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Published: October 26th 2017
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Cathedral in LisbonOkay, kids, you can stop worrying. it’s your parents reporting. Sorry we haven’t posted. Our internet connection has not always been good and/or we’ve just been too tired at night to write. It’s also taken me a while to figure out this new blog site and especially how to include photos. This will be a pretty unsophisticated blog – not a travelogue. It’s primarily for our family and friends and also to help us remember our walk. For those of you following from American Pilgrims on the Camino you may get bored! But you may indeed learn something new about the Portuguese Camino. If you’ve followed us before our posts may be much shorter. Maybe then we can post something every day. But now we will catch up on the last
10 9 days.
We landed in Lisbon on Sunday the 15
th after a thankfully uneventful flight and proceeded to pretty much sleep away the next 2 days! We stayed in Lisbon for 4 days in an Airbnb, near the downtown area, explored some of the city along the River Tagus, took the train to Sintra, a former royal sanctuary in the forested mountains and mostly stayed in our apartment
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Discoveries Monument the final rainy day getting ready for walking and catching up on some business. The food has been really good in Portugal, and at this rate I will probably gain back the 25 lbs I lost training prior to the trip.
Thursday, October 19th, to Moscavide, 11 km. Our first day of walking. We made our way to the Cathedral, the official beginning of the Portuguese Camino, to get our Credential stamped. It was a nice but sometimes confusing walk out of Lisbon, through the old town, some suburbs and down to the River Tagus, through the Parque das Nações, which was the site of Expo 98. The recommended “stage” to walk the first day would have taken us 24 kms., and we just didn’t want to start out our Camino by walking that far. The only albergue at Parque das Nações was full so we stayed at an Airbnb nearby with a nice young Chinese couple and their family. They didn’t speak English, and we don’t speak Chinese or Portuguese, so it was interesting.
Friday, October 20th. To Alpriarte, 14 kms. It was a nice walk along the river at first, but then we had a long
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In front of Torre de Belem slog along an old canal for a couple of hours. Lots of bamboo which in places almost covered the trail. It seemed to be Lisbon’s favorite illegal dumping ground. Oh well, the good, the bad and the ugly of the Camino. It’s all there. Tonight we’re at a small albergue in Alpriarte run by Via Lusitana, a Portuguese Camino association. There are only 5 of us here – had some great conversations with the 3 Canadians who also stayed. The albergue was created so that pilgrims would have a place to stay between Lisbon and Vila Franca De Xira. I’m sleeping poorly so far. In a week or so I’ll be so tired I won’t care anymore and will sleep like a baby!
Saturday, October 21st, to Vila Franca de Xira, DP Hostel, 19+kms. It was supposed to be only a 16 km walk today, so either my step counter or the guidebooks are wrong. Today we had a variety of walking experiences. Through huge bamboo groves, now-fallow agricultural fields, dumping grounds, a lovely boardwalk along the river and through wetlands, scary walking along a highway with sometimes narrow shoulders, and back to nice walking along the riverfront promenade.
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Moors' Castle in Sintra We walked almost 20 kms. today and we both are sore and exhausted. I don’t think I mentioned that I’m carrying my backpack this time (as opposed to last year’s Camino Frances where blisters and injuries had me shipping it ahead everyday to the next stop). Of course, Charlie has most of the weight, carrying the tablet (we both have online businesses to maintain) and all his tech gear and some of my stuff. I’m not sure where I am now – 12 or 13 lbs? So far so good. Soreness but no blisters.
Sunday, October 22nd, to Azambuja, Flor de Primavera, 21 kms. Another day of varied walking – by the River Tagus (lots narrower here) and through fields formerly planted with tomatoes, but mostly road walking. We’ve met some interesting folks today – what I love most about walking. We’ve gotten some stares too - the Camino from Lisbon to Porto is not well known. First an elderly local gentleman walked along with us for about 10 minutes talking to us in Portuguese. He told us all about the river and how it went all the way to Spain, how he had walked to Fatima, and who
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View from Moor's Castle in Sintra knows what else! We politely nodded our heads when we didn’t understand. My Spanish helps a little, but the pronunciation is so different. A little later we met a local man on a bicycle who had cycled all the way to Rome on a pilgrimage. The day started out nice and cool – my first day to wear my fleece, but it quickly warmed up. Our new best friends are a couple from Japan who have walked many Caminos, plus the Temple walk in Japan (88 temples, 1000 plus kms.). They passed us walking, are staying in the same place and joined us for dinner.
Monday, October 23rd, to Porto da Muge, Quinta da Burra. A much nicer walk today, especially along a canal. It was windy and cold this morning, but hot later in the day. It was a long walk to the 1
st bar for our “second breakfast.” We continued walking along the river, sometimes besides the dike, sometimes atop it. The sun was really getting to me (it’s unseasonably warm here for October), and we were just a kilometer or so from our destination when a woman in a car drove up, introduced herself as Paula,
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First yellow arrow at the start of the Portuguese Camino at the Cathedral in Lisbon - hard to see! our hostess and offered us a ride. We politely declined (or rather Charlie declined), and she drove off into town. Hmmm. On her way back she stopped and again asked, and I quickly said yes before Charlie had a chance to say no! (Charlie continued to walk – the car was small.) When we got there she offered me a drink and told me the story of her quinta. It is a beautiful former quinta (farm) which she bought several years ago as a ruin and has slowly been restoring. She had no intention of running a guesthouse. One day a pilgrim knocked on her door in a pouring rain and begged for a place to stay. A couple of months later 2 more asked for accommodation, and an idea was born. Our room was rustic-looking but thoroughly modern.
Paula is a wonderful hostess. Our accommodation included breakfast and a sandwich to take for lunch and a room with a private bathroom, all for 20 euros each. Optional was a “donativo” dinner – you pay what you think it’s worth – and we jumped at that. Dinner was really very nice – vegetable soup, pasta, chicken and spinach. It
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Vasco da Gama Bridge across the Tagus River - the longest bridge in Europe was good to see a green vegetable (only lettuce so far)! There were 5 guests, the Japanese couple and Anita from Germany.
Okay. That's all we can do now. We're actually in Fatima now, leaving in the morning (Friday). I'll try to post again in a couple of days and more often after that instead of these long reports. As you can see, I haven't quite figured out the placement of photos, so they don't appear with the corresponding text. We'd love to hear your comments.
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Dianne
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We walked from Lisbon to Santiago in Sept to Oct 2017. It is fun reading your blog. Have a wonderful pilgrimage! We so enjoyed Paula and Quinta Burra. By the way, you are not seeing bamboo. It is an invasive plant that looks a lot like bamboo.