Scores on the doors 14.40 miles, 400m up 364m down.
The alarm went off for our final day’s walking, we packed and got ready, going into the main building of the complex for our last Portuguese breakfast of the trip: scrambled eggs with herbs, bread, cheese and ham, a large plate of fresh fruit and some tea. We received the bill for last night’s home cooked 3 course meal, with a bottle of wine and white port to finish. It was €40, but we thought worth a lot more than that. The beers on arrival had also been a welcome drink.
When we were ready, our lovely hostess took us in her car back to the monastery to start our journey. We said our goodbyes and thanks and set off initially retracing our car journey, following the Monastery wall, alongside busy cobbled roads, eventually we turned off onto a quiet lane which was no more that 1km from the house, so yesterday we could have easily walked there, had we known the location! Soon we were into semi rural landscape, before turning a corner where there was a massive mural round the side of a sports ground starting off all about the Camino,
before morphing into sports players before going back to wish Camino pilgrims bom Camino.
We then passed through a number of small villages always on backroads, admiring flowers, stopping at a large open church, where a lady was giving it a good clean. Eventually we left all the settlements
behind and turned into a forest path
(the old Roman Road) up and over a final hill, where we began to get tantalising glimpses of Portugal’s
second city, Porto.Soon we were in the suburbs and having to keep a keen eye out for way markers which were more infrequent and harder to spot.
We came alongside a big Mercadona and could not see any sign to help us find the way. A lady pushing a pram with twins in it wished us Bom Caminho (The Portuguese way of saying Good Camino or good travels) and told us we were on the right road. After saying thank you we got talking, she had completed the Camino on a bike, and wanted to know if we had been looked after by her fellow countrymen, and if she could do anything for us, including if we needed any money. This is the type of amazing kindness we experienced from the Portuguese. We reassured her we were good and thanked her and we went our separate ways. A short while later we stopped for a drink and a break as it was very hot, and I discovered I had drunk all my water. It was in fact the hottest and sunniest day of the walk, and we were thankful conditions had been cooler and better suited to walking for us over the past couple of weeks. Refreshed, we set out again, following the instructions in my guide book. - We knew we were getting towards the centre when we passed the first tram station. We then walked along busy streets full of all sorts of general shops, where Lesley spotted a small version of one of our house plants selling for €80.
(What could we get for this specimen in Portugal?)
We continued to go, down hill and after a few twists and turns came to a garden which overlooks the
. 
river Douro and the old city of Porto
The river is wide and full of old barges that were used to transport Port from up river and are now used to transport tourists. Then we went over a double decker bridge. 
We crossed on the top, with double tram tracks in the centre. It was thronged with tourists many of them taking silly selfies of them selves, pretending to, hitch a lift on the tram or gurning at the camera rather than the beautiful views of the city. Once we had crossed the river we went to the cathedral which was nearby and then queued to get in to get our final Pilgrim’s stamp of the trip for our pilgrim’s credential. We did not go into the cathedral however, as they were charging to get in and we thought with the number of tourists in front of us it would not be very tranquil, but will visit for a service perhaps when we resume our journey. The man on the desk gave us a lovely smile when we reached the top of the queue and just asked for a ‘Sellos’ (stamp).
After a few photo’s we then headed to a nearby cafe for a celebratory beer, 
and looked at the options for getting to our hotel, as it was only a couple of km’s from where we were we decided to walk. After a bit of a false start, we got on our way, walking through streets thronged with tourists, (which was a bit of a culture shock after 16 days of tourist free walking), and after about 1/2 hour we arrived at our hotel. After booking in and paying the tourist tax (which seems to be a feature of Portuguese cities) we arranged an airport transfer for tomorrow morning and went up,to,our room to shower and sort things out. Refreshed we headed out to a nearby supermarket to 
buy supplies for our journey home, which we took back to the hotel to put into our room fridge, before heading out to an Italian restaurant for our final meal. Veggie Lasagne for Lesley and mushroom risotto for me with a green salad, washed down with Mateus Rosé, and followed by tiramisu and coffee, a lovely meal but the most expensive of the whole trip. It was then back to the hotel for a final, pack and to have a beer before an early night.
stopping at a Chemist for some Ibuprofen and something for a sore throat. (This holiday we must have spent about £100.00 in chemists for foot treatments and ibuprofen!) The whole route today was all on tarmac, winding through back streets in São João before going up a steep road 
up to the N1 highway which we followed for a few km’s but we didn’t know when to turn off, and at one stage when looking at our guidebook, we were hailed by one of the working girls (who sit on chairs just off the main work waiting for trade!) to point us in the correct direction. 
an oasis on a day of suburban streets. The cobbled Roman road, ended, but shortly after, we joined another series of roads which ran in a straight, (more Roman road) continuing down hill into the village of Ferradal. Just after passing a slightly down at heal looking bar, in a side road to the left, we spotted a bar/cafe sign and found a lovely place, beautifully clean where we got an iced tea, before continuing down hill, along rough back streets with manic speeding drivers, and came eventually into the town of Vergada. At the end of the straight road, we stopped at a Pastelaria for a coffee. We crossed, or went under several main roads, with lovely views down to the Atlantic coast opening up. 
