Our Walk Along the Camino Portuguese

Monasteries and Museums on the Camino Português  Camino Pilgrimage We spent a sleepless night listening to a new pilgrim in a room down the hall from us have a very noisy meltdown that lasted until we left in the morning. As a result, today's hike felt pretty long and tiring.     The walk out of Porto was, as expected, along busy streets and suburbs at the edges of town. We stopped at a cafe on the edge of town for coffee and then kept going. Setting out from Porto  Although we had been expecting to see a huge influx of new pilgrims leaving Porto, when we passed the pilgrim albergue around 7 AM, there was only one lone man setting out, still struggling to adjust his backpack, manage his trekking poles, and carry his guidebook all at once. When we stopped for coffee, he went ahead, and that was the last we saw of him. As we passed beyond the city limits, we began to hear birds singing again, and the air smelled of hay and cows instead of...

Pilgrims and Pastries on Camino Camino Portuguese  Although we got in near midnight last night and weren't able to check out until 9 AM, we nevertheless woke around 7 AM. Outside the city was bathed in the soft light of early morning, and the cathedral on the hill was partially hidden in golden mist. We had a slow start, enjoying hot showers, packing our bags, and heading out to the street below for a breakfast of coffee and rather sticky, sweet chocolate croissants. When all this was done, it was still only 8:45 AM, but the kind hostess let us check out, and we were soon heading up the steep cobblestone main street of Coimbra. The walk out of Coimbra was a bit chaotic. The streets were very busy with cars,  pedestrians on their way to work, and delivery vans loading and unloading merchandise on the sidewalks. Although The Way is well marked, within the city limits the markers are stylish, understated, brass plaques sunk into the cobblestone sidewalks. ...