Vinsman

Today I spent the day getting acclimated to European time. Which means that last night I fell asleep at 7:30PM and woke up at 2:30AM. Not optimal but not terrible either. Fortunately I knew that I was spending the day here so it was fines.

After breakfast I walked like I was going on my Camino so that I could figure out the route to get out of the city. While not really that difficult I always like to know where I am going so tomorrow it will be super easy to just get up, have breakfast and hit the road.

Today after my walk this morning I came back to the room and took a nap. which is hilarious but it happened. I was fast asleep so thank goodness I set my alarm to wake me up in time for my first walking tour.

I love the free walking tour concept. You sign up and pay nothing. At the end of the tour you tip whatever you believe the tour was worth. I always get a ton out of these tours and this one was no exception. Our tour guide was a guy named Fiel. He walked us around the old part of Porto near the Cathedral, into the train station with it’s 20,000 hand painted tiles that tell the history of Spain, along the busiest shopping street and down to the river. All the while telling us the history of the area and giving us suggestions of places to visit and cautioning us on places to watch out for. He was a very good story teller and I really enjoyed his tour.

This afternoon I took a tour of the other side of town. With the same tour company. This is the perfect way to get to know a city. Now I just need a few days to be able to go and enjoy all that I have learned about. Next time. Portowalkers.pt is the walking tour company that I used.

Tomorrow my Camino walk begins. I will walk along the river, out to the Atlantic Ocean and up to Villa do Conde which is about 33km or 20 miles.

Today I traveled to Porto Portugal to begin the Camino Portuguese. There are three different route options for the Portuguese. The Central is the most popular currently, the Costal route is gaining in popularity as many want to walk along the coast as far as possible and finally there is the Braga route which is inland and from what I know not very popular at this time.

I will be walking a combination of the Coastal route and the Central route. On my first day of walking which is Tuesday, September 5th I will walk what is called the Senda Litoral from Porto along the Duro river and then up the coast to Vila do Conde. From there I will move over to the central route for the balance of my walk. One other change is that I am going to walk what is called the Spiritual variant, which goes out to the coast and then you take a boat back in to continue the walk.

Today is Sunday, September 3rd. I will stay in Porto tonight and tomorrow night to hopefully adjust to the time change and to do a little sight seeing as well. I cannot post pictures here any more for some reason so I am using findingpenguins.com/vinsman to post pictures and my story.

Today was my final walk.  I guess everyone was a bit restless since there were 4 people up in my albergue at 3 45 this morning and out the door by 4.  I guess I  am a bit of a light sleeper because they woke me up and I tossed and turned until 5 when I got up and got ready to hit the road.  I was walking by 5 30 this morning which is way too early.  

I have made this walk many times and knew what to expect.  I got off to a good start by going the wrong way.  Thank goodness for my trusty GPS app that put me back on the right path in no time.  I walked without breakfast or most importantly coffee until about 8 when I found my first coffee bar open and promptly downed to caffe con leche grandes and a piece of delicious lemon cake.  

I arrived in Santiago about 10 took some quick photos and headed to the pilgrims office to get my Compostela.  They are very efficient these days. You complete the online form and it issues you a QR code which gets you into the office and enables you to get a number.  I and number 124, when I walked in they were working on numbers in the 80´s. It only took about 20 minutes to get through and I was off with my Compostela.

I checked into my room, if you could call it that, actually it is more like a closet with a bathroom but it works for me. 

After a hot shower is was off to the pilgrims Mass.  It was packed in the Cathedral.  I finally found a chair almost at the back of the room and sat down.  I said high to the guy next to me and we struck up an conversation.  Turns out he just graduated with a civil engineering degree from Davis.  He did his undergrad and BYU so we had a fun conversation.  The mass was amazing as always.  Very touching.  

After the Mass I met up with my Camino friends Hyun Soon and Fernando for lunch and then we just spent some final time together.  

Tonight I had dinner with Dawn from the Iowa chapter and Jackie who is on the board to the American pilgrims it was a fun night.  

Tomorrow I take my covid test and then head to Madrid on the train.  Tomorrow night in Madrid and then Thursday home.  

All in all it was a great Camino.  I enjoyed the difficulty of the route but also appreciate that it was only 12 days.