After the delights of Porto and walking the Portuguese Camino, I knew I wanted MORE TIME in Portugal.

The next walking adventure I planned in Portugal was the surprisingly perfect Rota Vicentina! In fact I have spent so much time documenting the Rota Vicentina on this blog that I have neglected my city visits to Portugal (until now).

But if you are looking for your next beautiful trail to walk, please add the coastal Fisherman’s Trail to your list. What’s wild is that my first days on that trail were really just an add-on to a trip to Lisbon that I had planned with my sister, a happy, fortunate find after some city wandering.

Since that first trip, I have returned to Lisbon two more times, so this collection of photos and ramblings is from all three trips: January 2023, March 2023 (yes, I went RIGHT back two months later!) and December 2024/January 2025 (New Year’s).

I honestly didn’t expect to love Lisbon as much as I loved Porto. But after my first trip to Portugal, I read Night Train to Lisbon (also a film) and The Night in Lisbon, and I knew I had to go for myself and see Lisboa, (which I learned to pronounce properly by listening to Portas do Sol on repeat after Shazam-ing it in a cab in Porto).

As soon as I realized that Lisbon was a city with which I wanted to become acquainted, I asked my sister, Anna, to meet me there. We both were smitten from the start.

One of the best ideas we have ever had is to meet somewhere in January after all of the holiday hullabaloo has passed.

We put our trip to Lisbon on calendar in late September. We bought plane tickets and I made reservations for the city and for a few days of walking afterwards. Then we put our heads down, kept our busy autumn schedules with high school boys and an even busier Christmas season with college and adult kids visiting.

I tend to be a little numb after the holidays.

I think it’s as much a product of the historical holiday drama as it is any of the actual current events. I’m always trying to disrupt my usual Christmas pattern of unrealistic expectations followed by an inevitable disappointment. I have tried moving Christmas celebrations to neutral locations, pretending it’s not really December, and on other years, going all in on what everyone else in my family wants to do, but none of my strategies seem to “work.” Christmas is a time that I simultaneously dread and look forward to. Then when it has come and gone, I am both sad and relieved. And these paradoxes seem to show up every year no matter what I do.

So honestly, I wanted to just crawl in bed for a couple of days (or all of January) after the holidays were over in 2022. It was our first Christmas in our new home in Bristol. It had been cold, dark and rainy. And decidedly anti-climatic.

But instead of getting in bed, I packed my backpack and hopped a flight to Lisbon.

Again…SUCH a good idea!

I arrived a day before Anna, which I spent dodging the rain at Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, an astonishingly varied art collection amassed by one man in his lifetime, in the midst of escaping multiple wars. (Sidebar: I’m adding collecting art and then making it public for all to see to the list of things I prefer that wealthy people do with their money – right up there with building libraries, schools and theaters – instead of increasing military surveillance, shutting down entire cities for personal events, taking eight minute flights on private jets, and funding fascism.)

I often “meet” a city for the first time in the rain. Maybe it’s because I prefer cities in winter when they are less crowded, but I have wandered Paris, Siena, Edinburgh and of COURSE Bristol in the rain.

That’s why hiking boots are the BEST travel shoes.

This is especially true in Lisbon where the streets are made of marble cobblestone!

Even in hiking boots, I had a few near misses on the slick cobbles.

They are EXQUISITE though.

The cobbles were the first thing about Lisbon I noticed (after the easy metro ride from the airport).

I emerged from the underground into a square covered in these black and white cobblestones. I snapped lots of photos of all the different patterns. A city so dedicated to the artisan work that maintaining these streets requires is one that puts a high value on art.

There is even a monument to the craftspeople who maintain this extensive network of art on the ground.

In Rossio Square, the cobbles are laid in a pattern that is meant to make you feel like you’re on the waves of the sea, a nod to Portuguese maritime history.

The center of Lisbon is a flat section of squares and streets on a grid. This area is surrounded by hilly neighborhoods that rise up around its edges, and all of it is bordered by the Tejas/Tegas River that flows from the ocean.

The grid-like center of town was built in such uniform structure after an earthquake flattened the city in 1755.

We stayed at the Pessoa Hotel, which is named for one of Portugal’s most celebrated writers, Fernando Pessoa.

The hotel was located on the hill west of Rossio Square, near the Chiado district, where we enjoyed rooftop breakfasts while looking out over the city.

From the hotel, it was a short walk down cobbled steps into Lisbon’s main thoroughfares.

On the way down from our hotel each day, we would pass a window where they were serving warm Pasteis de Nata.  And of course, we would always stop for one!

The pastel de nata, immortalized by Emma Stone in Poor Things, is a Portuguese Egg Custard Tart that is available on just about every corner in Lisbon.

We ate SO many of them, not all at once, but here and there at different bakeries. I love them warm (and they were always warm at this little window), but my favorites were the ones from Belem, out by the Jerónimos Monastery where the monks started making them in the 18th century.

In the 18th century, nuns and monks were using a copious amount of egg whites to starch their habits and robes. So they invented the best treats with the leftover egg yolks, pasteis de nata being the most famous one. But we tried many other egg yolk treats and our favorites were some little cookies from the national bakery in one of the main squares of Lisbon. I returned to this bakery for a little box of treats on every trip to Lisbon.

On my second trip to Lisbon, with three friends in March 2023, I think we ate even MORE of these tarts than on my first trip. My friend Kristie LOVES them and she was keeping track of which ones were her favorites.

