Day 3 Vila Franca de Xira to Azambuja

18.4 km. I ws a bit stiff this morning. However it was a nice sunny day as I set off through Vila Franca. I set off in the wrong direction, not meeting up with the Camino route until I had left town on the N-1 highway. The it was two kilometres along the busy N-1 until a turn-off at a Lidl supermarket, that I went into to just as it started to pour with rain. I looked in the supermarket (supermercado) for ten minutes and came out to find the rain had mostly passed, but I still had to don the raincoat and put the pack cover on.

Then it was a road along-side the railway line for several kilometres, until I made it to Castanheira de Ribatejo railway station. There were a few cafes around but I continued on walking past a power station, and was then passed for the second time by 4 South African pilgrams that are doing the Camino Portugal as well. So far we have see 6 other pilgrams doing the route from Lisbon (Lisboa).

I passed the South Africans further up the road, and headed through Vila Nova da Rainha, gettng attacked by a couple of dogs while I walked through town (the reason to carry walking poles, they are good for fending off dogs).

It was then a long boring slog 6 kilometres up the N-3 highway to Azambuja, however it had stopped raining and turned sunny again.

Walking north along the N-1 out of Vila Franca de Xira

Addit from Judy: We stayed at the Ouro (Gold) Hotel, which is part of the Ouro Negra (Black Gold) service station complex at the southern edge of Azambuja. Nice rooms, breakfast included, 47.50 euro for a double. It’s opposite an Aldi supermarket. We had good steaks at the Pateo Valverde restaurant which is just a couple of blocks north of the hotel, close to the bullfighting stadium.