Return to the Portuguese Camino:
Thank you for the music.
I welcomed spring this year with a beautiful week on the Portuguese Camino.
We walked a trail that is familiar to me, from Porto to Valença.
We made it to the border between Portugal and Spain, and then we crossed into Spain just to say we did.
Six friends. 80 miles. 12 pitchers of Sangria. 28 Porto Tonicos. 16 plates of gambas. (give or take)
And SO MUCH MUSIC!
In between visits to the Camino, I forget how much I love the energy of this network of paths.
But once I get on the trail and see a yellow arrow or a Camino shell, my heart is all aflutter with Camino memories.
When I am on the Camino, all my other Caminos are present with me.
All my fellow pilgrims, past and present, are walking alongside me.
This Camino evolved out of a couple of desires expressed by my somewhat regular group of early spring walkers.
We wanted to go back to Portugal. Three years ago we walked the Rota Vicentina in Portugal and we all loved it.
And we wanted to hike somewhere (in Europe) that would be warm and sunny in March.
So we chose the Portuguese Camino. Once we settled on it, we reached out to other past spring walkers until we had a group of six.
We met up in Porto. Some arrived early, and some arrived late (delayed flights!), but eventually we all made it and were walking together.
Four of us started from the Porto Cathedral in the afternoon and walked out along the River Douro to the sea.
We did a short day just to stretch our legs and (for those based in the US) to reset circadian rhythms.
By late afternoon we were in Matosinhos having Porto Tonicos by the sea.
It was a perfect way to ease in. And Matosinhos was an easy hop from the airport for our late arrivals.
We stayed in a crazy bunk room that first night. (It’s fine. No one sleeps well on the first night anyway because of jet lag, right?)
We loaded up on coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice the next morning while we waited for our final hiker, Kelsy, to arrive.
And then we began together, ignoring a few tiny raindrops and the clouds.
We walked along the sea all day. Sometimes we walked on cobblestones, sometimes on pavement, and then most blessedly, on these wooden boardwalks that are so much easier on the joints than concrete.
Even with the clouds it was a beautiful day, and we were in high spirits to be walking together again.
This was the first full day of walking and it was all about catching up with each other and hearing what’s new.
I love to walk by the sea, and one day I want to walk the full Coastal Way in Portugal, but I so loved my time on the original route in 2022 that I wanted my friends to get to experience that as well, so we really just had this one full day by the sea (and a half day the day before).
Because we knew it was short, we tried to soak up our surroundings.
There’s a balance to stopping enough to take everything in, but not so much that the day drags on for too long.
We stopped to rest a couple of times, once for a snack and a leg stretch (and a nap for Kelsy who had literally just gotten off an overnight plane).
Then later in the day we stopped for a late lunch before leaving the seaside.
The sun even came out for a little bit. The little bits of morning rain were long forgotten.
We had a gorgeous lunch by the sea and then about an hour to go to get to our hotel for the night.
We stayed in a hotel that had an indoor pool and spa, a big step up from the bunkroom the night before! Three of the gals were even able to book last minute massages!
I spent over two hours in the pool and sauna. We had it all to ourselves and there was a large water spout in the pool that shot water at such a high pressure that it was like a thera-gun but with water. It was delightful!! Zoë discovered it and then we played in it for an hour at least, laughing that we were re-engaging our theme from last year on the GR7 of making love to the water.
But the true theme of this year’s trip was still coming…music.
We weren’t totally tuned into it yet, but there were hints as the hotel lobby area played total bangers all afternoon. We had to walk down a hall that was at least a mile long to our rooms and you could not help but dance as you walked down it to the music they were playing.
The next morning we transferred from the Coastal Route to the Central Route and started walking north on the original Portuguese Camino.
It was still pretty cloudy, but warm enough to be in shorts. (Among our group we vary in our desire for sun or shade, so someone is always happy!)
We carried on along the cobblestones to Rates, the site of Saõ Pedro, one of the oldest Romanesque churches in Portugal.
After Rates, we walked on towards Barcelos, the destination for the day.
We made one coffee stop in the morning and then a stop for lunch later on. When we stopped for lunch, I hoped we had only about an hour left to walk.
(I’ve learned that it’s better to have LESS to walk after we eat, especially if there are drinks at lunch.)
We ate lunch at a tiny bar that didn’t even have menus, but the waitress kindly listed off several sandwiches you could have for lunch.
I asked if I could have a salad and she said sure! It was a different combination than other salads I’ve had on the Camino. I’m used to the ensalada mixta in Spain, but I’m happy to have a salad in almost any form.
This one had hard-boiled eggs, chickpeas, tuna, olives, corn, tomatoes and melon.
Later that afternoon, I had some tired girls with me as we crossed the bridge over the river into Barcelos. We’d come 13 miles.
Barcelos is one of my favorite stops on the Central Portuguese Camino, probably because of the sweet Pilgrim Blessing they do at mass there, but also it’s a beautiful town on a river. You could easily spend a couple of days wandering around.
After we checked in and showered, we went to sit in the main square for the afternoon before going to chapel and dinner.
The pilgrim blessing was as sweet as I remembered it.
We laughed so hard at dinner that night and I think it might have been the result of a combination of tired + joy.
The next morning we set out in the rain. You have to put your rain covers on at least once in a week in order to justify carrying them, and gratefully, this was the only time we needed them.
I was so excited on this day because we were headed to Casa Fernanda, which is one of the most beloved stops on all Caminos. I couldn’t wait for my friends to experience Fernanda’s special brand of Camino hospitality and I was curious about who else we would meet.
This was one of only two nights on this trip that we were sharing rooms with other pilgrims.
The rain continued through the morning but broke around midday.
We made our usual coffee and lunch stops.