I still held to the best ones being from Belem, which I confirmed again a year later when there with my family. They have the flakiest crust! When I think about the warm filling topped with a little sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, my mouth starts to water!

Honestly, you could easily book a trip to Lisbon just for the food, especially if you love seafood and fish. I think the best seafood I’ve ever eaten has been on trips to Portugal, washed down with a glass of Vinho Verde, another uniquely Portuguese experience.

Next to the Pasteis de Belem, is the Jerónimos Monastery, which Anna and I visited together.

It’s one of the main attractions in Lisbon, and it’s definitely worthy of its spot on all the Lisbon Listicles. When we came back in March, the lines to see it were so much longer, so I recommend visiting in winter when it is quiet and the line to get in is short.

Deep within the quiet cloisters of the monastery, we walked by Fernando Pessoa’s simple tomb.

It is quite the contrast to the sculptures inside the neighboring church of Santa Maria that celebrate Vasco da Gama and other “heroes” of Portugal’s colonial expansion.

The monastery and church were built with money from Vasco da Gama’s and other Portuguese explorer expeditions. If you were traveling along the river from the city to the ocean, you would pass the monastery last, and hope that your contribution to its beauty would keep you safe at sea.

The unique Portuguese Gothic architecture has elements of a ship built into it.

I do love a cloister and I found the ones in the monastery to be as beautiful as any I’ve ever seen.

I could have wandered these courtyards in silent prayer for days, but the ship ropes in the arches and other nautical elements were a reminder that the Portuguese empire was built on exploration, and exploitation. It’s a troublesome history that includes the origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade.

In fact, it was a Portuguese man (Gomes de Zurara) who came up with the construct of race. He literally invented “blackness” (and then also whiteness) in order to justify the slave trade. His writing was actually commissioned by slave-trading leaders in Portugal in the 1450s in order to justify their subjugation and trafficking of people whom they deemed lesser than themselves.

Portugal is a stark reminder that all empires DO eventually fall. Portugal’s post-empire phase was long and rough, including 45 (!!!) changes of government between 1910 and 1926, which was followed by Western Europe’s longest-lived dictatorship.

A right-winged, authoritarian regime suppressed civil liberties and political freedom until a (mostly bloodless) coup in 1974.

In 1940, under Salazar’s dictatorship, Lisbon hosted the Portuguese World Exhibition where a statue of explorers was built to celebrate 800 years of Portuguese exploration. Then in the late 50s, the regime built a larger, permanent version of the statue overlooking the river called the Monument of the Discoveries.

The explorers represented on the statue include Vasco da Gama, and even the writer Gomes de Zurara got a spot on the boat. Standing beneath the structure, I was reminded of Confederate War monuments, and how many of them were put up in the southern United States during the civil rights movement of the 20th century, actually at the same time this statue was being built. Revisionist odes to a history that could only ever have meant success for a few at the cost of the many.

Listen closely and you can almost hear Salazar whispering back in 1960:

Remember when we were great. 

Don’t pay attention the slums, to the growing poverty, to how filthy our capital city has become. Instead look at this bright shiny statue and celebrate when we were great. 

As humans, we are so easily sold a stories about the past. What fools we are.

But look at Lisbon and Portugal now: an example to all of us about how to learn from our mistakes, however slowly.

I would argue (from my extremely limited perspective) that Portugal is as great as it has ever been, and looking towards a bright future.

And it’s not just because of those shiny tiles and artisanal cobbles!

Portugal has made some WILD decisions as a nation to actually build a society that is for the many, rather than for the few.

They’ve done some research about what works well for communities, and here’s the crazy bit…someone in power actually paid attention to the researchers!

They have implemented some of the most progressive and exciting changes in the world. For example, in 2001, Portugal made the stunning decision to decriminalize drugs. All drugs are not legal, but the possession of drugs is not treated as a crime.

Instead of spending more money policing drugs, they increased funding of rehabilitation programs.

Health and healing instead of harm!

Policing drugs has been proven again and again to only increase the demand for, price of and crime around drugs. The research on decreasing drug misuse is overwhelmingly in favor of putting energy towards healing instead of punishing, but few governments have paid attention to this research.

These policies were put in place mainly because Portugal was leading Europe in deaths related to drug use and HIV. Decriminalization was complemented by the expansion of a welfare state which included resources put towards harm reduction, social reintegration and a guaranteed minimum income.

Studies I’ve read suggest that the wider health and social reforms in Portugal have helped the decriminalization policies to achieve the positive societal outcomes seen in the country today.

Of course Portugal is not perfect, but when I walk around Lisbon, I see a city (and country) that feels like it’s looking towards a future that is greater than its past.

Most of the time, I can’t fathom what it would look like to have leaders who have an imagination for a better world for the many instead of increasing the wealth of a handful of billionaires. But when I walk around Lisbon, I get a picture of what it could look like…

Independent bookstores on every corner.

Exquisite museums, including a gorgeous museum dedicated to the history of azulejos (Portuguese tiles) housed in an old convent.

The expansion and maintenance of affordable public transportation.

More spaces for tram lines than for cars.

Beautiful public spaces where people gather. Public squares and well-kept streets.

More than anything, I think being in Lisbon encourages imagination. It’s a space to dream. Maybe that is true of any beautiful city that is organized around human beings…I’ve definitely felt that way in Amsterdam watching bikes and in Paris as they have increased green space and bike lanes radically there in the last ten years.

