Last full day in Portugal

As I'm sitting here getting dinner at a local restaurant. I am both excited to enter Spain tomorrow and saddened to be leaving Portugal behind. The people of Portugal are so incredibly friendly and helpful that it's frankly embarrassing to so many nationalities that visit. The value that they put on Camino infrastructure in this country it's amazing. Literally dozens of kilometers of Oceanside boardwalk promenade and pathways for the purpose of recreation and fitness. Very very little of this country has privately owned oceanfront.

The food is always so incredibly fresh and then lock in the Camino you walk by many of the growers in producers of the foods here. As you've heard me say from other Canadian adventures, the bread and pastries, all artisinal, I baked fresh every night and delivered early in the morning to the pastry shops. You're a country that loves their bread and pastries, they are generally very thin, fit, and healthy! The most important aspect of it all I believe is that thing to have a singular pastry and a small cafe.

Today, today I was feeling more in an "adventurous" mood... Well okay, Heel was still a little upset from yesterday's walk so I was looking for anyway to make the walk easier so I decided to walk undocumented coastal section. 20 kilometers of freshly built roadway, halfway coming forward one, etc, all for the purpose of recreation and fitness. Upon leaving my last town, I was getting a little anxious because I was not seeing a ready supply of Camino directional arrows. As a matter of fact I only saw three of the entire distance leaving the city and they looked like they were impromptu ones put up by somebody else. The entire distance between the two major cities didn't work one single directional arrow. Fortunately the trail system they built so complete that no additional markings were needed, one just needed to walk the path. And in the places where it wasn't abundantly clear, one just needed to walk with the ocean on their left.

One of the really great things is it took me very very little time to fall back into my Camino walking groove in no time at all I was already walking with my entire world lead needs on my back living in the moment in the space I was in at the time. It is so extremely freeing to just get up and walk and stop and find watching when you're ready to start without setting an artificial goal for yourself of having to make specific goal... It is worth noting, and there are a few times because of logistical reasons, we do have to plan your day stock a little better like today. All that being said, it is very liberating to be on the trail and not to have any worries but you're immediate needs at the moment.

ponderings

This camino is entirely different for me from the last two.  Those were entirely new experiences on trails I have not traveled before, this is a return to the same trail (well, same trail network) but with different options, expansions, changes, different stops along the way, and different people to meet.

This Camino is carrying a much deeper impact with me. There is less that I have to conquer or prove to myself which enables me to delve deeper into the Camino experience. As on previous caminos, I am trying hard not to overly manipulate the Camino and instead embrace the Camino in the moment as it is right now.

All that said, today was a physically challenging day and in fairness the section I walked is one of my top 2 least favorite sections.  Today started off pouring which delayed the start till 8:30 when it calmed down enough to venture out.  Rain continued off and on for a few more hours while I trudged along on the cobblestone streets (read NOT FUN) while they were wet (EXTRA NOT FUN).  When the cobblestone finished the trail turned into a dirt road then an I don't know what.

Then quickly to a wilderness path which degraded to what a hiker would recognize in a mountain path with boulders, large roots, and plenty of mud puddles.  The problem was not really with the trail but more with my heel on my left foot.

So, as a side note, the heel on my left foot, now called "left heel" or more simply "Heel" has been given a persona.  So Heel only knows swear words, when it is happy, it is silent.  When I step on something it doesn't like there is a large uttering of assorted swears.  Towards the last third, more swears, and at the end a whole new and creative assortment comes out of Heel.

So, the problem was not really with the trail today, but Heel.  Heel HATED almost all of the trail and was good and properly sore by the end.  The good news however, we reached an agreement: I would slow down and take more breaks, Heel would stop the worst of the complaining till we got to Viana do Castelo. 

 Heel, for the most part saved to those terms, but as soon as I stepped off the 1.5km long bridge.... 

 Well, let's just say I learned some interesting new swears. Thanks to the wonders of European pharmacies, I have a can of spray that quiets heel's worst vulgarities and some gel that was really quiets Heel after a while.

I was going to splurge on a private room tonight but decided at the last minute to hit up the parochial albergue.  Nothing quite like 6 people in an attic room all on hard beds with paper sheets.

There is more I want to go over, but time passes by very quickly when you strip out a lot of fluff and live simpler (for a few weeks at least).

Solitude

One of the things I was really looking forward to on this trip was the solitude on the trail. The past two days I have been blessed with that. Well if yesterday and today I was up and on the trail at 7:00 a.m. which is before sunrise in Portugal. Yesterday I had a solid hour and a half of peace and quiet along the trail before I started meeting up with other pilgrims. Today I had a solid 3 hours before I saw my first pilgrim.

