Greg's Wanderings

Tag: Coimbra

Day 10 – Coimbra to Sernadelo

Sept 20

I did end up having a room to myself last night and had a luxurious night of sleep thanks to my eye mask and earplugs, which blocked out the festivities going on outside my window.

I woke up about 6 AM feeling refreshed and very slowly started getting ready for the day. I realized I had less than 130 km to get to Porto. The next major city along the route. Most of the travel guides had that broken into five segments averaging roughly 25 km a day I thought about trying to do it in four days (33 kilometers a day), but the locations of accommodations didn’t align. So today I started off for Sernadelo.

I have to admit I was very tired yesterday on my Uber ride into town and wasn’t paying great attention. In the morning, I looked at the map and it looked as if I needed to cross the river to head out of town. I started down the hill in a foggy mist and started off across the bridge. About mid span a guy with hiking poles and a white ball cap was heading the other way. It was Meelis! He said “do you know you’re going the wrong way?“

Sure enough in my foggy state the day before I hadn’t realized that I’d already crossed the river and needed to be heading in the opposite direction. The Camino does provide and in this case it was a friendly face to point me in the right direction before I had gone too far out of my way.

We walked along the river walk for a cup of kilometers and the city quickly gave way to cornfields. Harvest was beginning and lots of people were pulling over to the side of the road with big bushel baskets to pick the corn.

We caught up with Dan who stayed at the monastery with Melis the night before.

The hike today was uneventful. Lots of small villages to pass through interspersed with service roads through agricultural land and forests.

Tonight’s accommodation is the pilgrim-only alberge Residencial Hilario. I’m staying in the 12-bed dormitory.

The dormitory is beginning to fill up with guests from France, Australia, Estonia, UK, Slovenia and me as the only Yank so far.

Not a photo heavy day today…

Typical trail today

Talk about targeted marketing: this flyer was in a forest miles from anything except pilgrims

Outside of the alberge

Inside the dormitory

2025-09-20
A night in Coimbra

With the help of my Uber driver, Fernando, I made it to Coimbra, the fourth largest city in Portugal. At first, I was a little overwhelmed because of so many days in the countryside walking through small villages.

My hostel was on a street that was closed to vehicles, so I was dropped off about 200m away. I arrived a half an hour before check-in and wondered where I would wait until I could check in. Not to fear I counted at least 15 bars within 50 m of my hostile.

The street outside my hostel

My luxury accommodations

Monastery of Santa Cruz

Inside the monastery

A busy shopping and dining district a couple blocks away

Getting set up for live music on a Friday night.

Talk about a narrow building!

11 pilgrims: me, Barney, Jennifer, Mariana, Aldo, Sherry, John, Johnny, Cristiano, Myrco

I had a lovely glass of Port directly across the street and at 3 o’clock checked in to the Change the World hostile. It’s part of a chain of hostels that use the proceeds to fund projects to help the underserved in Third World countries.

I sprang for the “luxury” accommodations a two bunk/4 bed unit with a private bath (€24). As I write this, it’s nearing 10 PM and I’m the only one occupying the room.

After a shower, laundry, and a quick nap I hit the streets and quickly discovered that this “big“ city was extremely walkable and had plenty of interesting things to see nearby.

I got a text from my friends John and Sherry asking if I wanted to join them for dinner. I wandered down to their hotel and we had a drink together before a Rick Steves-recommended restaurant opened for dinner at 7 PM. We had an incredible meal. Sherry and I both had grilled salmon steaks while John had seared tuna.

As we were leaving, we bumped into Barney from Australia and a couple of Italian pilgrims right outside the door. We were quickly joined by Cristiano and Mariana, who had stayed at the hostel with us last night. John went back into the restaurant to find someone to take a photo of the group And came out with Jennifer from Tennessee who is also dating there.

Most of the group is going to stay another night here. Both Mariana and Sherry are nursing injured legs

I on the other hand, will be moving on in an attempt to gain some additional days so at the end of my trip, I can do both a side trip to Finisterra and go to Morocco.

2025-09-19
Day 9 – Sept 19 – Alvorge to Coimbra

Last night’s hostel wasn’t the quietest of accommodations. Karen, the Austrian, left at four this morning and was extremely stealthy getting out the door. I can’t say the same for others who began wrestling around sometime between 430 and five. By 530. I decided there was no more sleep to be had and got up.

I took my belongings out to the terrace so I could pack without disturbing the few remaining sleepers. Sherry and John were out packing up at the same time as well.

With the aid of my headlamp, I headed out of town and down fairly steep rocky gully that was the exit from Alvorge.

Today is supposed to be the last day of the heat wave but like yesterday there are some scattered clouds and so far the sun has yet to really become an issue. As I’m typing this segment, it’s nearing 10 AM and I’m stopping for my 15 km break.

I always carry two water bottles with me and left Alvorge with both full. I drained the first as I was entering the small village of Zambujal. I decided to go into town to look for a Mercado or a bar where I could buy some additional water. Just, as I rounded the corner into town, there was a public fountain. The Camino provides!

Another 6.7 km from where I’m currently resting is an ancient Roman city called Coninbriga. There is a museum there and ruins that you can tour. I am going to make a detour and visit them.

My goal for today is to make it to Coimbra, where most of my friends are also planning to be tonight. At nearly 40 km from my starting point, I plan to take a bus or an Uber once I get to mid afternoon. 25K for the day is plenty for me.

The ruins of Coninbriga were amazing. 22 Centuries old and yet mosaic tile floors were still intact in many places. The adjacent museum had interesting displays of the various relics found on site.

I walked another 4km past the ruins, but my energy was simply tapped out. I’m really looking forward to the dramatic shift in the forecast starting tomorrow.

Hopping into my Uber ride was a bit of a shock after moving at a walking speed for days. We were going so FAST. I peaked over at the speedometer but we were just doing the posted speed. It’s funny how you adjust to a new pace.

With only a sliver moon and Venus for natural light, a headlamp was essential this morning.

Energy break leaning up against an ancient olive tree.

An old wind mill (without the sails). Likely used for pressing olives.

Grape harvest under way. This guy was feeding buckets into a pressing machine

An old bridge – still in use – constructed in 1636

Besides Camino signs, I keep seeing these markers. Turns out, I’m also on Grand Route 26, one of many across Europe

Roman house with floor tile still in good shape after 22 centuries

Part of the bath system

These columns are all that was left of the forum which was torn down in the middle ages.

Exterior wall of the city

Excavations you could climb down into

More examples of the mosaic floor tile

A rendering of what the forum looked like in the 1st century BC

Wild blackberries

After a week of high temperatures between 31-35 (88-95F). The next week is much cooler 21-27 (70-80 F)

2025-09-19