It seemed quiet on the trail, maybe because of the weather.
We had seen several other pilgrims leaving Barcelos, but we soon spread out over the trail.
We ate lunch at a place that was full of mostly locals as it was off the beaten path a bit.
They had two lunch plates you could choose from and one of them came with veggies and rice, so I asked to have just the rice and veggies, which was plenty.
After lunch, we only had a little ways left to walk to reach Fernanda’s house.
When we arrived, there were already three or four other folks there sitting in the garden.
We sat down and joined them, and Fernanda mixed up Sangria for us all to enjoy.
While we visited with each other, Fernanda made croquettes and chorizo with bread in her outdoor kitchen.
Then we all dispersed to take showers, do yoga, take naps, etc.
While we were doing yoga in the garden, four German students arrived to take the final spots in Fernanda’s back garden hut.
They threw their packs in the room and came back out to join us.
We were thoroughly entertained by this foursome, who sang several songs in German for us after dinner.
This night ushered in our music theme. We all took turns sharing songs and then sang ones we all knew until I was literally hoarse.
Then Fernanda’s husband Jacinto pushed the kitchen table back to make room for us to all dance.
And really, a kitchen dance is the best kind there is.
I had to take a shower before bed because I was so sweaty!
The next morning we came to breakfast a little tired, but excited for the SUNNY day!
We told Fernanda and all our other new friends goodbye and set out on the trail.
This day we were properly in the countryside and the sunshine all day, so it might have been my favorite.
It’s hard to say. There was something to enjoy every day of this walk!
But on this day we passed one million beautiful calla lilies. We’d seen a lot of them already, but never this many together.
And we stopped for coffee (and other bevvies) at a place where we could sit in the sun and eat from a giant bowl of kiwis that were just the right form of ripe!
I think we ate about 20 of them between us.
We were headed to Ponte de Lima this day, which is another favorite town on the Portuguese Camino.
You enter town along the river underneath the most lovely promenade of trees.
As we sat down to order lunch by the river a gal who was a contestant on the Spanish version of the Voice was setting up to sing for the afternoon. She was live streaming on Tik Tok or Instagram and she was so great.
We stayed for a long time listening to her and singing along to songs we knew.
It was one of those perfect sitting-in-a-square moments that I live for after a good walk.
Finally we pulled ourselves away from the riverside restaurant when our private concert ended to go check into our rooms, which had lovely views of the town.
We went and walked on the bridge at sunset before dinner.
The town is named after the bridge and the river it runs across.
It was a gorgeous night.
Then we went to dinner, and we interrupted a sweet lady’s 80th birthday party. We had to sit outside at first because the place was packed and the whole party was singing along with a man playing a guitar. Then as the guests started to go home, our waiter squeezed us inside. The temps were dropping and we were cold, plus we were so curious about what was happening inside.
One of the birthday gal’s friends started singing Fado songs a cappella. The whole place got quiet as her voice filled the room. I have read that the best Fado is a spontaneous experience and so I was so excited we were getting to listen in. When she finished, we all applauded and I went over to thank her and ended up meeting Alice, the birthday girl, and all her friends, one of who had come over from Madeira from the event and told me I need to come hiking there next.
The whole evening was one of those wild, magical experiences that you aren’t sure was real after you leave. Did that really happen? We asked ourselves after the portal we had stepped into closed after Alice and her friends paraded out at the end of the evening, after many hugs and kisses goodbye.
But I have a small reminder that it was real: a book of poetry that Alice had written and self-published for the occasion. When she discovered how close our names were, Alice and Alison, she inscribed one of her books to me, and now I’m using it to study Portuguese.
The next morning the sun was shining again as we crossed the bridge to head up the hill on our biggest climb of the week.
We left Hayley behind to hang around gorgeous Ponte de Lima on this day because her knee was hurting her so much.
As we walked over the hills into the next village we heard a choir singing. We couldn’t figure out where it was coming from at first, but we finally decided that the music was coming from a church that was far away on a hill. We think they were projecting the service on a speaker on the outside of the church, maybe because they know pilgrims are walking by and will hear the music.
We made it to the top of the hill around noon and sat out in the sun for rest. Lizard time, Kelsy calls it when we have little naps in the sun. I’m a fan.
Then a little while later, we had lunch on the side of the trail at a little cafe. I love the Camino for its MANY roadside cafes.
When we got to Casa da Capela, where we were staying for the night, the big surprise was that there was a pool and it was open! It was absolutely freezing but Zoë and I jumped in anyway and then headed straight to the hot tub.
Our host served a yummy dinner, lots of bits at the beginning…bread, cheese, meats, olives.
And then a vegetarian hash with eggs and potatoes and I don’t even know what all, but it was delish. As was breakfast the next morning.
We loved this spot, just a little bend in the road between Ponte de Lima and Valença.
Our last day of walking came oh-too-soon. We only had a short 8-9 miles to go into Valença.
It was another gorgeous day, with lots of final arrows, shells and photos.
I think this little taste of the Camino definitely had these gals wanting to come back for more.
We had a very sweet week together and I would go right back tomorrow and do and all over again.
We ended in lovely Valença with the beautiful blue tiles and textile shops everywhere.
Valença’s old town is preserved within its medieval fortress walls.
We had lunch in a sqaure, did a bit of shopping and sitting in the sun.
A final bottle of Tinto Verde.
A last wander at sunset, across the bridge into Spain and back again to Portugal.
One more dinner together. And one more sleep.
Goodbye Portuguese Camino! We’ll be back one day!
Many of the photos in this post come from my fellow hikers: Kristie, Zoë, Koko, Hayley and Kelsy! I’m super thankful to them for trusting me to lead them on this adventure.
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