But somehow it feels even more true to me that today, Lisbon is a place of possibility for dreamers.

And so after leaving a second time, I started to dream about bringing my whole family back there.

On New Year’s Eve in 2024, Taido and I were celebrating 30 years of marriage. It seemed like a great excuse to gather in Lisbon. I put the word out that all I wanted for my anniversary (and Christmas that year) was for my family – whoever wanted to – to join Taido and me in Lisbon.

I rented an apartment in the Alfama, the historic district east of the city center and invited everyone to make their requests about our time there together.

If I had to choose one theme for my third trip to Lisbon, it would have to be food, and maybe even specifically, coffee!

We wandered the beautiful streets together, but in between walks, we ate a lot. And we drank so much coffee.

We haunted old cafes like A Brasilieira and new ones from a list my son Ben made.

One of our favorites was the Copenhagen Coffee Lab, which has several locations around Lisbon.

In addition to coffee, they do brunch and matchas.

Almost every day, at least some of our group would make a stop in one of these coffee spots.

And we brought their bread back to the apartment by the loaf to have with soup and breakfast. In fact, for two months after this trip, I tested recipes until I had perfected my own version of their dark rye Danish bread, which I have been making ever since. It’s now a Chino House staple!

Between coffees, we visited several museums, wandered from one miradouro (hill top viewpoints) to the next and ate all the seafood!

When you’re a group of this size, someone is always hungry.

Often my only photo from a meal would be a pile of empty plates after we devoured every bite.

In addition to Taido and me, our Lisbon crew was our three of our kids (Ben, Mary Polly and Simon), my sister, and my niece and her partner who popped over from Dublin.

We ended up being in two apartments down the street from each other, but we would host meals and play cards at night in ours.

Early in the morning, Taido and Anna would go for a run as the sun came up along the river. Each day one or two kids would wake up to go with them. And sometimes I went and walked. We would get to where a lot of the clubs were located, and folks would still be lined up outside to get in at 7am. It amazed me every time.

Lisbon is definitely a city that doesn’t sleep, although the main squares were much quieter on those early morning walks. In the afternoons the same squares were packed with people.

We enjoyed being in Lisbon in time to catch some of the holiday vibe after Christmas.

I asked everyone later what their favorite things were about Lisbon, and again, the food was a recurring highlight. One group did a food tour that I booked but opted out of myself (since I’m a vegetarian) and they loved all the spots they hit on the tour.

When Ben got home, he recreated some Mozambican sandwiches they had that their guide told them was everyone’s hangover cure in Lisbon.

We also took the kids back to some of the places Anna and I had loved so much. Of course we went to Honest Greens, which we’d discovered first in Porto.

But some other favorites included Chapito a Mesa for seafood, Cantinho do Avillez for shared plates, and the rooftop bar at the top of Pollux for drinks with a view.

We made lots of meals at the apartment. We couldn’t believe the seafood offerings at the local supermarkets.

And we had pizza one day, because Anna and I had found a collection of divine restaurants inspired by Italy (and Portugal and Nepal!) on our first trip to Lisbon.

We had our anniversary dinner at Decadente, now called The Gandaia Club, which was divine!

And then we walked down to the river just before midnight to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks. It’s not often that I stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve (also our anniversary), but being along the riverfront with the masses for the fireworks going off above the city AND out on the river was worth being out past my bedtime for sure.

Even though we had to bundle up a bit, it was so fun to be outside and often in the sun in January.

One evening some of us walked up to a sunset bar with books and cards to see the sun go down from above the city.

We warmed up every time we went uphill, which is often in Lisbon.

A lot of the days we would split up into smaller groups depending on who was interested in what, but one morning we all did a bike tour together that was so fun.

We rode along the river all the way to Belem, and our guide stopped along the way to tell us about different parts of the city.

We rode to the top of the architecture and technology museum, which the boys ended up coming back to the next day.

And we visited the LX Factory which is an old textile factory that has now been turned into a hub for artists, restaurants and shops.

We rode to have the Pasteis de Belem and again to the problematic Monument of the Discoveries, and then we rode all the way back. It was the longest I’ve biked in a little while and I definitely felt it.

I love doing a bike tour of a city, but then I’m glad to be back on my two feet again.

Walking the Lisbon city streets is how I spent my first hours there in 2023, and we ended our trip in 2025 doing much the same.

After a week in Lisbon, we had seen what we wanted to see, so we walked the Alfama neighborhood, had our favorite coffees one more time, and said goodbye.

Hopefully it’s not the last time I’ll be in Lisbon. I feel sure I’ll be back for another walk on the Rota Vicentina, but I don’t know that I’ll ever have a whole week in Lisbon again so I’m recording these memories now to treasure later.

I’m so grateful to everyone who came to Lisbon to help make my Lisbon family travel dreams come true.

 \

PS. If you go to Lisbon, please write and tell me how much you love it. And also, here’s my Lisbon Google map with all my saved spots, as well as a playlist for Wandering Lisboa. 

Annnnd, if you enjoy my rambling posts about places I visit and walk, you can subscribe to get them straight to your inbox right here. 

The post Snapshots of Lisbon appeared first on Alison Chino.

I’m returning to Porto in 2026 to walk a section of the Portuguese Camino with friends.

I’m encouraging my friends to add on days to visit Porto before we start walking, so I’ve put this collection of photos together to serve as a list of recommendations for visiting this delightful city.

