Day 20 - To Fão

The three, younger, people that were staying in our room last night came in at about 12:30, very quietly. They were all still asleep when we packed and left this morning. The breakfast that was provided by the hostel was OK but somewhat light on choice.  As we left, heading towards the seaward side of town we saw the German party setting off towards the river side. That direction would take them across country towards the more central route of the Camino. There are, as I think I have mentioned before, several Camino routes from south to north in Portugal. We have walked on the most westerly one, along the edge of the ocean, "The Camino Litoral", so far.

It took us a while, walking through the town, to reach the coast again, we had to come inland a lot yesterday to cross the river at the first bridge. Today is 25th April, the day that, 42 years ago, Portugal had its "Carnation Revolution ", when it's last dictator was removed. So it is a national holiday. The streets through the town were very quiet, all the offices etc were closed as were many shops. When we arrived at the promenade though things changed. The whole length of the very interesting sea front for several kilometres was thronged with people out strolling, walking jogging, running and cycling. The whole length was nicely developed with lots of interesting buildings, sculpture and other public art of all kind

Eventually the numbers declined as we left the built-up areas and got into the countryside again.

The boardwalks across the sand dunes were again much in evidence. These provide a very pleasant walking environment.

Eventually, however, we had to head away from the actual coast and the route moved inland for a distance. This part of the route was a total change from the earlier one. The area we were now walking through seems to be one gigantic market garden. It consisted mainly of hundreds of plastic growing tunnels interspersed with small plots of land, all intensively cultivated.

The main crop were onions, we could see, and smell, the plants all over the area. The environment was not very pleasant to view and certainly not to walk on as we were now walking entirely on very rough cobbled roads that seemed endless. The map showed that there were no villages, etc, anywhere in any direction for several kilometres, so we had no chance of a break for lunch. We did come across a campsite at one point. The entrance looked to be quite a distance off our route and there were no indications that there were any eating facilities there, so we decided to continue. 

After several more kilometres we reached the town/village of Apulia, again no cafes, bars or other eateries. Eventually we reached Fão  and our destination for today, the local youth hostel.  We were soon allocated a room with four bunks, and settled in. Strangely we would have to wait until after 6pm to register and pay for the room, a strange system as there is nobody there during the afternoon to do the paperwork. Weird!.

Later, while we were waiting to pay etc. we met a Belgian couple, about our age, who had intended doing a cruise along the Duoro river but this had been cancelled as the river levels were too high due to the heavy rains recently. Instead they were doing a driving tour around the area and happened to be staying in the youth hostel tonight. They were very interesting to talk to and were really interested in the whole Camino idea. 

By this time we were feeling very hungry, not really having had anything to eat since breakfast, so we went up into the town to try to find somewhere to eat. Fairly close by we found a bar/restaurant that looked OK, so we gave it a try. It turned out that the restaurant service didn't start until 7pm, about 20 minutes time. So, while we waited we had a drink and some olives and crisps as an appetiser.

At 7pm the barman told us that we should go upstairs to the restaurant proper. We hadn't realised that the bar and restaurant were separate and followed a waitress upstairs into a really nice area. Initially we were the only ones there but within 30 minutes there were about 12 people there, and by the time we left there must have been about 25. The menu was quite extensive with lots to choose from. The meal itself was delicious, and turned out to be very reasonably priced even including a very nice tasting bottle of local red wine.

Over the meal we discussed our future route. Today's route was initially good, but once we turned inland it deteriorated a great deal. The prospects for the next few days look similar. We're also back in the situation that the distances between places we can stay become rather more than we like to walk. So a rethink was necessary. The conclusion of this rethink is that tomorrow we will take the bus directly inland for about 25kms to the city of Barcelos,  which is on the "traditional" Camino route. Essentially we are not advancing any further towards Santiago but changing "tracks" onto a route with somewhat better accommodation prospects for the next few days. The two routes will join together, anyway, in about 4 to 5 days time.

After our meal we returned to the youth hostel to find that we still had the whole of our room to ourselves, no other pilgrims had been allocated to fill the spare bunks.

Adding comments, you don't need to sign in!

One or two people have mentioned that they can't leave comments as the do not have a Google or other accrptable account. 

It is possible but not immediately obvious how. 

