Today was 10 miles and 400′ of climbing, for totals of: 28 miles walked and 800′ climbed.  Well, most of that “climbing” is probably the steps up to the boardwalk and down … because it has been REALLY flat!

A tale of two beaches!

We started this morning on a very quiet town (Labruge),

(Last night, after dinner)

The morning was cooler, the surf was up, and the beaches, very, very quiet.

We walked for many more miles on well preserved boardwalks before leaving the coast for the big city of Vila de Conde.

(the local church)

While a nice enough town, it went on for a long time and we definitely prefer to be out in the country.

We ended the day’s journey in the adjacent town of Povoa Varzim, the region’s designated “vacation beach town”! I tried to take photos of the beach scene, but the beaches were so covered with pay-per-sit cabanas, that you couldn’t tell that it was a beach!

We’re about 300 yards off that scene (better!) And tomorrow in less than a half mile, we’ll be back out in the country. We’re okay with that 👌.

Just before we got to the hotel we were stopped by a man in a wheelchair. No problem, we thought. If he needs help, we can help. Well, he didn’t need help. He spoke (in English) and wanted to know if we were walking the Camino (yes). Where are we from (US), and what part (California). He then tells us of his years working on an oil platform in Long Beach. Of the good memories he had of those times. So, all he wanted to do was talk and reminisce! It was actually very heart warming.

One of the reasons we work so hard to learn languages is to have these kind of conversations with locals. We figured that, since we knew ZERO Portuguese, that we wouldn’t get any of these special connections this time. Well, we got a treat, anyways. What a genuinely pleasant gentleman!

Enough for now. Until tomorrow!

Finish of Stage 1 for 9 miles walked and 400′ climbed.  Total this trip; 17 miles walked and 700′ climbed.

We’ve not seen a stage like this one in all our journeys; over 5 miles of oceanfront boardwalk!

The temperature was in the low 70’s with just enough overcast to keep the sun from toasting and a pleasant breeze … it could not have been nicer for this walk!

We left our wonderful place in Porto at a leisurely 10 am,

Caught the bus about 500 yds up the road, and spent the next 8 miles looking out the bus window at all our fellow peregrinos actually hiking! When we got to the Matosinhos Fish Market the end of our hike yesterday),

we started walking! 9 miles later, we’re in our night’s accommodation where we now face showers, laundry and the search for a nice dinner. A tough life us wanderers face!

Until tomorrow..

Today is not quite day 1.  It was 8 miles of trail walked,  and about 200′ of climbing.

We officially start tomorrow. Today’s goal was to:  1) Recover (more, later), 2) Drop off a bag for DHL to ship to our finish line, and 3) see some sights around Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹!

(The Porto Train Station)

1) Recover: We had an efficient flight into Lisbon from SFO, arriving Tuesday, mid-day. We had hoped to directly catch the Lisbon to Porto train, but it was sold out, leaving us to wait for the next train (3 hours later).

While jet-lag is always an issue when flying distances, we were both recovering from a nasty cold that cut our energy levels way down. Those extra, non-sleeping hours were rough.

(The view of Pont Luis from our place in Porto)

We finally got to our place, enjoyed the view, and slept!

The next day, we formally checked into our place as we had arrived too late the night before, then did tourist things. (Item 3, on our list)

At the Cathedral which serves as the start of this Camino, there were a number of college students sporting the local Porto university uniform.

If it looks familiar to you, it’s because that uniform served as the example for the Hogwarts (Harry Potter school) uniform, as Porto was where JK Rawlings wrote the book(s).

2) Drop off the bag: We have, on several of these trips, taken an extra non-backpack bag that we ship ahead to where we will finish the hike.  This bag is much like Christmas … new (clean) clothes and  other treats for our non-hiking tourist days!

We had arranged with DHL to drop off the bag at a local store where they receive such items. No problem!

Well, we had several hours of time and no particular need, so we decided to walk a bit of the formal hike, but without the backpack. 3 hours later and 8 miles up the coast, we were in Matosinhos, about half way to our tomorrow’s stage finish!

A ride on the local bus brought us back to our place in Porto. Tomorrow, we’ll get back on that bus (with our backpacks, this time), and start from where we left off today. Diane calculates it to be another 8 or so miles.

All for now.  Thanks for rejoining us!