Our Walk Along the Camino Portuguese

O Ninho the Pilgrim's Nest Camino Portuguese Pilgrimage We headed out around 7 AM to find a cool, slightly overcast morning waiting for us. As we crossed the iconic bridge over the Rio Lima, and admired the reflections in the still water, we were relieved to find that the music was not yet playing in the town. There was a group of 6 or 7 pilgrims outside the municipal albergue, and as we headed down the path out of town we were part of a steady stream of walkers. When we left Ponte da Lima the cafes were not open yet, so we were happy to find a cafe a few kilometers out of town. When we arrived it was full of locals, but we were soon joined by other hikers willing to make the 40 m detour for coffee, orange juice, and buttered toast. It was a good beginning to the day, even if the cutlery and crockery in the cafe could have been done with a more thorough washing before being used. After our first breakfast, we headed back to the trail, which climbed gently through ...

Roman Legions and Medieval Bridges Camino Portuguese Pilgrimage Today we slept in until around 6 AM, and then made a leisurely start, heading out into a cool, overcast morning. We walked about two kilometres to the first cafe, where we stopped for coffee and chocolate croissants. We were soon joined by the lovely German couple who had walked to Santiago from their home, and later on we were joined by a few additional pilgrims. After breakfast, we continued on through a lovely forested section of track. It was filled with cala lilies and other wildflowers that seemed to have opened in the last few days. We have been enjoying the more relaxed, quieter, rural nature of the trail since Porto. After this section, the Camino mostly consisted of paved or cobblestone lanes between short stone walls, on the other side of which were vineyards, houses with wonderful flower-filled gardens, or fields of wildflowers, some with sheep and horses. As we hiked we passed qui...