Both days walks were along the ocean with plenty of boardwalk and promenade to walk on. The early morning peace and tranquility has given me time to decompress and relax. During these times of solitude I was able to become one with the tail. I use this time as an almost meditative state while moving along the Camino.

Both yesterday saw about 22 km of trail go zipping by underneath my feet each day - and each day every part of my mind body and soul with the exception of my left heel had more in the tank to give. Unfortunately the left heel is the one calling the shots right now and 22 km is where it said enough. I could push a little bit past 22 but I would pay the rest of the day and if I pushed a lot past 22 I would not walk the next day cuz the heel wouldn't let me. Thanks to a wondrous combination of adjustments, taping, and European medicine, I am able to push my heel to around 22 km each day and still have enough in the tank to do it again the next day.

I have been cruising along the Camino, probably at a pace faster than I should have been, but my body has found a comfortable Pace in getting it to slow down is difficult. I find in the early morning I can easily put 10 to 14 km behind me with barely any concern. As a matter of fact this morning I did 15 km before stopping for my very first break in breakfast. The problem comes in that my natural pace is faster than my heel would like and at the end of the day I find myself consciously having to temper my pace to make my heel happy again -okay, I'm not making my heel happy I'm just shutting it up for the time being.

Physical impairments aside, the time on the Camino has been very restorative to mind, body, and soul. This helps me to live in the moment not worrying about other issues and stressors other than my immediate needs at that immediate moment. I would love to say I am a complete free spirit, but the above mentioned heel issue does present a small logistical issue for me everyday where I have to find an acceptable location to stop without angering left heel.

Yesterday's walk I had tentatively set my sights on an albergue 2 km past where I ultimately stopped - which, left heel, would have been upset but would have cooperated with. Unfortunately words started spreading through the Camino pipeline that the albergues in that town we're full, and online reservation systems confirmed. More than willing to push on to the next available location, the heel demanded a much sooner stop. I ultimately ended up at a hotel that offered a pilgrim discount. It ended up being a wonderful stay as the room was on the same ground level as the pool and had a small patio in back. With access directly to the pool deck. 

As a bonus the room had two single beds. Remembering my friend Charlton I'm struggling with his knee and was back aways, I reached out to him and offered him use of the other bed in the room which he graciously accepted.

After he was settled in, we went to the neighborhood Cafe and met one of the most energetic people on the community I have met so far.

she spoke about as much English as I speak portuguese... If you think that stopped the conversation, you are so wrong! We both know just enough of each other's language and with generous use of translators had a wonderful conversation. She was a source of positive energy and cheer that could have brightened the darkest soul - fortunately for her, she met her a match in cheerness and energy. She served a wonderful meal which we absolutely couldn't finish. She then told us about the rooms that she had for rent, which we told her she was a little too late, because she wasn't advertised on any of the main systems. She did inform us that she was in the works trying to get that done. She definitely would have been a choice for a stay had I known she was there

I'm not sure on my poor friend Charlton knew what to do. I don't think he is used to such high levels of energy. He did seem to otherwise enjoy himself.

Today, was another early rise and early on the trail. I stated before, most of the day was spent in solitude, only seeing around 12 pilgrims the entire day, and most of those where after I entered Esposende. Tonight I am a few kilometers outside of esposende had a small little "bed and breakfast" which would be better described as a high end albergue - again in a room with two single beds. Charlton and I decided last night we were going to let the main pack of pilgrims out of Porto thin out. We have a wonderful, if simple room. Again with a little back patio overlooking the ocean and the trail as it passes not even 400 meters from here.

Due to my early departure and unfortunate aggressive pace, I made it here for 12:30. I was able to meet the acquaintance of a wonderful gentleman originally from Brazil (side note: a lot of people in this area seem to be from Brazil including the people working the petrol station next door and the people working the b&b here).  My new friend invited me to join him at a small little cafe table outside the station where we had a wonderful chat. He is living here right now working as a truck driver, driving all around Europe. He was fascinated with the concept of the Camino, get had never really engaged a pilgrim while walking it. I was more than happy to share my extensive knowledge with him!

Just some pictures I took today that I found interesting or amusing.

The walking begins.

Today's walk was a planned short walk of only 13km

Taking me to a public albergue where I met my friends Ed and Pat along with my new friend Annabelle who is the volunteer running the albergue for a few days each week.

Along the way I met many friendly people and made a few new friends from Taiwan and New Brunswick.  The walk was quite pleasant along beautiful stretches of beach, forgoing the defunct oil refinery just inland.

