Our Walk Along the Camino Portuguese

Why go on Pilgrimage on Camino de Santiago? Each time we trek out the door onto another pathway or decide to undertake a Camino the same questions arise.   Why?   Why hike the Camino?   Why hike another Camino?   So here is my best shot at an answer.    In 2016, for our first Camino – the Camino Frances – we undertook the pilgrimage for a number of reasons.   We both needed a change from the routine of our lives, whether from having spent too much time at our desks, or having submitted too many school reports, or because things just didn’t seem to be going as planned.    Call it a midlife crisis (though I’m not sure it was that extreme), but we both – for different reasons – where at a point in our lives where we felt that things were not what we had hoped, that life was rushing past faster and faster, that we were still young enough to enjoy the world and see new cultures and experience new things, and that there was ...

Camino Portuguese Information Aside from knowing what the Camino is, what its history is, what St. James is all about, and the importance of Credentials, Compostela, and shells there are a few other essentials that most people ask about prior to trekking out onto their first Camino.   Common concerns naturally include: Where do I sleep?   Where do I eat?   How easy or hard is it to find my way along any of the Routes? Each of these are great questions and one which we all ask.   They also reflect the natural concerns about trekking on the Camino given that it is neither your typical holiday nor a traditional thru-hike experience.   Sleeping on the Camino Portuguese Throughout France, Spain and Portugal (as well as the other nations along The Way), there are a variety of pilgrim accommodations which can be engaged.   In Spain along the Camino Frances , pilgrims can stay in Albergues , in France you can stay in Gites , and in Portugal hikers can re...

Camino Portuguese Information The Camino Portuguese, or Camino Portuguese or Portuguese Way is the general name given to the numerous routes and variations for the trek from Lisbon to Porto and later Valencia in Portugual through to Santiago de Compostela Spain.   As with Camino associated with St. James, the pilgrimage concludes at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela where tradition maintains that he is buried. The Portuguese Way follows the North-South route – generally proceeding along the Roman Via Lusitanta established in the 12 th century - along the length of Portugal into Galacia Spain.   It begins in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, though many pilgrims start in the northern town of Porto instead owing to the industrial nature of the region around Lisbon and the smaller number of pilgrim facilities available between Lisbon and Porto.   In Portugal the Camino is not primarily a single pathway but instead includes a number of distinct route v...

Camino Pilgrimage Explained For those new to the idea, or for those simply curious a Camino is – in its most basic form – simply “to walk” or to hike along the path or “the way”.    However, in a historical, spiritual, and cultural sense, a Camino is a pilgrimage from one’s home to a destination of special significance. These days the most prevalent notion of “the Camino” refers to one of the many pathways which take hikers and pilgrims throughout Europe to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.   Pathways on the road to Santiago can be found in Nordic Europe, Germany, Switzerland, France, England, Italy, England, Portugal and of course Spain.   Though the most popular and well known of these pathways is called the Camino Frances and traverses from St. Jean-Pied-de-Port in France across Spain to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.    While this network of varying routes has historically existed since the 12 th century, it has recently begun to grow an...