Day 14 - To Albergaría-a-Velha

Walked today: 21.4 km
No of steps: 27,883 steps
Total walked: 209.5 km

Up at 6 am, on the road by 7 am, lots of fog and in the dark. The Lady of the albergue left us a breakfast bag with a juice, a sandwich and an apple.

We walked a couple of kilometres in the dark and found a pastelería open.  Our friends, Mary Joy, Andres and Ori were there.  We had our hot drinks and by the time we finished there was some light.
We walked for hours on pavement, mostly in narrow streets in small villages.  This went on for about 10 km with gentle slopes and nice weather.

Then, when fatigue was getting to us - it is much harder to walk with the backpack - and the feet started to hurt, we got to a very steep and long slope down to the Rio Vouga, very rough, and then, we had to go back up.  That is when I wonder why are we doing this.  Keep reminding myself that part of the pilgrimage is the penance that goes with it.

Once we got to the top, we still had 5 km to go.  Those were very long kilometres.  The blister in my heel is very large and it hurt with each step.  Later Wonder Woman checked my feet and of course, blister number two is here, though a lot smaller than number one.

When we got to the outskirts of Albergaría, we found a Supermercado with take out food but also with tables.  We had a magnificent lunch of octopus with rice and salad for only 5€.

Another half hour took us to our hostel, Casa de Alameda, very old building with very high ceilings, old furniture but clean beds and renovated bathrooms and very economic.

Shower, trip to farmacia for more compeed for the blisters, to laundromat and to the bus station to get tickets to Porto.  Finally pasta (very good) for dinner at a pastelería.

Then tried to find a room in Porto for tomorrow.  No go. Prices over $200 a night and even then it seems all hotels are full.  We tried further north and "nada".  One more try and we found a room at a decent price all the way north to Barcelos.  This is changing our schedule completely and reduces significantly our walking days and distance.  This may be a way for God to tell me that I may have to take it easier if I want to finish this pilgrimage.

We have a friend in Barcelos, a young woman, Manuela, who is in charge of welcoming pilgrims at the church of San Antonio de Lisboa.  We already agreed to look for her.

We will be visiting San Antonio's church and we put ourselves under his protection and ask him to pray for us.

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