The addiction has taken hold, we are back on the Camino

Porto Cathedral..... 
.....where we had our credencials stamped


After we completed the Camino Frances in 2010 my wife Pauline and I were chatting with a number of other peregrinos outside a bar in Santiago. It emerged that our fellow countrywoman, Patricia from Downpatrick, had just completed her ninth Camino, eight from St Jean and one from Porto. When Pauline heard this she was taken aback and said, "Why would you want to do it again, I've done it once and that's it". Patricia's response was, "Just you wait. You'll be sitting by the fire around Christmas time, thinking back on your Camino, and looking forward to experiencing it all over again".

 Patricia was right and in the depth of winter we were planning another Camino. Pauline was insistent that we would not walk the same route and so we settled on the Camino Portugues. At the time we decided that the best way to get to our planned starting point was to fly from Dublin to Lisbon and take the bus to Porto. I had visited Lisbon briefly in 1967 (for a football match - another story) and never got back to see the city properly. This was my opportunity, so we spent a couple of nights in Lisbon and a couple of nights in Porto.
Lisbon

Lisbon

Next: Our Day 1 - Porto to Vila do Conde

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7: Tui to O Porriño - Friday, September 30, 2011

Image
Party time in O Porriño  We had hoped that we might be able to get breakfast on the way out of Tui but it was not to be; our first coffee was more than 9km away. On route we had to cross a motorway which highlighted the Spanish approach to lavish spending on new roads. We left a minor tarred road to walk up a dirt track and enter a forest. Round the first bend the dirt track gave way to tarmacadam which led on to a fine new bridge over the motorway. It was wide enough to carry at least three lanes of traffic but as soon as we were across we were back on a forest dirt track. A short distance further on we came to Cruceiro San Telmo. Six or seven locals were there with a variety of implements, presumably to tidy the site. They seemed to be bit grudging with their 'buenos dias'. Coffee and a muffin were really appreciated when we reached Orbenlle and it was helped by meeting up with fellow peregrinos, including for the first time a German-based Iranian and his daught...
Read more

Some thoughts and observations – Wednesday, October 12, 2011:

Image
I have probably gone into too much detail in describing our Camino but I must admit that I wrote it as much for my own records as to inform others. I have frequently referred to Brierley and questioned him here and there. I should make it clear that we were using the 2009 edition of the Pilgrim's Guide and the 2010 edition of the Maps. There is a 2011 edition of the guide and I was unaware until I had finished walking that there is a web page with additional changes. From the time we left Porto until we arrived in Santiago we did not meet another peregrino whose first language was English. I walked the entire Camino in very open trekking sandals which others thought odd. Last year I only wore sandals for the final hour or two of each day but I found them such a relief that I decided to wear them all day. This year I did not experience the agonising pain in my feet that I can remember going into Larasoana, Logroño and Estella or coming down the steep hill into El Aceib...
Read more

Day 12: Padron to Santiago - Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Image
Journey's end We left Padron at 6:50am and required the help of a local after 750m. On crossing a bridge we saw two very large yellow arrows indicating a left turn. As soon as we made the turn a young woman, who had been walking towards us, made it very clear that we should have continued straight ahead. We took her advice which turned out to be sound. Could the arrows have been placed there by the bar owner whose advertisement in the albergue offered breakfast about a km along the Camino? We didn't see his restaurant. A short time later we lost the arrows briefly - it was still dark - we took what we thought was the right road and quickly noticed arrows on a parallel road on the other side of an unguarded railway track. We were able to clamber across with ease. Breakfast was scheduled 6.2km into the day, at A Esclavitude, but nothing was open so we settled for a picnic by the side of the road. Three km further on we did get our first coffee of the day. We wer...
Read more