Days 1 and 2. -Leaving Lisbon - Sort of.,...

DAYS 1 AND 2 – LEAVING LISBON, SORT OF……
APRIL 7, 2016

I’ve decided to combine our first two days of “proper” walking the Camino out of Lisbon. It will become clearer-why as we go on.

As I may have mentioned somewhere else, the first few stages of walking from Lisbon are not straightforward. Part of this is due to the geography of the city, it has a large semi-industrial history. It was, and is, a world ranking port and hence has many miles of seafront port facilities, backed by residential and other industrial or commercial development. Much of this is quite old, some thriving, other parts deserted with empty buildings or just empty sites. It is through this area that the initial stages of the Portuguese Camino run.

The sum-total of all of this is that there is essentially no pilgrim accommodation for the first thirty-plus kms. In fact there is very little hotel property either, what there is available is very exclusive and expensive.

There is no-way that we are going to walk something over thirty kms in one go, certainly not as the first stage, so we have had to use an alternative strategy, one that was suggested by a Camino expert. This works by staying in Lisbon for an extended period but walking out and riding back and forth on local transport.  So yesterday, our first day of walking, we set-out from the cathedral, having had our Credential stamped, and then walked about 12km to Sacavem. There we caught a train back into Lisbon and to our lodgings,. Today we took the train back to Sacavem then walked 24 km to Alhandra before taking the train back here to our lodgings. Tomorrow we will take the train back again to Alhandra and walk out about another 24km but this time we stay out. We have already booked a room at a small hotel. More of that later.

My brain hurts with all this faffing about, how about yours?

All of this shuffling back and forth overcomes the lack of accommodation and is very cheap. The train back tonight, about a 30km ride, cost us 1.85 Euros each or about £1.50. That was even without bothering to claim old age reductions.  It is doing what we hoped it would do in terms of getting started, but it is VERY time consuming.  This compounded with having internet connection problems means that it has been a struggle to get my blog posts done on time.

Day 1 – Lisbon To Sacavem Day 2 is below

We set out fairly early, called at the cathedral for out initial stamp, a ‘Carimbo’ in Portuguese. The guy at the cathedral told us that they have several people every day starting out from there. The numbers are small at the moment but will increase radically in May, and through the summer.

The very first part of the way runs through the Alfama district, about 100 metres from our lodgings and then down towards one of the main rail stations and the Cruise Ship terminal. Today there was a Fred Olsen cruise ship docked.

From there it was through lots of the old dock and military areas. Some old buildings were interesting in i their own rights,  but things became much more interesting towards the end of today’s stage.

We walked through the “Parque Das Nacoes”, the site of ” Expo98″ the 1998 World Fair. This  large area, originally developed for the world fair, but is now used for all sorts of leisure, educational and artistic purposes. One of the very nice things there is a very long cable-car system. We’re always suckers for this sort of thing, so we had a ride, it gave us a rest from walking and also transferred us about 1km onwards on our travels.

Following that, the rest of the walk to Sacavem train station was mainly through the parkland of the area. We had a quick ride back to Lisbon on the train into Santa Appolonia station about a half mile from our lodgings.

In the evening we decided to eat out. We thought that we would try one of the small bars in the lower parts (altitude-wide) of Alfama. We only wanted something simple and quick. What happened next still has us confused, but it happened. We were walking along one of the narrow alleyways that are lined with bars and eateries when a guy at the door asked us if we were interested in eating there. We initially declined, but then changed our minds and went in for a look. It was a small, empty area, it was early so we weren’t surprised., and decided to stay. At this, the guy lead us up some stairs into the main eating room, which was very busy with very well dressed clients in a very swish environment, and sat us down as a table. Almost immediately a very large lady singer started her “Fado” session immediately next to our table, accompanied by two guitar players. She was loud? certainly. On key,? most of the time, but very unexpected . We were stuck, were couldn’t really escape, so decided to stick it out. We were given a menu each and ordered our choices. By this time the soprano had finished, to be replaced by an equally large, wonky voiced tenor. He was very earnest, but also equally as loud as the soprano. By this time out food had arrived and we were totally stuck. To totally crown it, you’ve got to know that we were sitting there, in this very swish place amongst very well-dressed people, in the clothes we had been walking in all day, and we hadn’t even had time for a shower before going out for what was going to be a quick, simple meal. Goodness only knows what the other guests thought we were at.

