Day 8 & 9 Camino Portuguese

 

 

Day 8 September 22 2025

This is a summary of day eight as I walked from Rabakal to Coinbra . A beautiful city and took about 31 kilometers with no major issues other than the first 15 kilometers there were and noticed the fig trees and the olive trees but I didn't eat any of the fruit.There were quite a few towns along the way. Most of it was tarmac. There was obviously some trail. Again pretty beautiful scenery. I walked for most of it with a Dutch guy called Barry who was having shin pain. When we eventually got to the cafe at the 15k mark, gave him some neurofen that settled the pain down a bit. The rest of the walk was pretty good. It obviously got very busy towards Coimbra. Bigger roads, more traffic, but coming into the city and the river was spectacular. I made the mistake of walking up the hill to the Coimbra University's library which I accidentally had put into my Google Maps instead of the hotel. The Library is famous because JK Rowling taught English in Portugal and the library apparently mirrors the magical library in Hogwarts So I ended up doing an extra 1 and a half kilometers uphill. The hotel I booked was called Zero Box which basically had no windows. It had no TVs. It was just a really nice quiet room with private facilities. And I managed to get a good rest. The whole group on the WhatsApp that had been walking through the whole period up to Coimbra got together at a restaurant called Passport  at 7 and we had cocktails. As I didn't drink, I had a mocktail which was nice, but it was getting late so I didn't stay for dinner. Had a vegetarian burger meal from Burger King and went to bed at by 10:00. Had a really good night's sleep. Got up  once only and then got up again at 5:30am , got ready and left by about just past 6. So it was an easy quiet walk out of Coimbra along the river and then cutting inland. Didn't see anyone except another pilgrim which I followed for most of it. I got lost at some point at a cross junction and so he got ahead. But eventually I found the route and tried to find a cafe. So took a detour, but that cafe was closed. But eventually at about the 10 km mark, I found a cafe and ran into the Dutch couple Sonia and Michel, which was nice. They were basically finishing up and leaving. I had a nice break here with some chocolates, grapes, Pepsi, water, and coffee. So, at least now I've got enough route to get me through for the next 10 or 15ks. But hopefully it'll be another cafe in about 8 or 9ks from here. I'm planning to take this fairly easy as I don't really have to get to the next point by 2:00 pm and that is a town called Anadia which is about 34 kilometers in so at the moment it's only about 8:30 in the morning.

 

 

 

Day 9 23 September 2025 

A summary of day nine which is the 23rd of September. I reached  Anadia. It was about 33 kilometers. So wasn't as long as  I was expecting. Fairly busy roads. Did get hot towards the end. as expected, but at least there were a couple of cafes, stopped at two. Um, got to the hotel, had no issues, had dinner, which was pizza. I had a long chat with Sonia and Michelle, Dutch couple,  and talked about life in general. They're heading the same way and doing very  well. So,  we're the three that started from Lisbon and saw them first just after Villa franca De Xira ,that are still together. I also ran into Edward whose foot was swollen so he slowed down and stopped a town back from Anadia. Other than that, don't know anyone else on the route at the present moment. I did have a chat with Paul on WhatsApp, and depending on whether I finish early, I'll see if I can get out over to Portsmouth for a visit, but the feeling  is it's down to Lisbon as soon as I finish to spend a few days there. I'll just see how it goes. Butt otherwise, it was a fairly good leg of around 33 kms and I'll be in Porto on Friday. So there's three more walks and about 90 kilometers to go or just under 100kms to get to Porto which is over the halfway mark by then. Other than that I'm trying to take this easy today. Not getting any injuries.  Today's start was at 6:30 am. I didn't sleep as well because the phone rang at about 2:00. So, I didn't get to bed till about 4 am. But I still got enough sleep. I hope to get to the cafe and have coffee and something to eat in an hour or two. The walk was pretty quiet. The sad thing is I saw a dead cat on the road and another cat seated by it side and it moved away as I approached. Just reflection of life still goes on no matter what. But  generally the weather's been okay. There is an expectation on Sunday of a storm, so hopefully that doesn't happen because that's when I start my walk out of Porto . But we'll see how it goes.