If you create a comment by clicking on the "No Comments" or "2 Comments" or whatever, link at the bottom of each posting you will be shown a text box to enter your comments. Below the box is a heading that says "Choose an identity" . Here, one of the options is "Anonymous". This allows any comments without requiring you to sign in to anything. If you do use this method please indicate within your comment who you are, otherwise you will remain truly "Anonymous ".

The final step is to prove that you are human, by ticking a box. That's just to stop automated junk systems dumping unwanted dross onto any comments fields they come across.

Hope that helps. 

If you prefer an even easier method just email us at 

thecarrolls @ sky.com 

just remove the spaces I've inserted either side of the " @" symbol to get our proper email address.

Tony

Day 19 - To Vila do Conde

We had a very good night's sleep, and excellent breakfast, at the Holiday Inn, but with one slight problem. Last night we had, in true Camino fashion, done some clothes washing. There weren't many items and, as the room was quite warm, we expected them to dry very quickly, certainly overnight.  That was not to be. This morning most items were still damp, very few felt dry.  We didn't need any of them to wear today, so that wasn't a problem. But nevertheless we did need to get them dried somehow. A quick shuffle around of other clothes allowed us both to put the damp clothes into string-mesh bags that we carry, usually for dirty washing, but today they were used for drying instead. Each bag, with its contents of damp laundry, was hung on the outside of our packs. Here they could catch the sun as we walked. 

And there was plenty of sun to catch today.

With the drying problem sorted out, we hoped, we set out from the hotel. The hotel is not on the Camino route, but some distance off it. To get back onto the route where we left it last night would involve a backtrack of at least 2kms. However, a quick look at the map showed that we could cut off a corner and rejoin the route about a kilometre further along than we had left it. That's what we did and very soon we were back on the Camino route.

Yesterday, as we walked out of Porto along the Camino route we didn't see any yellow arrows. These are the pilgrim's guide, but not really necessary for yesterday's route as it would be very difficult to get lost. We didn't really expect many, if any, arrows today as the guide book could easily say "Walk as near ocean as you can, always keeping it on your left". But we were surprised to find a very clear, bright yellow, arrow almost immediately, the first of this stage of our Camino.

Throughout the rest of the day we saw others as we progressed. Very rarely were they needed, but they are always useful.

Initially we were walking on the promenade, much the same as yesterday but after about 2 to 3 kms we reached the beginning of the boardwalk. The guide says that there are several long stretches of boardwalk over the sand dunes. We reached the beginning of the first boardwalk just at the same time as a party of twelve German pilgrims. They all proceeded to pose for photos, individually and in small groups. I offered to take a photo of the whole group, if they wanted me to do so. It was an offer gratefully accepted, so I took several for them.

From talking to them I discovered that they had, like us, walked out from Porto yesterday to Matosinhos, and today they where planning on walking to Vila do Conde, again like us. We chatted for a while as we walked but gradually we all separated into smaller groups.

That was the start of our day of the boardwalk. We spent the rest of the day mainly on the boardwalks along the sand dunes. The sun was shining, a gentle warm breeze was blowing and the walking was almost all level and very easy. At one point we were walking between the ocean and a large chemical plant, but amazingly it was fairly unobtrusive. It was just "there", no smells, no noise, just part of the scenery.  So just a few photos to give you a feel for the trail.

I found today to be the easiest walk I can remember. By the time we reached Vila do Conde we had walked 23kms, but it didn't really feel to have been that far.

We passed through a whole string of small villages spread out along the ocean's edge and separated by nature reserves with masses of wild flowers, birds and every changing ocean views.

At one small ocean-side village I spotted an obvious memorial to something.

Closer inspection showed it was to the crew of an RAF Lancaster bomber that had ditched there during WW2. They had flown from Lincolnshire, England on a mission to disrupt the railway link between France and Italy, had to divert due to damage and were trying to reach Gibraltar. However they ditched here, into the sea and all the crew were survived and were rescued by the local fishermen.

We eventually reached Vila and started looking for somewhere to stay. We found a place, the Bellamar Hostel, almost as soon as we entered the town and enquired about accommodation. The only thing they could offer us were two bunks in a five-bedded dormitory. We accepted that and we're soon installed, showered and changed. It's quite a big place but they were virtually fully booked. We wondered if our German group had reserved all the places, but it doesn't seem to be the case as we've not seen any of them around in the hostel.

