Day 7 Saturday, 4/15/17
Rabacel to Coimbra - a 32 km day!
In the morning we had a most
wonderful, full breakfast (probably the only one on this Camino) at the Casa
Bonita albergue. The owner took our
orders and customized whatever we wanted, omelets, etc. Along with the egg concoctions, she brought
juice, yogurt, bread and coffee. We were
all stuffed and spoiled by her.
After that spectacular breakfast we
faced the longest day ever, but we didn't yet know it. The plan we had in mind was originally to
walk 11 km to Conimbriga and stop there to see, what they say, is the most
important Roman ruin site in Portugal.
Then we would take a 2.4 km detour to Condeixa a Nova, a town with
plenty of hotel options, and even a posada.
Others have said to be sure to try staying at a posada in Portugal. This might be our only chance for that. We hadn't yet learned that, on the Camino,
things happen as they should...there is no need to make plans
The first town we reached after
Rabacel was Zambujal. This town, though
all was quiet, seemed to be very pilgrim-friendly. There were many tiles displayed that told
stories of Santiago and of local sites.
Our guidebook said that there was a cafe there but we found nothing
open. Soon we came to another pilgrim
town, Fonte Coberta, with tile images of Santiago. Outside of town we passed a Ponte Filipina on
the right and then turned left into a trekking path.
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| One of the tiled Camino signs in Zambuja |
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| Tile Santiago image in Fonte Coberta |
It was a hot day. By the time we reached Conimbriga we were
tired. I needed a cup of coffee and
Krishna needed a beer. At the site
complex we learned that the museum was closed due to a strike. The ruins were open and there was lots of
walking involved to get to them. We
headed first to the restaurant in the complex.
Chantelle and Jean-hugues were already sitting there having lunch. They said that Lorenz had already continued
on. We had our coffee and beer and then
some cheese and tuna sandwiches. With
Chantelle and Jean-hugues we talked about seeing the ruins and ended up all
agreeing that we have all seen lots of Roman ruins and maybe we should focus
our energy on walking instead of sightseeing on this hot day. They left, and soon we left as well, no
longer even thinking about our plan of stopping at the nearby town to
experience a night at a Portuguese posada.
We had only walked 11.6 km so far
today, so we decided to continue on.
From this point everything seemed to
be closed. We finally found a cafe in
Cernache. There was supposed to be an
albergue there as well. We saw it, but
it seemed to be closed. It was so hot, I
ordered a large bottle of water but then felt bad, because I then realized that
whatever we didn't drink we would have to carry. Little did I know what was ahead and that we
would need every drop of that water.
Chantelle and Jean-hugues were at the cafe already. We all talked and planned to stay at a guest
house, Janesta Guest House, in Palheira, the next town. But, when we walked thru the town later, we
didn't find it. Everyone we asked kept
telling us to continue forward to Santa Clara (the convent albergue outside of
Coimbra). We just kept walking and
walking. Krishna was getting concerned
that it would get dark before we found a place to stay. After 32 km and feeling exhausted, we finally
reached the Santa Clara convent albergue.
Chantelle, Jean-hugues, Lorenz, the Irishman (who we met earlier) and
the Hungarian were also there. No one
had found any other place to stay on the way!
So we were all together again.
At the convent albergue, Convento Santa
Clara, an unusual man checked us in. He first scrutinized our Camino passports and
commented that we should have stayed at a different place in Tomar. He finally stamped our passports and we paid
our 15 euros per person. Because it was
a convent, there were rules. Men and
women had to stay in separate bunk bed rooms, but we all shared one
bathroom. Krishna was sent up some
narrow stairs and assigned to a top bunk.
He asked for a lower bunk downstairs, but the man told him he would have
to wait until 8 pm, after his boss left, to see if a downstairs bunk was
available. When Krishna told him that he
wanted to check with his wife and maybe find another place, the man let him
move downstairs to a lower bunk. An
Italian man whose wife was also in the ladies room downstairs was happy and
shook Krishna's hand, because he got to move downstairs as well. Upstairs were Jean-hugues, Lorenz, the
Irishman, and the Hungarian. Downstairs
in the men's bunk room were Krishna and the Italian. In the ladies downstairs bunk room were
Chantelle, the Italian man's wife and me.
All of us in the two rooms downstairs shared 1 bathroom with a shower in
it. The funny thing was, though the men
and women had to sleep in separate rooms, to get to the bathroom, the women had
to go thru the men's bedroom. We took
our showers as soon as we could get our turn and decided to skip doing laundry
tonight.
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| Albergue Convento Santa Clara, on a hill overlooking Coimbra |
Five of us, Chantelle, Jean-hugues,
Lorenz, Krishna and I, went out to find a place for dinner and had a
celebration of good friends on the Camino.
Krishna ordered frango (grilled chicken) which the waiter said would
take a little longer to make. It was so
good and no one even noticed the extra wait because we were enjoying the
camaraderie of the evening.
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| Dinner and fellowship with fellow peregrinos |
That night, after we were settled in
our sleeping bags, I began to hear the nuns singing in the convent church next
door. I then realized that it was Easter
eve, a special and blessed night. It was
magical to be in this ancient convent on this evening listening to the sacred
singing. I felt that I had been swept
back into the medieval ages ... a magical moment on the Camino!
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