Day 12 Agueda to Albergaria A-Velha

We had great evening last night. There were twelve other peregrinos staying at our Albergue who invited Yotty and myself to join them for dinner, Yotty experienced the true Camino spirit as much wine and laughter was had.

As always on the camino we were made so welcome, we worked out there were nine nationalities around the table.

We had breakfast at 0730, it was so nice not to rush, Steve and George ( above ) asked to join on today's walk. We did our stretching exercises and were on the road by 0815.

It was nice to walk in company, I think from here on we will meet more peregrinos.

We walked through Mourisca do Vouga .

Some amazing architecture, yet again some beautiful properties in total disrepair.

Time for cow on a blog, a fine specimen Guy.

We soon came to the beautiful medieval bridge at Pedacaes.

We had to walk on the busy N1.

We were not on the road for long, we were getting hungry and tried three cafes trying to find some Portuguese Tarts to no avail, we are clearly not the only people that like them.

We stopped at this bar in Serem and just had to settle for some pastries.

We walked on through woodland towards our final destination .

George had a fall out with her boyfriend in England and decided to make herself look like a nun to show repentance, she had a look of Vanessa Redgrave about her, I hope it works. It is amazing how you can transform yourself with a fleece, scarf and some toilet paper.

Quite a character.

We shortly came to Assilho some 1 mile short of Velha, it dawned on me that we had come halfway on our journey so we marked the occasion with a photo. Steve is also Santiago bound. He is an Aussie who hails from Littlehampton, it is a small world!!

We at last found a cafe and celebrated with some Portuguese Tarts.

Dog on a blog time.

Half an hour later we walked into Velha, we said goodbye to George and Steve as they are getting a taxi into Porto because of Steves damaged feet.

We had to walk another mile to find our hotel which is actually a motel and right on the outskirts of town and soulless to put it mildly.

We had some lunch, then back to the motel. I got on with the blog and Yotty had a snooze.

A brief blog today as we only walked 10  miles, we shall have an early night as we have an 18 mile walk tomorrow which is all on roads, we are dreading it, plus it is forecasting rain.

Stats for today.

Walked 10.8 miles

189 miles to Santiago

Distance covered 192

Tarts consumed 47