Living the retirement dream

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Take another walk in our shoes. Caminho Portugues da Costa

There are numerous Camino de Santiagos and as part of our training for our second attempt at completing the Camino this October we are enjoying trying out short segments of other Caminos. We walked about 17 miles out of Madrid on May 24 and we thought that it would be fun to now walk out of Porto on the Portuguese coastal route.

08:00 start for our one day Portuguese Camino walk beginning from the front door of our Air BNB in Porto. Cloudless sunny sky and low 70’s thanks to a sea breeze.
Our first arrow showing the way. We found the Portuguese route to be well marked with these arrows and it is fun finding them. Sometimes they are more obvious than others. We do not rely on them completely and use a Buen Camino App which is very reliable. It is no fun getting lost and adding more miles than you want.
Another two markers. The large one at the top is on the Albergue shown below.
We stopped at this albergue to get our Camino Credenciales and Camino shell. An albergue is a short term shared social lodging exclusively for “pilgrims” doing the Camino. It is very inexpensive but can be quite noisy at night with people snoring. We are way too old for that and will be staying at pre booked hotels in September.
The Pilgrim credenciale is stamped at various churches and albergues along the Camino route. You are required to receive a certain amount of stamps before reaching Santiago de Compostela. Of course that will not happen today but we thought it would be fun to keep it authentic even just for a day and wearing the shell denotes we are doing a pilgrimage.
Our first church to get a stamp along the way.
Pilgrims with credenciales get into many churches and museums for free.
A simply adorned chapel. No baroque carvings.
Sandy lit a candle to keep us safe and successful on our walk.
Mile two we met this pilgrim who was doing only one week of the Portuguese route. This was day one for here. Her name was Garazi and she is from San Sebastián Spain.
We walked about 3-4 miles with her before she stopped for a bathroom break. We thought we would meet up again but never did and unfortunately she was the only Pilgrim we encountered. There are many routes that fan out from Porto. She may have gone a different way. We were doing the Coastal route.
Another church along the way in the town of Nova Real.
We are going the correct way.
These two house were on the same street. We have sadly seen many of these abandoned houses in the towns.
Just two houses away was this house.
First stop after almost 5 miles we had breakfast of hard boiled eggs and OJ.
Hard not to see this signage.
Another pretty modern house in a very old village.
We walked by miles and miles of corn fields.
So much farmland in this country.
Road side shrines pop up everywhere, some more elaborate than others.
These maps along the way highlighted points of interest ahead and showed us where we were in relation to them.
These are new and more prominent markers of the Camino route which is much better than a faded yellow arrow on the road.
This Chapel was closed as they were having their service outside.
Outdoor service in a lovely park next to the church.
We saw so many different species of flowers. This is Chinese Wisteria.
Bougainvillea.
Roses.
Rose of Sharon.
Another abandoned property.
Golden Angel Trumpets.
As we mentioned earlier some of the arrow markings are very old and easy to miss. Like this one.
Small chapel but ornate. We tried to get a stamp in our credenciale but the priest was having lunch and refused our request.
The old arrows are being replaced by these.
We walked to the Porto Airport from downtown and then walked completely on by it.
These are called Balloon plants or Hairy balls or Bishop’s balls.
Corn irrigation, a massive amount of water covering very large fields.
Pilgrim statue at a church around mile 12.
Tiles showing a Pilgrim and the scallop shells. The Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, has traditionally been a religious pilgrimage ending in Santiago, allegedly the burial place of Saint James. Today most people do it as a chance to unplug and self reflect and/or clear their head of burdens and feel a connection with nature and mankind by the many relations developed with other people along the way who become your Camino Family. People who walk the Camino are known as pilgrims or “peregrinos” and greet each other with the welcome of Buen Camino, loosely translated as ” Have a great experience”. The scallop shell the Pilgrims display on their back packs with its shape of many lines converging to one location represents the many routes there are leading to your end point destination, Santiago. In summary the Camino is not about the destination but more about the journey to get there that is most meaningful, at least to us.

The graveyards are beautifully maintained.
Mile 12 reinforcements, Pastels de Nata and local beer.
Another Rose of Sharon.
Unusual to see brown not blue tiles.
We enjoyed this shaded path and occasional ocean breeze.
Many churches were open but priest was unavailable to give us a stamp. The Parrish churches in this area are all very similar.
Mile 16 we saw these beautiful horses.
Sandy was so excited. She had been looking for animals all day besides the barking dogs along the way.
A beautiful home in a very rural location.
At 17.7 miles we decided to take a 45 minute local train ride back to Porto.
This Metro train took us to within two blocks of Porto accommodations. When we started this morning we had no idea or plan for how many miles we would do today. We were pleasantly surprised that we got nearly 18 miles in and felt good at the end which boosted our confidence for our commitment to do the 500 mile Camino Frances Route in 5 weeks this September/October.

Living our retirement dream

6 responses to “Take another walk in our shoes. Caminho Portugues da Costa”

  1. Bill & Karen Boyle Avatar
    Bill & Karen Boyle

    Looks like it was a beautiful day for a walk and a pleasant temperature to boot. Despite all the headline news of fires, heat, and congestion you two continue to find the other “road less travelled”. Buen Camino

    Reply
  2. Victoria S Kinnally Avatar
    Victoria S Kinnally

    You two are tenacious. Sounds like you are in a good place to complete your Camino Santiago. Will look forward to reading your story.

    Reply
    1. Debbie Maniace Avatar
      Debbie Maniace

      Well done!

      Reply
  3. Lucy Duffy Avatar
    Lucy Duffy

    Wonderful!!! Love every bit of it! You are terrific to share it! LOVE, Lucy

    Reply
  4. Eugenea Avatar
    Eugenea

    Absolutely amazing and beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing your inspiring experience 🙏as mentioned before we would have loved to walk at 2 weeks out the 5 weeks with you guys💚I believe wholeheartedly that you and Jim will complete de Camino Santiago this year. In the meantime stay healthy, keep on moving and see you somewhere in Europe soon.

    Reply
  5. Rebecca C Yang Avatar
    Rebecca C Yang

    It looks like you two are in great shape! I hope you are staying well hydrated given the heat wave going on. I just read an article how Italy is going to reconstitute the Appian Way. I think that should be your next track after completing the Camino Frances.🤗❤️

    Reply

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