Day 5 - To Santa Iria

To Santiago de Compostela: 591.4 km

Walked today: 12 km

Total walked: 37.2 km

Today we did not walk much, under 10 km of the Camino (though we always walk more than what is shown in the map).  I think I was tired from yesterday and we had full packs for the first time.  Pains all over, feet and legs plus a hikers rash in the legs (very itchy).  How easy we forget how hard are these first days.

So we walked from the hotel to the metro and then to the park of nations, where we stopped yesterday.  By then we had walked 4 or 5 km with full packs.  We continued the trial along the Tejo river.  Beautiful walk but the girl told me that I looked very tired ( whiich indeed I felt). I don't know if I was tired from yesterday or if it was the first day with the heavy pack or what but I was feeling it.

When we arrived to Sacavem around noon and we decided to call the day.  We took the suburban train for two stops to Santa Iria where we had reserved a room.  The hotel was easy to find.  It is an ugly industrial area but the hotel is great, better and cheaper than the one we had in Lisboa.

After we checked in, we walked to the village to eat lunch.  We found a little place called Churresqueira Baixihno.  It was full but we did find a table.  Before we ordered anything they brought us olives, goat cheese, prociuto, and bread almost a meal.  Then the waiter took us behind the counter and showed several kinds of fish and asked us to pick what we wanted so they could prepare it for us.  It was a glorious meal, we returned to the hotel, changed into our bathing suits and went to lie by the pool.  This is the hard life of us suffering pilgrims.

Now we are in our room resting.  Brenda tells me that I look much better than this morning.  Hopefully I will sleep well tonight so I can make the walk to Vilafranca de Xira, about 16 km.  We are going to get up at 6 am to get going before it gets too hot .  We are still walking short the distances, we are still in training.

I had never heard of Santa Iria, so I looked her up.  In English, she is Saint Irene of Tomar, virgin and martyr.   She lived in the VII century in Visigothic Portugal.  Born in Tomar to an influential family she was kept away from temptation, she only went out to church or to study with her monk tutor.  A young nobleman seeing her from afar fell in love with her and approach asking for permission to court her.  She explained that she would be a nun so she could not accept his advances.  The tutor tried to molest her and she rejected him so the tutor started rumors saying that she was pregnant.  The young nobleman felt betrayed and hired an assassin who attacked her with a sword and killed her.  she became known as a Saint and the city of Santarem (which is not far from Tomar) was named after her.

Tonight when we are the in this town, we pray to Santa Iria,  we ask for her protection and we ask her to pray for us.

The statue below is Catherine de Braganza, on the trail by the Tejo river and next to the Vasco de Gama bridge.