Last night we stayed in the dorm room of the Santa Clara cathedral just before town and crossing the river Mondego.

It turned out to be graduation day for the college, and what a scene. Everyone was dressed in black attire with colored top hats, the color spoke of the division they were in, and they carried canes the same color as the top hat. This in fact was the original format and where the author got the idea for the uniforms the students wore at Hogworts (harry potter), difference was these students were riding around in floats they had made, in a parade, and handing out free alcohol, well, the small amount that they hadn't consumed themselves..
Long time since I've seen so many pickled people. They then proceeded to dance at the river festival till 6 am this morning, we know this because we were hiking past the festival grounds when the band played its last number.
Today wasn't that long, about 16 miles, so we got into the stop at lunch time. We are staying at a proper Alberque tonight.
This is typical of the night stops, except this one is clean and new. It looks good because we were the first ones in, apparently we have not mastered the art of rose smelling. So we get first pick. Things change when 20 pilgrims arrive and hang crap and back packs , towels and smelly socks everywhere.

I can hear some old girlfriend who may be reading this say" when pat took me away for a weekend, he said this was the nuevo Hilton Experience",  don't panic girls, we will go somewhere better, and "ILL LEAVE THE LIGHT ON FOR YA"
Got to thank Maureen and Mark for the gift of the blessed Crusader Crosses that John and I are wearing, to protect us,,,,,,,who's going to protect the others?

.MAY 12,  ALRIGHT, today someone lost their mind. We hiked two days worth in one, as the trail is really really crap, it asphalt (tar to the foriegners) and it went on forever, well a marathons worth. From here it is going to be boring all the way into Porto as its the same. BUT ITS MY CAMINO,so I have to do it for whatever reason.
Anyone who knows me, knows I hate broken things, so yesterday we were walking through a village and I saw an abandoned broken umbrella. Well, I did a McIver with a toothpick, and little bending, and a rub of Ben Gay( don't ask). Today I was so grateful for that mangy umbrella as the sun was scorching at 30 c( plus 90 f) for 9 hours

at about 3 pm today I had to rest in a forest area as my core temp was so high, I had run out of water so I poured a little sports drink on my head to cool down, those punk rockers got nothing on me.

Last night john and mark, and myself, went to a pig roast meal which is the specialty in this area of Portugal. They slaughter the pigs at 8 weeks ,then roast then for 2 hours at different temps. We had the whole tour, from 5 weeks to MY DINNER PLATE.

THE OVENS,,,,DA ,  DA. DA. DAAAA

THE PIGLETS WITH A SCEWER UP THE BUTT,,,,,,,,,,,INGA( who is vegan and a best buddy)

MY DINNER,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,INGA, INGA, INGA

THE END,,,,,,,,,,,,TILL THE NEXT TIME.