It’s been four years since my first trip to Porto, marking the beginning of my love affair with Portugal. I returned after walking the Portuguese Camino to Portugal to visit Lisbon and to walk the Rota Vicentina. I returned again to do more of the coastal fishing trail and then I went back to Porto with my sister after another Camino. Last year I begged my whole family to meet me in Lisbon to celebrate New Year’s and a big wedding anniversary.

I’m scheming to go back to Portugal at least once, but maybe a twice in 2026, so as I plan, I am also returning to the beginning.

My first steps into Portugal were in June of 2022. I was just passing through Porto, it was the beginning of my next Camino.

But Porto was swoon-worthy before I ever even spotted the colorful buildings piled up like building blocks along the river.

I fell in love with Porto at the airport, because I am a sucker for a town with an easy, efficient and affordable transit system.

It might sound silly, but when a city provides an option to hop on a metro line for around 2 euros right outside of the airport, the town has already gone a long way towards winning over my vagabond heart. This is why I’ll go way out of my way to never fly into Milan, but will fly into Pisa or Florence instead, even if it costs more. Cities that offer easy transport links from their airports will always top my travel list. (Take note, Bristol! Do better.)

Everyone has their preferred way of getting to know a city. Some folks might chat to their host or a local driver. My sister tends to discover a place through food. I have another friend who always does a walking tour on the first day she’s in town as a way to get to know a place.

But I love to just walk around aimlessly. I drop off my stuff where I’m staying and then I walk outside without an agenda and start wandering. I suppose you could say I am lost since I have no idea where I am. But I’m not lost, I’m just finding my way.

In Porto, eventually I ran into the Douro River. And since the southernmost part of town is bordered by the river, I began to learn where places were in relation to the water.

In Porto, you can walk west along the river front all the way out to the sea, or you can walk east and climb the small cobbled roads and stairs that overlook the river and city.

You can also climb up the bridge and walk across the river to the neighboring town of  Vila Nova de Gaia, where all old the Port Houses are. You can wander up and down both sides of the river for a long time, until your legs are so tired, you have to stop and try what will be come your new favorite drink, A Porto Tonico. Which is port and tonic instead of gin and tonic.

The first things I noticed in Portugal were the cobbled streets and the building tiles. It feels like being in an open air museum, an outdoor gallery full of detail and color.

Tiles seem so much brighter than paint, and they sparkle in the sunshine. And in the rain.

Every time I turned a corner, there was another bright color.

And sometimes I would stop and look at the tiles up close, wondering at their texture and detailed designs.

Who made all these?

I must be in a city filled with artists.

On that first visit to Porto, I really only had a day to wander around. In all honestly, I had only come to Porto to walk away from it.

I was meeting four friends to walk north to Santiago from Porto, to discover a new trail.

We met up for dinner the night before leaving on our walk.

Then the next morning we made our way to the cathedral to officially begin our Camino.

We got our pilgrims’ passports from the cathedral, getting our first stamp and then finding the first Camino marker outside the church.

And then we were off. Instead of taking the traditional Camino out of Porto, we walked along the Douro River out to the sea.

We planned to walk for a couple of days along the coastline before making our way inland to the historical route. Because it was a warm June, we figured we would enjoy having the sea breeze at our backs for the start of our journey.

But it was good for us that we’d only planned for a couple of days along the sea, because our progress was so slow due to the siren call of lounge chairs and beach bars along the way.

Shall we stop for another drink? Another moment in the sun?

Yes, of course we should!

We loved our two sea days at the beginning of our Camino and I remembered them so fondly that I knew I wanted to do the river walk out to the sea again if I ever returned to Porto!

Exactly two years later I returned to Porto.

Only this time instead of coming to walk away, I arrived by bus with my sister after walking the Camino through Spain with our kids.

We sent them all home after a wild time of treating blisters, sleeping on top of each other and finally reaching the cathedral square in Santiago.

We hoped we had helped them make memories that they would later appreciate, and now we were ready for a few days on our own.

Unfortunately, our welcome into Porto began with a climb up about 300 stairs to a room I’d booked for its tiny glimpse of the river.

Our room with a view was very small, and a bit sweltering in the June heat, but thankfully, we hadn’t planned to spend too much time in it.

We started our visit in Porto with brunch, something we did every day actually. We found a lot of breakfast and coffee spots we loved in Porto: Esquires, Do Norté Cafe and Honest Greens were our favorites.

On our first morning, we found that we were both more tired than we realized but pushed through our itinerary of climbing to the top of the Clérigos Tower for the 360 degree views of Porto.

I love to get an aerial view of a city. It sort of helps me get my bearings a little better.

I realized from the tower that on my last visit to Porto, I had barely scratched the surface. There was so much more to see.

The 18th century church and tower is now a museum and historical site. The gorgeous chapel hosts events and concerts and was for sure worth visiting. But besides the view from the tower, my favorite find at Clérigos was a pieta I came across in the museum.

I’ve been collecting pietas since seeing my first one in Italy over 20 years ago. There is something about this moment that Mary holds the sacrificed Christ in her arms that always speaks to me. I have tried to understand what it is about these paintings and sculptures that cracks something open in my heart every time. I think it has to do with the relationship between a mother and her son. But more than that, it’s the way a mother has the ability to hold all her children’s suffering in her heart, often without being broken or even hardened by it. Mary’s deep grief is all of ours. It’s the grief for her son having to die and it’s the grief for a world in which a son has to die.