It was an amazing day to be on the camino and I quickly found myself going back into my pilgrim mode quite quickly and easily.  Lots of contimplation and pondering, very little answers.  What I did think about was the dynamic of the pilgrimage and the community that almost instantly forms around complete strangers.  Tonight's was an example, Ed, Pa, and I asked a swedish lady to join us for dinner. While dining 4 other peregrinos from our albergue we're at the nearby table and we had to many tapas so we shared them with the next table.  Later it was unfinished sangria.  It is the community of complete strangers not being strangers.

Tomorrow, feet issues aside, I am hoping for a full days walking.

The Warmup Day

Not really feeling like waking to an alarm I just left my rising this morning to when my body said so... 6:45 a.m. it said so and there was no going back to sleep. I had a solid night sleep from 11:00 last night to 6:45 this morning and when I woke, I was awake!

Having done a lot of preparation last night and only doing a warm-up run, I grabbed my mini pack and struck out around 7:30 stopping at my new favorite breakfast location and taking the time to dine inside with a fresh chocolate pastry and a large freshly squeezed orange juice (the Camino breakfast of champions!). I made it down to the river for 8:00 a.m. already a kilometer behind me and struck out down the river enjoying the scenery. While enjoying the scenery I observed, much to my amusement, a set of escalators up one of the steep Hill sides.

My initial thought was this must be a well if your neighborhood to demand an escalator, but an observation of the buildings nearby but not lean itself to an overly wealthy neighborhood.

A few kilometers into my morning track, I came across my first peregrino of the day, Edem from Israel. Edem had studied in Connecticut and was quite familiar with New England. We stroll down to the Lighthouse where our paths separated.

Interesting little side note, all along the river and at other places along the ocean, I observed exercise stations

there was another exercise station set up with weather resistant, gym grade aerobic equipment. So not only is the river in waterfront accessible to the public, it has been turned into an exercise playground. The best part was as I saw people actually using the equipment.

Further down the trail, I met up with my second peregrino of the day, Alec from Germany who was likewise very familiar with New England and Maine. We walked for a few kilometers until our paths separated.

15 km on the meter I reached the Mercado Metro station which I rode a train back into town where after a brief stop off at my room I was able to meet up again with my friend Charlton from Wales. On our way to the local decathlon store for some equipment that Charlton wanted to pick up we made it impromptu stop off at a cafe and enjoyed a fantastic lunch.

Yes, yes that Sunday tasted every bit as good as it looked! The bottom wasn't really an ice cream is more of a cream base. The chocolate ice cream at top was the perfect blend of chocolate, bitterness, and sweet.

Yes those salads were very good and yes they had ham and very thinly shaved local cheese.

After we completed our shopping trip at decathlon, we headed down to the river side to meet up with my friends Ed and Patty where we ultimately took the six bridge river cruise up and down the River.

from there we made our way slowly back up the bank to the cathedral, on to the rail station to get our tickets for tomorrow's rides, over to the pharmacy to get topical ibuprofen and spray cold, then off to find a bite to eat which ultimately was ham and cheese on toasted croissant which while simple was very good.

One of the discussions I had today revolved around the concept of tourist versus traveler. Alec and I had many definitions that were all accurate (tourists demand an experience for example where a traveler indulges in the local culture) but I think the most definitive and simple definition we came up with was that a traveler travels with their eyes wide open and an open mind.

That is all for today, tomorrow the walking begins in earnest.

A whirlwind!

I'll just start off with saying what a whirlwind few days this has been! I left work early on Wednesday and I'm so glad I did. I pretty much was taking care of last minute trip prep along with finishing up everything around the house and trying to get as much done as possible before leaving so if not to leave a mountain of stuff for Tina to take care of.

Tina and I had one hour sit down and relax together before she had to take me to the bus station (because it's just as easy to take a bus into Logan airport as it is to have somebody actually drive in drop you off and then pick you up there later). I count the journey as starting when I leave the house so my journey started Thursday afternoon 1:00 p.m. Eastern standard Time. The journey to the bus station and the bus ride to Logan airport we're very non-eventful. There was a 2-hour delay on our flight because apparently they didn't have a crew. Having a tight connection on the other side of the Atlantic guaranteed a missed flight... Our flight landed in Madrid as my connecting flight was landing in Porto without me. This added a couple of extra hours in the Madrid airport which wasn't squandered!