This evening we've just wandered around this part of an interesting town.

Later, being somewhere surprised that this hostel was full, we arranged our accommodation for tomorrow night. That will be after another day on the boardwalks, as we've been promised.

Day 18 - To Matosinhos

It's been a funny day, as they say. Yesterday, for all sorts of reasons was hard going. Our decision to stay at a good hotel at the end of our day's walking helped a lot. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the accommodation in the town was sparse and not given very good reviews. At the beginning of yesterday's walk we did consider going on to São João Da Madeira, which is a bigger town and had more , places to stop. However by the time we reached Oliveira de Azemèis frankly, we'd had enough, and the thought of another 9.5kms with even more hills, and built-up areas, didn't appeal.

So the hotel it was.

Today presented an even greater problem for us. The only possible stopping place between Oliveira and Porto was São João which was now too close for a valid day's walk. After São Joào it was 34kms to Porto, in itself too far in a day for us. Additionally all of the route between Oliveira and Porto is classed as built-up and very hilly. 

After considering all the options we decided to opt-out of that section all-together and travel in to Porto by bus, and then walk on from there. We found the bus times, had a lazy morning, with a very good breakfast in the hotel. A breakfast which I commenced by spilling a full glass of fruit juice all over the sparkling clean table cloth. We had to move to another table. Also, I didn't realise at the time, but I was sitting there wearing my shirt inside out. Not a great start to the day.

We finally got to the bus station about 11am and duly travelled into Porto by bus.  We didn't actually go all the way into Porto, but got off a few stops from the centre, an area we knew from our previous visits.

We walked over the high level "Eiffel" bridge, with its views of the city and into the cathedral area from there.

We needed to go to the cathedral for two reasons. Firstly it is the starting point for the Porto to Santiago Camino. Secondly we needed to purchase two more credentials as our current ones, from Lisbon, are getting full. They will definitely be full before Santiago and there is nowhere else to get additional copies, that we know of, between Porto and Santiago.

As we arrived at the cathedral we met Bernard, from Germany. He had arrived there somewhat earlier than us. He also managed to miss out the grind into Porto after being offered a car lift for about the last 20kms. Shortly afterwards we meet Joe, from Ireland, with his wife. She had flown in to meet him for the weekend before flying back to Ireland leaving Joe to continue his walk to Santiago. We are constantly amazed how often we re-meet people we think we'll never see again. 

We decided to lunch in Porto before starting out to walk along the riverside, out to the Atlantic ocean, and up the coast to Matosinhos, our stopping point for today. We couldn't decide what to have for lunch, that is until we spotted Subway. We decided to try it, and it was exactly the same as every other Subway we've ever been in. We were soon served, had lunch and set off out of town. 

The initial part of the route took us through a lot of the historical, and very touristy, parts of Porto, all of which were crammed with people.

We probably saw as many people this afternoon as we've seen since leaving Lisbon. As we walked along the riverside the crowds reduced slightly but there were lots of people all the way, about 14kms, to the centre of Matosinhos.

The weather was very good, sunny but not too hot and nice, flat, and interesting walking.

Close to Matosinhos, we noticed some bronze plaques set into the pavement on a stretch of the road near the sea, all were related to car racing.  

Some quick research this evening revealed that this road formed part of the "Curcuit de Boavista" a car racing circuit used mainly in the 1950/60s, but still used occasionally today. It was the track used for the Portuguese Formula-1 races on two occasions. Wikipedia has details here.

Just nearby is a beach area, close to the port, that was being used by several surfers. 

The only real problem we had was, as ever, right at the end of the walk. The hotel we're staying in, as pilgrims with a very good rate, is the Holiday Inn Express, which is located about a kilometre out of the town centre and beyond the port area.

It took a little finding. It is however a very nice place.

That's two nights in a row that we've lived in luxury, probably the last for some while, but we have also reached two significant points. The first if that we have reached, and passed, Porto and that we have now walked over 200 miles on this trip. Porto is significant in that many people who say they have walked the Camino Portuguese actually only start from Porto, so we should now start seeing many more pilgrims along the way.