It’s so random. I don’t even know who the artist is, but I can be walking through any art collection and a pieta will always draw my attention, standing out from every other piece.

After some more city wandering, including visiting the newly renovated Porto Market, we decided (not unusually) that we needed some green space, so we headed to the Parque e Jardim da Fundação Serralves.

This space also has a museum and restaurant, but we mainly hung out in the bright sunshine and under the shady trees outside.

We actually fell asleep on some benches in one of the treetop boardwalks.

Though it was further outside of the city center that we realized, we enjoyed our time Serralves Parque. Afterwards, Anna headed back to the hotel for a nap and I walked a little more.

We met back up for dinner across the river from Porto, and then caught the sunset as we walked home across the bridge.

The rest of our five days in Porto were spent in a similar rhythm.

Wake up and walk to find breakfast or brunch somewhere fun.

Walk to something else on our list to see.

Then wander off to find a garden or somewhere to sit in the sun.

We spent one afternoon in the gardens behind Casa São Roque after visiting the house and exhibition.

The gardens are free to visit and behind the gardens is an extensive forest park and maze. (We enjoyed the gardens more than the house and art exhibition but if you wander all the way out there, you might as well visit both.)

Another day I talked Anna into walking the Douro river along the first part of the Camino, just to see the sea again.

We spent the whole afternoon in beach chairs after wandering out to the sea.

Then Anna found a fancy restaurant with a female chef nearby that she wanted to try, InDiferente. We were slightly underdressed in our hiking boots, trail shorts and merino shirts, but the kind host hid our backpacks in the back so we looked a little less scraggly. We made up for our lack of fashion with our enthusiasm for each exquisite dish on the seafood-themed tasting menu.

Traveling with my sister always involves finding great food. In addition to being a restaurant owner and fabulous cook, she has a nose for picking out the best item on a menu or the most special pastry in the case.

Because of Anna, I will remember many delightful food spots in Porto: breakfast spots and restaurants, but also the food hall and the long market in the train station that has stalls from many famous Portuguese restaurants.

When I got home from Porto, I tired to re-create several of the salads we had at Honest Greens.

After days of walking around and feeding ourselves beautiful scenes and food, we had settled back into ourselves.

Whenever I finish a Camino or any long-distance walk, I wake up the next day and feel like I should still be walking. I miss the trail days, both how they are predictable in their rhythm and unpredictable in what you will find along the way. I think this feeling is not uncommon among walkers. The let-down after it’s over is part of the journey.

So it takes a little while to settle back into one place, to find myself ready to just be, and not need to be constantly in motion.

Though we were on the move in Porto, we were just as often being still. Reading or talking or drinking tea.

And sleeping. Lots of sleeping.

Anna had an early flight on our last day in Porto, so I sent her off to the airport, hopefully rested and ready to go back to her busy life.

I had an evening flight so after checking out, I revisited a few of our favorite Porto spots.

Instead of doing something new, I went back for one more salad and kombucha at Honest Greens.

One more wander along the Douro River.

One more hour in the Botanical Garden, watching the peacocks and children.

Then it was time for my flight and a goodbye to the Camino and to Portugal.

Until next time.

Here is my Google Maps list of Porto in case you find yourself wandering along the Douro River sometime soon.  Oh and here’s my Wandering Lisboa playlist which is also a great accompaniment to a walk around Porto. 

The post Snapshots of Porto appeared first on Alison Chino.

The Fisherman’s Trail

Vila do Bispo to Cabo de San Vincente 14.5 km/9 miles

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here.

We all woke up well-rested and happy for our final day on the trail.

The breakfast at our guest house, Pure Fonte Velha in Vila do Bispo, was absolutely gorgeous, so we filled up before hitting the road.

Once we finally got going, we walked from the village toward the sea, through wildflower fields and over dusty roads.

We continued on our last day with our theme of not being in a hurry, trying to soak up these last hours along the cliff tops.

From early in the morning, we could see the tiny speck of the lighthouse that we were walking towards.

We knew we would reach it eventually. There was plenty of time and we were loaded up on snacks.

We talked as we walked and as we sat looking out at the waves rolling up on the beaches and rocks below. We had all finished telling our life stories so we talked about our hopes and dreams for the years ahead. And where we’d like to travel to next.

The last stretch was super rocky, so you had to watch your steps. We could also see more and more people, as the lighthouse receives a lot of visitors.

When we reached the lighthouse, we walked around a little while and took some photos. It was kind of busy right inside the main area, and we were all hungry and tired. So we found a food truck outside the main gates and had some lunch while we waited for the bus to town.

It’s funny how sometimes getting to the end is a bit anticlimactic. Especially on a walk like this one where the sum of all the views during the days of walking by the ocean was far more impressive than the lighthouse itself. But still, we had the feeling that we did what we set out to do.

We had to wait a while for the bus so we ended up sitting around on the ground playing cards. We got so tickled and laughed so hard that when the bus driver arrived, he joked that he was not going to let us on the bus because we were too loud.

I think the giddiness was the feeling of finishing the sweet week of walking washing over all of us.

When the bus dropped us in Sagres, we checked into our place and then headed to the beach for a celebration sangria, followed by dinner at a place called A Sagres. Another favorite meal for sure.

The charming restaurant owner told us which dishes were the best. We took his advice and ordered all his recommendations. More fish soup and shrimp and mussels and yummy garlicky buttered bread to sop everything up.

It was a perfect final night on the Rota Vicentina.