If you've read some of my previous blog entries, you'll immediately recognize the glorious treat that is KAS LIMON (don't think of it as lemonade or even Italian soda, think of it as mildly diluted lemon juice with just enough sugar to make it palatable - and all my years of searching I have never found anything that is quite as good as that). You bet I enjoyed the hell out of that drink! 

Remember how I stated above that the journey started the minute I left the house.  So flight delays and rescheduled flights are all just part of the journey. Doesn't really matter too terribly much whether a few hours gets in the way, I'm still going to make it to my ultimate destination which is Santiago de Compostela and I believe with my very heart and soul that when you're on a journey like this it is important to acknowledge the entire journey as part of the experience, embrace it, and find the hidden joys within... And that's going to lead me to another diversion, when we were getting off our flight it was 8:00 a.m. local time in Madrid. Many people were not well rested, struggling with connecting flights, and otherwise not having the best day of their life. I don't know how, I don't know why, but when I was going through the security checkpoint, the gentleman at border security stamped my passport which seems like a routine thing, but you actually have to ask border control in most places to actually stamp it. So when he stamped it I let out a little statement of Glee exclaiming that I was happy that he actually stamped my passport which caught the attention of several other travelers who noticed my happy attitude about things. I think a little bit of rubbed off on a few other people, instead of worrying that they were all tired, some of them started looking forward to getting stamps on their passport as well. I didn't see any sense in being upset over things I couldn't control. The guy checking me through board of security had nothing to do with any of my delays, and if I was a jerk to him he could have added more to my delays. Instead I was the first person he took through the line as he had just opened and I hope I started his shift off on the positive note.

Let's get back to this journey...  Let's get back to the physical aspect of this journey!

I finally arrived in Porto around 1:30 in the afternoon and got the keys to my mini apartment that I'm using for a few days.

Everything I need and then some. It is one building away from the portal City Hall, which itself heads a main boulevard that is fantastically beautiful.

Not venturing out further until I had showered, put on clean clothes, and washed my other set. What set me back till about 3:00, which I then wanted to touch base with Tina and give her a video tour of the place and see how she is holding up (she's doing perfectly fine btw and prepping for her own journey in a week).  Afterwards I took a stroll over to the local decathlon store and picked up a new set of trekking poles - you can get cheap trekking poles for 6 Euro a piece! I wouldn't hike the Camino with them but for casual use they looked perfectly adequate. A Camino grade set of poles was only 40 Euro for a complete set - I then struck off to the cathedral to meet up with my friend Charlton Slack. My friends Ed and Pat Riskowski have been taking a few zero days to not only indulge in the culture in porto, but to give the both of them some much needed rest from the abuses of the trail that they endured from Lisbon to Porto.

You know all these are signs would probably work much better if this was a theatrical movie and not a blog entry... I could keep everyone captivated with four, five, maybe even six sub stories that all meet together at the end.

Charlton and I, haven't seen each other since October 2015, greeted each other like two friends that hadn't seen each other in a week. 

Any aches and pains and misery that might have been lingering from the "troubled"journey just disappeared in an instant. We found the both of us would just feeding off each other and encouraging each other silently. We struck off to get food at 5:00 from the cathedral. We finally ate food at 8:00. In the middle of that time we realized we were only feet from one of the most famous Bridges in Puerto that is closed to vehicle traffic and open only to trams and foot traffic - a situation that is so ridiculous that osher in the United States would flip their lid...

 Oh yeah it's fun, The pedestrian walkways are on the other side of the bridge but when the trams aren't coming the entire bridge is pedestrian traffic. The trams come everybody moves aside to let the trams go sometimes only a foot away and as soon as the tram is gone everybody's back to it. Safe? Didn't seem to be a problem, the police on the bridge didn't seem to pay any attention to any of it. Well our plan was only to walk out to the midpoint of the bridge take some pictures up river, downriver, and around the bridge and head back.

 Well we got halfway across the bridge and realize that that's only half the journey we had to completely cross the bridge each way to make it count for us. That's about when we also saw the gondolas on the other side of the river.

 Once we were in the gondolas taking them down to water level, it was pointed out that we had tickets for free wine tasting. 20 minutes later and several wrong turns we finally found our free wine tasting.

On our return journey back up the gondolas Charlton and I met two wonderful young men from Russia living in Germany. They both work in software development, one for Audi and BMW developing autopilot software. Because of the Dynamics of their work, they were working out of Porto for a little while before heading back to Germany.

and if that wasn't enough diversion, we realize there was a perfect view spot to get a wonderful photo of the bridge.

