Sinos Tilintantes - Day 10

Tinkling Bells

Coimbra - Sernadelo (16.3 miles) 

It was still dark when I got on the trail at 7 am this morning. Last night we had all discussed starting at that time, but were coming from different hostels in Coimbra. I walked along the Mondego River for about a mile before turning off onto an unpleasant road.

There I met the Oregonian couple, Sharon and Chris. We walked a little ways and found Christian from Germany. Him and I walked faster and went on ahead. At an underpass, my eyes caught a bit of graffiti that I had to share with Christian. He loved it and wanted a photo. It said, "No Caminho, não existe idade!" Which translates into "On the Caminho, age does not exist!" Christian is 74 years old and is on his 7th Camino. The rest of us who are fewer in years enjoy having him around. He always has a positive attitude and I have never heard him complain. Much of the trail was on roads today, but we did pass through some nice towns, a couple of forested areas, and several farms. As I approached a certain field, I heard the sound of tinkling bells. I wasn't sure what it was and my view was obscured by a row of trees and shrubbery. Working my way around the trees and finding an opening, I saw a field of sheep. Each one had a brass bell around its neck. When I got closer, the bells stopped. The sheep were no longer moving about and had paused their grazing to stare back at me. When I returned to the road, the tinkling of bells immediately resumed and sounded like a series of wind chimes blowing in the wind.

We found Yeji having breakfast at a café in Trouxemil. The woman working there was very welcoming and fixed us our customary ham and cheese sandwich. I picked up a couple of bananas as well. Together, we walked out of Trouxemil and into the adjacent forested land.

I like seeing the Eucalyptus and Pine forests because they are so different from the forests I am accustomed to in Utah. While we do have many pines and conifers back home, they are not the same as these.

I arrived in Sernadelo a little after 1 pm. Christian beat me to the Albergue Hilário and Yeji was right behind. Soon the Oregonians arrived, Xenia, Ilaria, and the five Italians from before. Later, two more Italians arrived, which I had met previously in Tomar. At one point in the afternoon, almost everyone was in their bed taking a nap or on their cell phone. The albergue was almost full tonight with just one unoccupied bed. Almost everyone walked down to the grocery store and purchased microwaveable meals for dinner to heat up at the albergue. Christian and I had been patiently waiting until 6:30 pm before going into the Hilário Restaurant. The albergue and restaurant are owned by the same family. When I checked in, the hostess, Isabel, told me about how her father built the restaurant and later the apartments and albergue behind it. She showed me photos of her parents and mentioned that there was a 30 year separation between the two of them. Her father was 50 when he married her mother and had won the lottery (the actual lottery). I'm not sure if it was before or after they were married, but his winnings allowed them to build the two businesses here.

Isabel also took me into the restaurant to show me their specialty menu item. I had seen many signs about Leitão da Bairrada while walking into town. It is not just a special for this restaurant, but a regional specialty. It is roasted piglet. They take suckling pigs several weeks old and roast them on a spit. This is why Christian and I had been waiting until 6:30 pm and why everyone else was eating microwaveable meals tonight. We met Alana, the woman from New Zealand, at dinner. She is a doctor of emergency medicine. The three of us tried the roasted piglets and found it to be alright overall. It was not too spectacular and I probably will not order it again while I am in Portugal. I think it was the seasoning they added or maybe just the smell inside the restaurant. I finished off dinner and attempted to get the taste of piglet out of my mouth by eating a maracujá (passion fruit) cheesecake. Now that was tasty! We all went right to bed afterwards to get ready for another day of walking.

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