Neither of us thought that the food was very good. It was pretentious, but very mediocre quality with poor service. To finish off an exciting evening when we tried to settle-up before we rushed away from this nightmare we discovered that they didn’t accept any kind of cards, cash only! Fortunately we had enough, just, to pay the bill before escaping.

Day 2 – Sacavem to Alhandra

After a quick journey back to yesterday’s end point we followed the trail mainly through countryside. The route is described by the writer of our guide as “an ugly walk all the way to Alhandra”. We didn’t find it so. In many ways it was very pretty and certainly interesting. We followed a small tidal river, not “an old abandoned canal”, for many kilometres along a valley. Admittedly at the edges of the valley there could be seen industrial and residential areas, but the areas immediate next to the walk were very interesting. We saw lots of wild flowers, heard lots of birdsong,  frogs croaking. We also saw some sheep and lambs and lots of other things. We were under the flight path from Lisbon airport, but that wasn’t too intrusive. Over all we enjoyed the walk. Much of the land send to be a clay-like soil so some of the paths had puddles of all sizes available for our intrepid walkers to step into.

Whilst doing this part of the walk we met our first companion Camino walker. This is Stuart Nelson, “The Man in the Blue Blazer”, on Facebook. Not only was he English, but from Yorkshire too. That is a very unlikely combination as vet few Camino walker are from England, let alone Yorkshire. At one point he helped us across a very boggy patch by lending us his walking poles. Stupidly we’d left ours behind at the apartment thinking that we wouldn’t need any. He was walking rather quicker than us, as he had further to go, so he soon was well ahead of us. Possibly well meet him somewhere else later, who knows.

The latter part of the walk was on a very new, and long, boardwalk through an extensive nature reserve at the edge of the River Tajo.

This is Lisbon’s main river and it was delightful. In between we went through a number if small towns and some industrial areas, but generally it was a good, but long, day.

We returned by train, as explained above, but decided to stay in tonight to avoid being mobbed by the crowds expecting a repeat performance of our “Weird people out of context” performance at the restaurant down the road.

In Lisbon

When we arrived yesterday evening, somewhat tired after our journey and by the time we’d settled in it was nearly midnight, so off to bed we went. We’d hardly been there for more than a few minutes when a loud clattering sound was heard outside. At first I thought that someone was wheeling a suitcase over the cobbles, but it continued for quite a while and involved a number of objects being wheeled across the cobbles. I eventually decided that it could be one or more people taking their wheelie rubbish bins to some central collecting point. The streets around her are so steep, narrow and uneven that it can’t be possible to bring a refuse vehicle anywhere near most of the properties. Whatever, the noise eventually subsided and we slept.

The apartment is the lowest floor of a three storey building in the Alfama district of Lisbon, the area being known for being extremely hilly. The young man that owns our apartment owns the whole building and has converted each floor into individual apartments that he rents out. He also lives just down the street.

Today was to be a day of investigating and exploring the city with one or two necessary things thrown in. The first priority was explore our immediate area and to find some breakfast.

We headed down towards the main part of the city, soon finding a small cafe and having our breakfast, then it was exploration time.

Time for some pictures!

One of our “must do” objectives was to locate the cathedral to check if we could get the initial stamp for our “Credential” there, and to check opening times etc for tomorrow when we actually start our Camino walk proper. We knew that it was close to our apartment, but didn’t go there until later, after we had explored some more.

At one point we called into the tourist information office to ask about tram routes and times, which we were given, but we were also advised to buy a 6 Euro day pass which we could also use on the metro, buses and the numerous elevators, funiculars and the underground railway (Metro). The price seemed to be very reasonable, so we spent the rest of the day, after finally going to the cathedral, and getting all the info we needed, just exploring. Our main expedition was out to the Belem area of the city. This is on the coast, a few miles from the centre, westwards towards the Atlantic. Here is, amongst many interesting things, a monument to “Henry the Navigator”. This is an immense stone structure on the very edge of the water. Spectacular

Henry the Navigator monument

View from the top of the monument

We eventually went back into town by tram, there are lots in Lisbon and started preparing for tomorrow. We plan to  start our Camino walking by going to the cathedral, getting the first stamps on our Credentials (Pilgrim Passports, showing the route you have taken along your ” way “) and walking to Sacavem, about 12km and with more or less full packs, before returning here by train. This will be a short day, but a good start. More of that tomorrow.

