2025 - Day 13 - Águeda to Albergaria-a-Velha - A short day.

Scores on the doors approx 11 miles

We were up and down for breakfast for eight, competing with three locust like German men, who no sooner had the lady sorting breakfast put so thing down but then it was gone!  Fortunately she kept on restocking but at one point had to go out for more bread rolls.  Breakfast ended we set off via the Pharmacy to pick up more Compeeds. 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.  

The route then kept on crossing the N1 (a major road) and took us through the long town of Mourisca do Vouga, where we eventually felt it was safe to remove our cagoules but kept our over trousers on.  

Eventually we had a short interlude from the road 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.  

For two evenings on the trot it was a self service check in, where we had to access the building with a door code and then find our room key in a box, (this time we all had to then send them our passport details, last night they didn’t bother) We then had a couple of hours relaxing 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.