By now we were in a greener and quieter neighbourhood and able to admire amazing flowers in people’s gardens and inspect their veggie patches.We then had the final push to the days end, passing the chapel of Santa Rita, an Italian Augustinian Nun with a partial stigmata (a wound on her forehead) who is a patron saint of impossible causes, (along with sterility, abuse victims, loneliness, marriage difficulties, parenthood, widows, the sick, bodily ills, and wounds.) So, she is a very busy lady! 
(She is in this wayside shrine alongside St James and Our Lady of Fatima) And as her feast day is on the 22nd May, the whole village was getting ready with lots of lights and pictures of her. The chapel was open and in it were all sorts of statues and other things to buy to do with her “cult”. These included model legs and feet (just what we need after this long walk!) Leaving the church, we went under a motorway before arriving at the wall of the Grijó Monastery, where we made our third stop of the day, at a small bar and shop next to the Albergue, before continuing to the monastery entrance for our lift to our accommodation. 
We then sat in the garden to finish the beers we were given on arrival. (We had asked for food yesterday, but had not had an acknowledgment until halfway through the morning - so on arrival I had to explain about my fish intolerance - it’s fortunate that I did as fish and potato pie was the dish of the day - however, our host was able to offer me pasta as a backup!) We then showered and went back into the garden for a cup of tea being called into our cottage for our meal, which started with Soup, fish pie for Lesley, and Pasta with garlic mushrooms and pork for me, all washed down with a bottle of Douro White wine. which After food we again went into the garden to finish the bottle before adjourning to our cottage for cheesecakes and a glass of White Port. 
We soon tucked in, with the smiley lady who serviced the place for its owners, on hand to make sure we were OK. Lesley caused her amusement by wishing her boa tarde at 08:00, causing her to look at her watch, so I had to quickly dive in with a bom dia, and there were smiles all round. After breakfast we finished packing and were ready for the off, 
heading out of town on a day when we crossed and recrossed a derelict railway in the process of being restored about a dozen times. At a couple of points se we’re supposed to walk beside it but because of the track restoration the path has been redirected. In the morning we had a couple of very pleasant forest stages 
where there was evidence of previous terrible forest fires with blackened stumps and holes in the ground formerly occupied by telegraph poles. On tarmac, our way took us through suburbs, quiet villages and the cultural heart of one community. 
The views to the left were stunning looking over to the Atlantic and the Ria de Aveiro. After being on the path for over 8 hours going up and then going down we finally got into São João da Madeira and two tired and footsore pilgrims found their hotel. 
Although long and hard, it was a much pleasanter walk than that of 2 days ago. And we even found an open church offering a pilgrim stamp. 
Lesley went for a Portuguese burger and I had a Francesinha these were washed down with beer, in my case some Mary Jane IPA brewed by Mary Jane here in São João da Madeira. While Lesley had some Portuguese Stout, then we’ll Feb it was back to the Hotel to sleep.
The walk initially took us alongside the river before heading steeply up inland, crossing a disused railway. Before dropping down and up again, into yet another industrial area when it started to rain, so we donned our full waterproofs, it rained hard for a minute or two but we decided to stay on the safe side and keep them on. 
to cross the River Marnel on an old bridge which 
reminded us of canal boating where the tranquil canal meets the modern world 
we then had an 800 metre trudge along the hard shoulder of the N1 to cross the River Vouga, 
with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. 
At he end of our N1 Trudge was a village with a cafe where we stopped for Coffee and a break before continuing on our way, up over a hill with houses on each side, before dropping down and at last getting onto woodland paths, 
although unfortunately most of the wood has been cut down. At the end of which we emerged on tho outskirts of Albergaria-a-Velha, after about another mile we were into the town centre where we bumped in to a German girl from Hamburg who we have been Re-enacting Aesop’s tale of the Tortoise and the hare with since about day day 4, with Lesley and myself obviously being the tortoise. After a chat we walked the last 100 meters to our accommodation at Estalagem Dos Padres, stoping for a beer and Pastéis de nata just around the corner from it. 
and had a coffee before a short stroll to a pizza restaurant we had found online where our meal of pizza, beers and Coca-Cola cost 24 euro. 
It was then back to the room to get ready for tomorrow and an early night. 
we requested an Uber to take us back to near the Pic-Nic restaurant to resume our walk. We began along a long road with numerous restaurants selling Leitão da Bairrada but none from outside looked as good as Pic-Nic, we the left the busy road to walk through a village and it started to spit quite heavily so full waterproofs were donned, it soon stoped so off they came, (this was the story of the first half of the day!!) we then had our one piece of off road forest track for a couple of miles, and then it was mile after mile of tarmac. And also mile after mile of factories and industry, but occasionally small pockets of countryside. 
and two churches and a chapel, one church had an enormous Portuguese Cockerel on the top of its tower 
the second was covered in tiles 
and amazingly for once chapel was open!! 
and entered Águeda and found our accommodation just beating some serious rain. The town is famous for its quirky arts and especially for it “Umbrella Sky Project” 
We the found a restaurant for a beer and stayed for food, Cod for Lesley and Slow cooked goat for me,
both which were very good, then back to our room to prepare for tomorrow!! 