The next morning we caught the bus back to Lisbon for one last night together, but this was our final night by the sea.

Goodbye Rota Vicentina! I’m sure I’ll be back one day. It’s just too beautiful not to return!

The post Rota Vicentina: Vila do Bispo to Cabo de San Vincente appeared first on Alison Chino.

The Fisherman’s Trail

Carrapateira to Vila do Bispo 16 km/9.6 miles

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here.

On Day 4, we had a decision to make. The Rota Vicentina is a network of trails. Sometimes all the trails converge and there is only one trail, but other times there is a historical inland trail (marked by red and yellow stripes) or a seaside trail (marked by blue and green stripes). The seaside trail is generally known as The Fisherman’s Trail and it is the one we mostly walked all week, for obvious reasons. We love to be by the sea.

However, I had read about a village that has been recently restored from ruin that I wanted to visit called Pedralva. This village, which is making a name for itself in the “slow travel movement” by offering longer term rentals to digital nomads and surf enthusiasts, is on the historical inland route.

So if we wanted to see Pedralva, we needed to walk a longer inland route, or we could skip it and walk by the sea, which would be almost five miles shorter.

It didn’t take us long to decide to skip over Pedralva in order to walk the shorter route and stay along the sea. A theme of this trip was to choose the more gentle option.

What feels easier?

If I asked a question, someone usually could answer for us with the option that felt the most friendly to them.

Would it be easier to eat dinner now while we are already up here in the village even though we didn’t shower yet or do we want to walk all the way back to our apartment, shower and then walk back up the hill again?

Easy. Eat now.

Would it be easier to drop off our packs before we walk to the store and go have a drink or to go on to the store now?

I am ready to lose my pack.

Would it feel easier to wait until this coffee shop opens or to walk on to the next town in search of coffee?

The sun is shining. Let’s sit at this outside table and wait for this one. We’re not in a hurry.

I am not saying the whole walk was easy.

But I am saying that there was an ease to this entire walk.

Some of it was ease that we chose and some of it was just the generous nature of this particular trail and time.

The constant sunshine and blue sky.

The cliff trail with constant views of the big wide expanse of sea and the wild rocks below.

The wildflowers in bloom.

The storks flying all around us.

I guess maybe the ease of the trail created a theme that permeated the choices for the rest of the walk.

It was not hard to choose what felt lighter.

It was not hard to choose to not go hard.

When I hike with my husband and our friends in the mountains, we go hard. I am always very proud of myself at the end of it.

But I am also exhausted and sometimes even injured.

I think that’s probably why I spend the rest of the year seeking out walks that feel a little softer.

I try to strike a balance between not rushing folks along during the day and getting to the destination at a reasonable time.

We want to enjoy the day, and we want to get to the village before dinner, with time to rest.

This day ended up being one of our favorites. It had the most up and down of any other day, so we descended to the water and back up again several times, but we enjoyed the rhythm of the climbs and descents.

We could always see where we were headed, the next time the trail was going to dip and climb again.

I was grateful all day that we chose the route by the sea.

I will go back to Portugal and visit Pedralva another day.

But not this day. This day was for walking down to the water, dipping a toe into the sea, and climbing back up again.

At the end of the day, in order to get to Vila do Bispo, we had to head inland on a long, dusty road.

It probably took us about two hours to reach the town once we turned away from the sea.

The last part of the day I can sometimes just switch to autopilot and kind of march to the end. This road definitely felt like a long march. It was a good road for a set of headphones and an audiobook.

We were tired by the end of it, but we finally rolled into town around 4pm, dumped our packs and went to a little bar for cold drinks. Our host gave us a dinner recommendation for a seafood place down the road. We ordered (for the second time) Cataplana, which is a seafood soup that is served in a big stainless steel pot for your table to share. The broth is super rich, so you soak it up with bread. It was delicious.

We finished off our meal with a chocolate almond cake that our waiter said was special to the region. I think it was my favorite dessert of the week.

With full bellies, we headed off to bed. Tomorrow we would reach the lighthouse at the southwest tip of Portugal for our final day of walking on the Rota Vicentina.

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Arrifana to Carrapateira 20 km/12.4 miles  

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

Day 3 started with some happy faces because we had a beautiful breakfast at the Utopia Guest House and another day of sunshine!

We walked a while to get back to the seaside.

It’s funny how we were always happy to see it again. The sea, the sea!

Somehow it never disappoints.

We could see a dip in the path for a long time before we reached a spot where you could walk out to a rock beach.

We rested for a bit on the rocks before tackling the next hill.

For each day of walking, we took turns telling our life stories throughout the day. So when we would pause and rest, sometimes whoever’s turn it was would take a break from talking or we would ask questions. When it was your turn, you could take as long as you wanted and stop when you needed to rest.

After some time on the rock beach, we walked a little out of the way because there was a lunch spot on the map that looked pretty inviting.

It was a long dusty road to get there, but we agreed we wanted to try.

When we arrived, they were closed for vacation. Bummer.

So we sat down in front of the place and ate our snacks. We were all tired and hot so I also used their water faucet outside to fill up our water bottles. I didn’t think they would mind.

Then less than a mile down the road, we came across another place that was not on the map but was open!

We had just eaten all our snacks, but we stopped again anyway! Because why not?

The guy running the place looked like maybe he was closing down soon and he was little bit grouchy, which has been soooo unusual in my (short) experience in Portugal. But he didn’t dampen our spirits.

We fueled up for the rest of the walk.

