To Quote Homer Simpson...

Doh!

I just checked the distance on the map against the one in the guide.  For yesterday's walk the guide said 27km, the map I'm attempting to follow says 41km.  My plan was for 25 km per day.  According to the map I've averaged closer to 32 km.   No wonder it's taking longer and I'm more tired than I should be!

I passed a popular surfing area this morning.  They have a whole series of these booths for changing and storage.  No one was out riding the waves when I went by.  This surfer would have been interesting to watch.

Speaking A Foreign Language

I came to expect a certain response from people in Lisbon and Porto when I tried to speak Portuguse to them.  They smile.  They nod. They respond by asking if I would like to speak English.  Sometimes they even go so far as to claim that they understood what I was trying to say.  Then I get into the smaller places, a bakery or store in a smaller town and they just look confused when I try to say something as simple as hello.  I have always had a problem with pronunciation and it just gets worse when I try to speak any other language.  It is frustrating, but something I expected. 

What I didn't expect was the problems following the yellow arrows.  It seems there is a bit of a conflict between the Camino da Coastal people and those of the Senda Litoral.  Dispite it's name, the Camino da Coastal doesn't always follow the coast.  It takes wide loops inland to go by a church or something.  Whereas the Senda Litoral follows the coast as closely as possible.   Today, for example, I followed the arrows down a dirt road through a eucalyptus forest to a soccer stadium, then more forest and a school.  They took me through a town bypassing all businesses so I couldn't restock my snacks.  Coming into Esposende  tonight the arrows insisted that I cross on the south side of a round-about so as to miss all the direction markers for the cars coming into town, then take you down an alley to go past a church.   What I really needed to see was the direction marker for the tourist information building.  I know this is very un-pilgrimlike, but screw the arrows from now until I join the main route, I'll follow the maps I downloaded.  It should save me about five km per day.

I kept crossing paths with a French couple today.  They had extra time after finishing thieir camino so decided to walk the coast north from Porto as much as possible before they go home.  They didn't have a guidebook or even whatseems  like a map, but were going towards water whenever they could.  I last saw them headed for the beach right before a golf course that my sources said was impassible.

Not many pictures today because the forests and farm lands aren't all that pretty.  This is a stone cross where I headed inland to avoid some sand walking and got kidnapped  by the coastal route arrows.

I have no idea how far I walked today, but the marker about three km ago said 201 to Santiago, so I'll go with 60 down and 198 to go.

That Didn't Feel Like 12 Miles

My first full day walking.  The maps said it was about 20 km, but it feels like more. I walked from 9:30 to 5:30 with two stops and I was done  about three km from Vila do Comde.   The map must be wrong.  I didn't get lost today, I just accidentally decided to follow the wheelchair route instead of the regular one. That had to add a kilometer or ten to the total. 

I was tired and grumpy when I finally arrived in Vila do Conde. All issues melted away when I stumbled into Evora's Tea and Guest House. She showed me to the room and the bathroom is bigger than the ones in the two hotels combined.  She also provides free breakfast for pilgrims.  She is wonderful   

I finally has a chance to wander around town.  There are old churches on almost every  block, there are parks and squares every few blocks, and a huge sundial on the riverside.  I promise you will be incredibly bored with the photos if you are ever dumb enough to ask to see them.  Wandering meant that I was still up and moving when the early dinners were served at 8pm.  Until now I had been living off of sandwiches and fruit that was easy to pick up and transport (no, I don't mean McDonalds).  Tired  now and going to sleep.   Here is the park with the huge sundial. 

Km done: 34 or so

Km to go: 124 or so

First Steps

I was prepared to fall in love with Lisbon and tolerate Porto.   I think I got it backwards.  Don't get me wrong, I really liked what I saw of Lisbon, I just didn't have time to see even the top few things on my list so decided not to be bothered by what I wouldn't see.  Porto, however, has surprised me from the start.  

I was getting ready for bed Friday night when I checked to see when the tourist information office would open on Saturday.  Their webpage took me to a listing of events.  That page said there would be 3D mapping at city hall on Friday every half hour from 10pm to 1am.  I checked to see where city hall was and it was 6/10 of a kilometer away. I threw on shoes and asked the reception desk for directions.  They said they didn't know of any events, implying it was a waste of time, but gave me directions.  (If you haven't heard of 3D mapping check YouTube for the one done at Santiago de Compostela.)  The show wasn't as intense as I expected, but it was being done for the Saint John festivities so I am giving them a break. 