Day 17 - To Oliveira de Azeméis

Last night Barbara took her turn to sleep rather badly for some reason, I slept badly a couple of nights ago. Maybe she was too warm. We'd had to ask for the heating to be turned on earlier in the evening as the room was decidedly chilly, but when it eventually came-on it became much better. I slept OK, but the bed felt as old as the hotel and was not very comfortable. 

Breakfast was not included in our room rental and nobody was around when we were ready to depart. We had heard some voices last night that seemed to be from the room next door, but everything was silent as we left. I took the opportunity to take one or two photos as we left, there hadn't been chance yesterday.

These, I hope, give a little of the feeling off the place. it's like a time warp.

Yesterday we had a very nice coffee break as a cafe very close to the hotel and, at that time, checked their opening time for breakfast. The very cheerful owner said that he was open from 7:00 to 22:00 and he would happily serve us with breakfast. We took him up on his offer this morning and went to his cafe at about 8:15. It was rather busy, but the owner instantly recognised us, told us to sit at a table, and a few minutes later was with us deciding on suitable breakfasts for us. We both decided on fresh bread, cheese and ham. These  were soon prepared served with excellent coffees. A little later, when we'd finished, he came over again for a short chat. We suggested that he, somehow, arranged for an advertising sign nearby as the cafe is just off the obvious route for people on the Camino. He should get lots of custom with the correct advertising.

After great goodbyes and thanks from us we made our departure. We hope that his new venture is successful, he deserves to.

It took us a little while to get out of the town and on our way. The route moved into forest walking quite quickly, again we had problems with very rough and/or flooded tracks from time to time, but nothing impassible.

We did have a rather unsettling incident though at one point. At the time we had just left a forested area and we're walking on the road near to a large convent and religious centre. Here Barbara noticed a bloke on a moped in the large car parking area that ran along side the road that we were walking on. He was following us, as we moved on so did he. As we moved on he eventually left the car park and followed us about 50 metres to our rear at a walking speed for about a quarter of a mile. At one point I deliberately stopped and turned around to face him, he just sat there, not moving on until I returned to walking and left him about 100 metres behind. We shortly afterwards left the road and went back onto a forest track. He didn't follow us and we saw no more of him.

The incident made us remember the young woman, Ava, that we had met a few days before. She was travelling alone, and camping out most nights. We wondered how she would cope with such an encounter. We hadn't seen her, other than in our meeting the other day, so she would probably be further away by now. 

Our forest walking gradually changed into more "urban" walking as more and more buildings intruded into the countryside. Eventual we were walking through rather dreary areas.

The Camino route seemed to be deliberately taking us through all the backstreets of somewhat rundown areas. It was still hilly and the weather had become very humid. All in all that part of today's walk wasn't very enjoyable. To crown it all there was also a great shortage of either suitable sitting points or anywhere to take a break and a coffee. We had found one place at about 11am where we got a drink, but that was off the Camino route, we'd just noticed it marked as nearby on the map.

Our steady progress, through the unimpressive countryside, continued for some while until at lunch time we were again looking for somewhere to rest and get a bite to eat. We'd seen that another cafe was shown, nearby, on our map. We eventually reached it, it looked fine from outside so we decided to go in. As we entered, through a central door, Barbara turned left towards a spare table just as I glanced to the right to see Ava sitting at another table. It was a great coincidence seeing her sitting there after discussing her only about an hour previously. She was fine and making good progress, still sleeping "rough".

We talked for a long while before she decided to move on, she'd already been at the cafe for about an hour recharging her phone etc and needed to move on to get planned stopping place for tonight.

We had our lunch and enjoyed the break, eventually starting the last stage of our planned the for today.

The weather had changed a little when we came out of the cafe, it was somewhat fresher, with a little breeze, much nicer to walk in. Also the countryside was a little more interesting. At one point the footpath shares a rather narrow bridge, under a road, with the local railway line. The path simply runs alongside the track for about 100 metres, no sign of a fence or other protection.

The rail line however sees to be hardly ever used. The rails are very rusty, but with just a faint sign that a train had run along there at some time in the last few weeks. We didn't see any today.

