom of the pile of other bags and the AirTags could only send out their location signals with great difficulty. I hate technology!

More tomorrow.  Peace y’all!

Goodnight George and Leo