Saturday morning I headed for the cathedral.  I turned the corner just a block from city hall and the cathedral was revealed, seated on the top of a slow sweeping hill with fortress like walls.   Even the dozen tour busses couldn't diminish the moment.  Lisbon's cathedral was surrounded and dominated by the buildings around it; Porto's was something that took your breath away. 

I followed the yellow arrows for about five minutes when I came to another church with tremendous views of the city.  I wandered a few minutes and came across a street market, but then chose to visit another church first and never got back to the market.  The church, right across the street from another church, led me to the river walk.  A few hours later I was at Matasinhos, a 20 minute subway ride from my hotel. 

Tomorrow I'll jump the subway back and start walking.  

Here is the Rio Douro where it enters the Atlantic Ocean.  

Twelve km down, 245 to go.

Navigating

I find it difficult to navigate without a familiar reference point. I ended up seeing a whole chunk of residential areas unintentionally in Lisbon and in Porto I took what I thought was a right and it turned out to be straight ahead. Kind of like making three lefts instead of a right.  It did allow me to find a neat church that I want to go back and photograph tomorrow. 

I heard that there are now yellow arrows showing the way along the coastal route and, based on my initial experiences in Lisbon and Porto, I will really need them.

I did a wander through the Rossio district before catching the train to Porto. I picked up a credential at the Lisbon cathedral and got their stamp. It is in Spanish. I'm tempted to go to the Porto cathedral to see if theirs are any different. 

First stop tomorrow is the tourist information office for a listing of pilgrim lodgings along the coast. 

Here is the view for the next two nights -

Better?

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

Before I left on this adventure several people tried to boost my confidence by asking, "what is the worst that can happen?"  They usually  cited loss of pack.  Second was a missed flight.

I had 55 minutes between scheduled  flights. The trans Atlantic flight landed15 minutes late.  My connection was in a different terminal, I had to go through customs, and get rescreened, but they had handy signs that said it was only 22 minutes walk to J terminal. The plane was still at the gate  when I got there, but the door had closed.

Two hours later I'm on the next flight.  Is it normal for planes to lurch sideways while moving down the runway?  At luggage claim the belt stopped with about 20 people still waiting.  We were told to wait ten minutes and the bags would be released.  Sure enough two bags came out.  We were told to file missing luggage reports.  You could see those staff people were not about to fill out all those forms!  Some sort of manager came out and said our pallet of luggage had been selected for rescreening and it would be released within 30 minutes. 

On the plus side I have successfully used the subway and made it to the hotel, showered, washed the clothes I had been wearing since 4am on Wednesday, am about to go for a walk.

I get a kick from my hotel room view-

Training

I have been walking home from work in a vain attempt to replicate the conditions and distances I expect to encounter on the camino.  The Portuguese route is infamous for the amount of pavement walking.  The walk home from work is all city streets.  The Portuguese route requires 20-25km (about 12-15 miles) or more most days.  The walk home is about seven miles, plus I do anther three or four without the pack.  

This is Tuesday, waiting to cross the street a little more than  three miles from home.  This is the last light to wait for and marks the change from relatively busy streets to quiet, residential streets.  The walking always seems to come easier after this point.  It shouldn't be - it is the end of the miles, you're hot, you're tired, things ache, and there are only two places to stop between here and home if there are any problems.  On the camino it seems that you stop for coffee, snacks or meals frequently.  I once offended a pilgrim by saying that I was planning on getting most of my miles done in the AM with just three or four done after lunch.  "But then you'll miss second breakfast!" was her response.

This is is pretty much the complete gear set up I'll take to Portugal.  All was well and good until I carried home a sleeping bag loaned to me by a coworker.  The bag weighed almost nothing in my hand, but tie it on and all of a sudden my pack was staggeringly heavy!  I huffed and puffed going up hills that had given me no trouble on the prior days.  I felt the weight on my knees from the moment I left the office.  I must have looked awful because cars, at street crossings where you usually have to wait for several cars to pass before crossing, were stopping well back from the intersection and waiving me across.  Yet I got home, washed the sweat and dirt off, rinsed my walking clothes, and put my feet up and I felt no different from the prior days.

All that is left is to go through the gear and take out the items that aren't truly needed (do I need a headlamp when the phone gives off plenty of light?) and replace heavier items with lighter ones (what is the weight difference between a five litre and ten litre waterproof bag?).  And print the maps.  And figure out how to deal with the eight hour time difference.  And buy the train ticket from Lisbon to Porto.  And make a bag to hold my pack and pole.  And treat said bag so it will protect my pack from bedbugs.  And, and, and...