2025 - Day 8 - Alvaiázere to Ansião

Scores on the doors 9.59 Miles,

The alarm went off at 07:15. We had booked breakfast for 8 but were a little late (we were going to make the most of a much shorter day) and as we came down the street the proprietor was waiting for us, we went into the restaurant and were the only guests as everyone else had eaten and left.  We returned to the room did our final packing returned the key and headed off.  Our first stop was to the chemists to, get some stuff for blisters and some advice from the chemist.  Her advise was compeeds and ibuprofen, we stocked up at a cost of 40euro and set off properly.  The way out of town was up hill on tarmac, after about a mile we stoped on some street furniture to apply the compeeds, (this was the operating table) we were about to set off again when we spied Sonya and Elaine coming up the road so waited for then and walked with them for the next half hour as the way changed from tarmac to narrow tracks, and through a semi abandoned village.  We stoped to reply to a WhatsApp and let them go on, the path continued to meander along little tracks and farm track through hamlets, and woodland until we arrived in Ansião, at 1:15.  We couldn’t get into our hotel until 3 so went to a bakery for coffee and cakes for lunch.  I went for a coffee puff pastry stack with confectioner’s custard filling and Lesley went for a custard, sponge creation.  We sat out side and a German lady pilgrim wanted to sit with us, her name was Gizella and she came from Dresden, she had been in the same Alberge as Sonia and Elaine the night before.  She was on her own and seemed lonely, and told us all about her stay in Tomar, and her visit to the Templar castle. She had walked from Porto to Santiago last year, but found it was very arid so had come back to witness all the wild flowers and the colour.  We all finished our coffees and said our good byes, and she went off. We decided to visit the church as it was open, and found all the Altars bar one at the side, were dominated by statues and paintings of Mary! But the rest of the church was very simple with some lovely stations.  It was then 2:50 so we went to the hotel to wait for three but we were let in.  We had to get our room key from a locker behind a combination code, we went up to our room and sat on our balcony, (with Lesley by request from Miles and Kim, modelling her new hat). We were waiting for our bags, at just before 4 we thought let’s ask at reception as they hadn’t arrived to discover that they were in a cupboard downstairs all along!!  Showered and changed we popped into town for a beer, when we got a WhatsApp from Elaine suggesting we all meet up to share a bottle of bubbles and crisps on our balcony (it was a nice modern hotel anyway, but the balcony we had, was the icing on the cake, and thanks to the short walking day, we had time to enjoy it). We headed back to the hotel via a supermarket where we picked up wine and beers and some rolls, ham and cheese for our lunch tomorrow and also for our supper as we weren’t particularly hungry.  Elaine and Sonya arrived and a very pleasant  hour or so ensued, before they departed and we got everything ready for our next days walk before we went to bed.