The afternoon passed by quickly and soon we reached the long beach that marked the end of Day 3.

We took off our shoes and walked on the beach barefoot. At the other side we had to walk along a little channel to get to the town of Carrapateira. It was a rocky path along the side of the channel, so we put our shoes back on and headed to town.

We found our little apartments that had loft bedrooms over kitchenettes, and a courtyard with chairs and a swimming pool. It was cooling off quickly by then, so we didn’t swim but we did sit by the pool.

After we dumped our packs, we walked the rest of the way into town to grab breakfast foods and snacks for the next day. We thought we would come back later for dinner, but we ended up deciding to stay in town and eat early. No one wanted to make the walk up the hill a second time.

We found a place to eat dinner called Microbar that had these gorgeous elaborate salads and toasts.  It was super yummy.

After dinner, we walked back to our little apartments and sat by the pool with a bottle of wine to finish off the day.

Day 3 was our middle day. I went to bed a little sad that we only had two days left. We were all loving the Rota Vicentina!

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Praia de Monte Clerigo to Arrifana 13 km/7 miles  

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

I woke up before everyone else on our second walking day. (It’s always an advantage not to have jet lag.)

We didn’t need to get an early start because we were only a covering 7 miles to the next town: Arrifana.

So I wandered out around the little village under the pink sky before everyone got up.

The sun was creeping up high by the time we all headed off. The trail goes right up behind the village. We were all carrying a few snacks, but we didn’t have breakfast at our apartment and there weren’t any open cafes in the village so just headed out and hoped we would see something along the way.

Even on empty stomachs, we started out in awe once again of all the beauty surrounding us.

I particularly enjoyed seeing all the different flowers that were in bloom this time around.

And again, we walked under clear blue skies.

When I first heard about the Rota Vicentina, somewhere I read that it’s probably not the trail for you if you’re prone to vertigo. I have a healthy fear of heights (as I’ve mentioned before), so I keep well away from the edges of the cliffs.

But I walked this time with people who have no such fear. I felt like these gals dangled way too near the edge all week. But thankfully we didn’t lose anyone. And they kept reassuring me that it always looked worse from wherever I happened to be standing.

We also saw several folks fishing here and there along the Fisherman’s Trail. They always had these long poles with super long lines that went all the way out from the cliffs. It seemed like such a wild way to fish.

Stork season was in full swing during March, so we spotted a lot of stork nests on the rocks below us.

Mid-morning, we stopped and hung out in the sun for a little while and shared whatever snacks we had between us.

Then we finally rolled into Arrifana around lunch time, which we were all ready for!

Arrifana is a surfing hub with very fun vibes. We had lunch at the “Sea You Cafe,” which was super yummy. Acai bowls and salads and such.

Then we made our way to the beach for a swim and an afternoon nap in the sun.

It was hard to pull myself away from the beach, but we finally made a move to go check into where we were staying, a place called the Utopia Guest House.

I knew that it was up the road a little bit, but actually it was up the road quite a bit more than I realized.

We discovered this because Kristie headed off ahead of us, ready for a shower and a break from the sun, so she was texting us updates to let us know how far we still had to go. It ended up being about a 40 minute walk, but at a time of day when 40 minutes feels like 2 hours.

So we stopped for a cold drink and a snack on our way at a little pizza spot.

We loved the place so much that we ended up coming back there for dinner. Thankfully it was really close to our guest house, which we finally reached late in the afternoon.

They had a pool and great places to sit outside so we soaked up the last few rays of sun before we got chilly and headed inside.

You can take surfing lessons in Arrifana, so lots of folks come here to learn to surf, but there were also several other walkers staying at the Utopia Guest House. It was our first time to run into other walkers. The Rota Vicentina is not at all busy.

Even though it’s a bit of a haul from Arrifana, we loved the airy feel of this guest house.

It’s very earthy. They did a great breakfast, and they have the whole place decorated thoughtfully with stuff that has washed up from the sea.

We got cleaned up and headed back to the pizza place for dinner, which was delicious.

The sky turned pink while we were sitting at dinner. Another great day in Portugal!

These are the faces of some folks who are about to sleep well after a sun-soaked day.

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Odeceixe de Praia to Aljezur 20 km/12.5 miles

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

As soon as I got home from walking about half the Rota Vicentina with my sister in January, I wrote to three of my friends who were planning to join me for a wet winter walk in Cornwall and suggested we go to Portugal instead.

I’ve been hooked by the Fisherman’s Trail and I’m ready to go finish the rest of it!

They all wrote back that they were willing to meet me there instead, so that’s how I found myself back in Lisbon less than two months after my first visit (and my third visit to Portugal in less than 12 months, my first being the previous June for the Portuguese Camino. Clearly, I am having a moment with this hand-tiled, codfish-loving, ocean-hugging country.

After a day in Lisbon, we took the bus right back to Odeceixe where I had stopped in January. Then we hopped in a cab to our lodging on the beach. It was already dark but we woke up to the same beautiful sea views I had left.

I can’t even explain how gratifying it is for me to talk people into coming to a place that I think is drop-dead gorgeous and then to stand back and watch it take their breath away.

Portugal showed out with blue skies and sunshine on our first morning, but I think in any weather, these gals would have been scrambling to get their phones out for these cliff top views.

We moved slowly through the morning because there were so many photos to take of course.

By mid-morning we left the seaside to walk inland for a while to the small village of Rogil, so we picked up some speed.

