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Writer's picturePilgrim Nick

Day 5 - Viseu to Almargem

With another short day in prospect, I decided that there was no need to kill myself with an early start. There was time for a bit of a walk around and to my delight there was some kind of send-off for a local politician which entailed horses coming into the city.

And then it was time to hit the road. The exit from Viseu is well sign-posted and takes one through old parts of the city.




Old city walls repurposed into being part of a house

















The only poor bit of signposting in the city...pay your money, take your choice....













Despite my late start I was delayed for another half an hour while I looked for the tooth guard I thought I had put safely in my trousers. But with no luck, I decided my teeth could survive a few days without it and carried on.

It was a hot walk and a few km of asphalt through the northern suburbs of Viseu. Some interesting sights, not the least being one gatepost which shows the Portuguese are a bit obsessed with football.

Cafe Pintor on Avenida Pintor was the last place for a coffee served by a friendly chap who seemed a little surprised as to why anyone was carrying a heavy rucksack in this heat. The trail then headed pretty well due north, parallel to the N2 but shielded from any noise by the woods.





Again, just breathtaking beauty in the woods. Eucalyptus also produces the most wonderful scent.














The most interesting find of the day was however that the track through the woods was at one time a much more significant road. The unmistakeable stones of a Roman road appeared underfoot.











I was rather hot and bothered by the time I got to Almargem, which was of course at the top of a hill. Even more hot and bothered to find everywhere that could sell me a drink was closed. The albergue was closed - which I knew in advance - so I had booked a guesthouse further back towards Viseu for the night. I rang the guesthouse to see if they could send a taxi to pick me up but, no, they would not dream of doing that. The hostess turned up in her own car in ten minutes and within 30 minutes I was floating in a pool. We do have some advantages over medieval pilgrims...

I had planned to eat at a local restaurant but, as it turned out, it was owned by the guesthouse and had had to close due to the "terrible pandemic" sweeping through Portugal. So definitely acting like a tourist and not a pilgrim it was another taxi back into Viseu and a great meal at the Andalucia - Taberna Española in the city centre. Then a final change to take a photo of the cathedral at night before my third car journey of the day back to the guesthouse. The evening ended with a long chat with the hostess who was very wary of the vaccination campaign being aggressively pushed in Portugal.




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