Finally we got near to our destination town, Oliviera, to see the reality of what we'd already seen on the map. We've spent a lot of time today climbing steadily, sometimes descending a little, but the map showed that the very last stage was severely uphill into Oliviera. And that's what it was, a long, and in some places very steep, uphill climb towards the town centre. It seemed never ending as it became very steep towards the top

We were unsure what we might find when we eventually got to the top and the town. There were two albergues listed but one had a very damning review with it, warning pilgrims try stay away from "a filthy place". After last night's place, which eventually was just about OK but expensive, we decided to book into a four-star hotel. 

We did get a good rate when we said that we were weary pilgrims, which at that point was perfectly true. The place is very nice, totally different to last night. We'll enjoy it here.

Day 16 - To Albergeria-A-Velha

I slept on the top bunk last night, in our room for two.  It's the first time on the top bunk since the last Camino. Normally they don't bother me, but last night was uncomfortable. Quite late in the evening the heating in the room turned on, which was quite nice at the time, as it had become rather chilly. However it stayed on all night, with the result that I was rather hot, not sleeping too well. 

We had opted to have breakfast at the albergue this morning, at a very reasonable €2.5 each. We didn't expect to have anything much more than coffee and bread with possibly some jam or marmalade for that price, but we were presented, instead, with a feast. We had a choice of color meats, cheeses, cereals, various fresh fruits, different breads etc.  And excellent coffee, the best in Portugal so far. Very good value.

Les set off at about 8am and was soon followed by a Danish lady that we hadn't met before, but who is doing a solo Camino. We later met her again, briefly, out on the trail.

Today started out with nice weather and we both chose to walk without our legs on. The removable legs of our walking trousers of course. Barbara removed hers a day or so ago, but I only removed mine yesterday. It is much cooler in the warm weather we've had over the last couple of days.

Looking back at our albergue from last night we were glad that today's walk didn't start with the long climb that we finished with yesterday

Our route today gave us two options, one was to walk to Albergeria-A-Velha, a distance of about 16kms or go on to the next town adding another 7kms or so. We opted for the shorter distance, partly to allow us time for washing/drying etc. Our social late afternoon and evening yesterday was very nice but it meant that some things we needed to do didn't get done, so a short day today should help.

Shortly after leaving our albergue we were walking through an industrial area, and not too sure about the way the route went, when a young woman came to us and asked, in good English, if we needed directions. She, she claimed, was also a Camino pilgrim, having walked to Santiago a year or two back and she envied what we were doing. She was just on her way to work and decided to help. "The Camino will provide", goes the legend.

Our route today was, again, very nice countryside. One or two hilly stretches, as is normal around here, but very pleasant. On one stretch we walked along what is claimed to be a Roman route, now bypassed by a modern road, which suddenly became a very long many arched low bridge over a large lake on one side leading to the river on the the other side.  

It is a beautiful place, lots of bird, and frog, songs to entertain you. Up to fairly recently this part of the trail continued across over the river on a higher-arched old (Roman) bridge.  This is no longer possible as the centre arch collapsed into the river some time ago. Instead the route now crosses the valley by means of a very modern, very high bridge.

This gives great views down into the village below, and also saves a lot of descent and ascent across the valley. Shortly after the end of the modern bridge we rejoined the old trail to walk through some more eucalyptus forest and on to our destination town.

There are one or two places to stay here, but we decided to stay at the local pension, the "Casa da Alameda". This has obviously been a very upmarket place in the past, the long past. It's a decidedly funny place, a snapshot of sometime between Victorian and 1950s.  There seem to be lots of bedrooms that are simply storage for assorted furniture and fittings, with staircases that should lead elsewhere but are now cordoned off by strategically placed armchairs.  Everywhere is either very dark-brown wood furniture and muddy cream walls, or is painted dark-brown to match the woodwork. But we have our own room and bathroom. We did have to request that the heating be put on as it was decidedly chilly. 

Anyway we've had a restful and useful afternoon, and as a fortunate side-effect, missed walking in some very heavy rain that occurred not long after we arrived. This evening we had a short stroll around the centre of town finding a rather good cafe for our breakfast tomorrow. The place is run by a local man who lived for some time in Montreal in Canada where he learned his English, amongst the French of course. But he was very eager to practice English again and refused any attempt by us to try any of our very sparse Portuguese. " I must practice my English before I forget it " he claimed. He also repeatedly said "You are very welcome here", something that we've noticed all over Portugal so far.