This day asks very little of you. Setting out from Santa Comba Dão, you walk about 18 kilometres through hill country, past woods, fields and small villages. There is some climbing, but it comes in small bites. Your body gets used to the rucksack, and your mind to the rhythm.
This stretch is part of the approach to Viseu, the official starting point of the route. Even so, many pilgrims walk it, and rightly so. At a little over five hours, there is plenty of time for a long coffee stop. Tondela creeps closer gradually: first the outlying houses, then the streets where you put down your rucksack and look for a café terrace.