Getting To Lisbon

So!, today we fly to Lisbon to eventually start our new Camino.


As we weren’t flying until early evening we planned to leave home at nearly lunchtime. The morning was spent doing last minute activities such as tidying, rechecking our bags etc, eventually leaving at about 11:30. We hoisted our bags on our backs and set off to the bus stop. Soon we were at Huddersfield train station for our train to Liverpool. 
The train was on time and the journey to Liverpool airport all went smoothly and to plan. We’d allowed ourselves plenty of leeway in case of delays and had none, all very good so far.

It’s some time since we last used Liverpool airport and that experience hadn’t been very good, it was then rather like a building site. All that work is now finished and working well, so we we able to quickly check-in my rucksack. We’d wrapped and taped it in a large outer bag to keep all the straps etc under control. This has to be done as my bag contained two pairs of nail scissors and our walking poles which you cannot “carry on”. The flight was on schedule so we had some while to wait in the departures lounge. 

We’d not been there very long when a very pleasant man, Chris as we later learned, came up to us to ask if we’d just been on a Camino. He had recognised the Camino badges and the cockle shell on Barbara’s bag. We explained that we’d actually done one previously but we were now just setting out to do another one through Portugal. He’d walked part of the Spanish route, from St Jean Pied de Port to near Burgos, and was planning on going back to do some more when he got the chance. He was waiting for his flight to Belfast which was delayed. We spent some time talking about the Camino and our joint experiences. Eventually our departure gate was announced and we had to go, but we’d spent a very interesting half an hour, or so, chatting.

We soon found our gate and were quickly checked through as we’d paid extra on our ticket to be able to choose our own seats and to get preferential boarding. However we then had to wait in another area adjacent to the actual gate. Looking through the window we couldn’t see an aircraft outside and wondered if it hadn’t yet arrived. A transfer bus eventually arrived and we were almost the first to board. When the bus arrived at the plane it stopped but nobody was allowed off. We sat there for maybe 15 minutes, apparently because the disembarkation of a disabled passenger on the plane’s previous flight had had some problems. When we were eventually allowed to board it was a case of every man for himself, so much for preferential boarding. Never mind, we soon got on and found our seats and settled in, leaving shortly afterwards, only about 10 minutes late.

About half way into our journey there came an announcement that nobody ever likes to hear; “Ladies and gentlemen, is there a doctor, nurse or other medical person on board?”. It seems that someone was not well towards the back of the plane, quite what was the problem we didn’t find out although one of the stewardesses took the first-aid bag down the cabin. I suddenly wondered if this was going to be a replay of a flight we had in America some years back when the flight had to be diverted to allow the ill passenger to be disembarked. On that flight the emergency meant that we missed a connection, eventually arriving at our destination nearly 12 hours late. Everything seemed to be under control on this occasion and the flight continued, and went well. There was, apparently, a strong tail wind and despite departing late we arrived in Lisbon about 10 minutes early. 

The disembarkation process went reasonably OK, the check at immigration was via an electronic system and was very quick. The bag collection was rather slower but not really a problem and I soon had my rucksack. Similarly we soon found, and boarded, our prebooked bus into town, a journey that took about 30 minutes. We had managed to make contact with Kleber, who owned the AirBnB appartment, saying that we should be there by about 10pm. 

That didn’t quite happen as when we got off the bus and started to follow a map that we had, we discovered that it didn’t have sufficient detail of the Alfama district to be useful. After getting rather conflicting directions from two different pairs of people we were totally lost, and to add to the confusion my phone battery had died and we couldn’t ring for info from Kleber. I suddenly remembered, however, that my tablet had detailed mapping of the whole of Portugal and also, thankfully, plenty of battery power. Using that soon got us to the apartment (40 minutes after we had expected) where Kleber was waiting along with his wife.

We were soon shown around the apartment and left to settle in. It is a very nice place, small but very well equipped and homely and will suit us very well for our short stay in Lisbon. It is also very close to the “Se” or cathedral, the starting point of our Camino route. But that is all still in the future, for now we’ll settle in and explore Lisbon tomorrow.