Day 12 Agueda to Albergaria-a-Velha 16km

Dinner last night was great. Mary, with help from Fleur, put together a pasta dish with tomato, chorizo, and lardons, accompanied by a green salad and fresh crusty bread, to feed the five who sat down. And at the same time she helped the struggling Frenchmen to cook their dinner. There was plenty left over and a young polish couple, we have seen for the last day or so, mopped up the rest of it, and supplied us with fresh melon for dessert.

Traditional tiled house near Mourisca do Vouga

Before we started we had a slight fear that it would be difficult to communicate with the Portuguese as we passed through the countryside and villages. This has not been the case. There are more English speakers than we thought. Also, when we want to enquire about something on the street, we tend to target younger people as they all appear to have some English. Another source has been the staff in pharmacies - for some reason they all seem to have good English. Then, Fleur seems to pick up more words each day, so we are managing.

Different Camino waymarker near Pedacaes

An interesting aspect of the walk is that as we walk north, others are walking south. These are pilgrims going to Fatima. We saw many of them today. They are easy to pick out as they all wear high visibility jackets - they don't have large backpacks like us so I presume their baggage is being taken by van.

Kieran and Fleur at lake near Pedacaes

Today's walk was wonderfully short. It was mostly on quiet country roads, and the hotel had supplied a good breakfast so there was no long stop at a cafe. We arrived at Albergaria for 12 noon at the Albergue Rainha D Teresa (wonderful pilgrim dormitory accommodation) - NB: it does not open until 2pm but it's worth the wait. All the usual suspects are here and Stephen (who is a chef) is cooking for all of us tonight.

Front garden

Getting closer to Porto. However, the forecast is for temperatures to drop over the next few days to the low 20s. I'm sure we can manage that!