THEN after almost 3 hours of "Oooo shiny" moments we found our way over to one of the eateries that has a claim to world top 10 hot dog.

well I'm not going to get into the debate on hot dogs and world top 10, I will say that it was very enjoyable. It's not so much a hot dog as a mildly seasoned sausage, with a strip of cheese, cooked in a tiny skinny bun, then cut into little individual bite size pieces. We ordered a plate of fries, and they came out my favorite way... Shoestring!

That was mostly an appetizer, as you can see from the picture, so we set out for another round of food with a quick stop back at the decathlon so Charlton could get a 3 Euro slack pack like I have (a 10 l stuff sack with a zipper closure and little straps). We wandered around for a while and stumbled across a place that apparently is called little toast in English. Wanting more snack food, we ordered the meat and cheese plate, it a very generously portioned to cool to replace with three types of local Portuguese cheese along with local cured hams, almost an entire bunch of grapes, raisins, some fruit jam, pumpkin jam, and apparently the namesake some tiny little toasts that are apparently made on site.

the waiter paired that up with a couple rounds of freshly made lemonade which was the absolute perfect accompaniment to the plate.... Charlton and I left embarrassed - we had to leave a couple pieces of cheese behind, we just couldn't finish it!!!

Today, was my alleged zero day. My friends Ed and Pat found a private driver to give us a personalized tour of the Douro River valley vineyards -the home of port wine. I will say that there was nothing bad about the tour, and at that point we seem to be always the VIPs over the other tour groups, going into the special tasting rooms where they had not just small samples but larger samples of the wine along with little snacks to cleanse in between samplings.

 Everybody was "good" after we left the first stop and we were given a chance to let what we just had process while we took a 1 hour Cruise up a particularly beautiful section of the river valley and back.

From there we started to climb the valley, stopping at another vineyard very quick stop and tasting, before climbing more and entering a little nondescript Hamlet completely off the beaten path. We had roast suckling pig leg baked in a port wine reduction, and some of the best roasted potatoes have had. For the health Halo there is some salad and rice to go around. Dessert was an absolutely fantastic homemade orange cake that Ed and I both managed to score a second round of, and even got Avatar operators boss, who was running a second private tour, to give us a serving of black vanilla bean ice cream.

With not much room left, we finished the ascent of the valley and were treated to a rose wine spritzer with lemon peel - it was refreshing, but the bitterness from the soda water did not make it one of our favorites.

That's when we had a little bit of excitement in our day however. I observed our driver was not looking too good when she came to tell us that when we were ready she would bring us back. I noticed she had lost her chipper mood and her voice seemed pained. I also observed when she walked away she actually grabbed a bar for support briefly and paused and uncomfortably long (She was NOT drunk - putting that out there right now!)!!!  I didn't immediately pay it too much heat because none of the rest of my group nor the staff over there seem to give it much attention. We wrapped up our stay, but when we headed out to the vehicle we noticed she was sitting down and on the phone and obviously distraught. Luckily her boss had been running a parallel tour with a different group all day and was there wrapping up his group at the same time. We quickly found out that she was 4 months pregnant and having extreme pains. Every single one of us immediately told him to make sure that she was taken care first and once he had her taken care of we would address getting back to Porto.

for a little mountain village seeming so far away from everything, the ambulance was there in minutes! The staff at the place was phenomenal and kept everything open for us long after all the other groups had Departed. Her boss was fantastic intended to her until she was taken to the hospital. At her request he offered to let us know how she makes out later when there's more news.

Somewhere up in that little Hamlet is the tour van we wrote up in, cuz we all packed into her boss's van and made a beeline back for Porto arriving back here an hour and a half after we planned on arriving. As of my writing we do not have an update on her status, but we are comfortable that they put her needs first and foremost.

Arriving back in Porto we got dropped off at River level because that is where most of the occupants were staying. That left me having to get up the river bank and then up the hills to my apartment. My first thought was to walk the streets up, but in that direction they were very crowded already with pedestrians feeling about. My second thought was to ride the funicular up, but the sign said it was a 40-minute wait from that spot and then there was another sign saying the weight was even longer because of some issue they were having. As I turned around to navigate up the roads I spotted a staircase. Climbing the staircase revealed the grand total of 21 sets of stairs along with several steep alleyways all twisting and turning between buildings up the riverbank... Remember I said this was a zero day? Well it may have been zero Camino kilometers but it was not a zero exercise day at all.

Just some pictures of tonight's snack. Yes! Yes, they taste as good as they look!!!

Tomorrow my plan is to do a light day just walk out of the city and up the ocean for a grand total of 10 km. I'll reach the end of the subway line and ride it back into town to enjoy more of what Porto has to offer.