By the time we reached our lunch spot, it was almost 1pm.

We ate at the most delightful spot with tables under straw umbrellas outside, and all fresh local produce and seafood.

It’s called the Museu da Batata Doce, which is The Sweet Potato Museum. We had gorgeous mixed salads, grilled shrimp, bread, olives, pickled carrots, a homemade fish spread and sangria of course. The shrimp we ate that afternoon was maybe the best I’ve had in my life.

It took us a while to get moving again after lunch, but we finally crawled away from the table and headed off to Aljezur. It had warmed up and we were in the hot sun for a lot of the afternoon. After many rainy months in the UK, I could not have been happier to be hot for a minute.

Aljezur is inland town and though it’s a historical stop on the Rota Vicentina, I knew after January that I wanted to try to sleep by the sea as often as possible.

So after a quick stop in Aljezur for ice cream and beer, we hailed a cab to the little seaside town where I had booked us to stay for the night.

In a not totally unsurprising turn of events, our cab driver ended up being related to the man we were meeting to rent the house from, so he knew exactly where to take us in Praia de Monte Clerigo.

We threw off our packs and headed straight for the praia…the beach.

Celebration of a fabulous first day!

We played in the sand, stared at sea creatures in little tide pools and completely succumbed to the sweet salty air as it cooled us off from our day of walking.

Our host told us that in the tiny village of Praia de Monte Clerigo, there is a special restaurant run by a guy who used to be a chef in a Michelin star restaurant somewhere, but he decided he wanted a quiet life by the sea, so he opened up a place right here called O Sargo.

After watching the sunset from our balcony, we headed off for dinner.

We were already pretty blissed out from the whole day, and  our lunch had been so divine, I wasn’t sure the evening’s meal could live up to everything else we had experienced.

Of course I was wrong.

Every bite we ate was incredible. After ordering several things from the simple menu, we shared all the dishes between us.

On the short walk back up to where we were sleeping for the night, we all lamented that we could not stay longer in Praia de Monte Clerigo, and even though it was only our first day on the Rota Vicentina, we felt like it was going to be a really hard one to top.

I’m so grateful to Kristie, Kelsy and Tatsuko for coming with me for this coastal adventure!! Let’s do it again soon, y’all! 

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Zambujeira do Mar to Odeceixe 18.5 km/11.4 miles  

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

Rain was predicted on our last day of walking the Rota Vicentina, but the host at Hostel Nature told us that it would not rain.

He was right. We woke up to blue skies, yet again.

After a quick breakfast of coffee, yogurts and bananas, we hit the road.

From Zambujeira do Mar, you descend to the beach and then climb back up out of the cove for views back towards the sea town.

Zambujeira do Mar is for sure a place I would enjoy spending some more time. Anna and I said we would love to go back there one day.

But now we were headed south towards Odeceixe, our final stop on the Fisherman’s Trail, at least for now.

The trail continues south and continues to meander along beautiful coastline.

We spotted more storks hanging out on rocks, and we passed more deserted beaches.

We moved a bit slower on this final morning, just soaking everything in.

Neither of us really wanted to leave Portugal. It seemed like we had made an unspoken pact to take this final day as slow as possible in order to enjoy every minute.

When the path descended again and crossed a wide beach, we walked all the way out to the water.

We took off our shoes and put our feet in the sea.

The water was cold enough that we didn’t want to get all the way in, but it felt good on our toes.

We sat down at a little beach cafe that was closed for the season in order to brush the sand from our feet and put our boots back on. There were signs for a surfing camp and school, which we thought would be another fun way to spend time in this part of the Portugal.

On our next ascent, we followed the trail away from the sea and around a large private wildlife park.

We’d been told that a wealthy man keeps a lot of African animals in this wildlife park near the trail, so we were watching for it. It was hard to see because the trail follows a tall fence, but in the distance you can spot zebras, antelopes and water buffalos. Kind of crazy.

That part of the trail is a bit overgrown, so we were glad when the route left the wooded area and took us back out to the water.

About mid-morning we reached a place on the trail where a kind of plateau jutted out into the water, so that you could stand on it and see the curves of two beach coves, one behind and one ahead at the same time.

We decided to stop and rest there for a while. We had a snack while we watched the storks and other sea birds fly all around us.

We both took videos from this spot because it was so gorgeous.

I think we were a bit tired from the previous days of walking, so the rest was welcome.

We kept commenting on what a perfect day it was.

We knew we had been so fortunate with the weather all week and this day was no exception. Some clouds rolled in now and then, and just when would think maybe we were going to get a little rain, they would part and clear.

Again, since it was our last day, I spent more time looking at the vegetation and flowers.

Also we had seen on the map that there was a small town about half way through this section of the trail.

We were excited and hopeful that there would be an opportunity for a lunch stop in the town.

I reflected on what a gift the whole week had been, what a beautiful start it was to a new year. I’m super close to my sister, and we catch up regularly on the phone, but to have a whole week of being able to walk and talk was such a treat.

Expansive time for conversation is a delight. To tell stories. To dream. To confess.

And then we had times of walking along in silence as well.

It’s for space like this that I so appreciate these long walks. The trail holds equal space for all the talking and all the silence. And I need both.

At the end of the walking days, if we were lagging, we would sometimes share a set of headphones and listen to a podcast together.

After our short rest, we carried on a few more miles before spotting the town:

A Azenha do Mar…which I believe translates to the seat of the sea.

We entered by way of The Fisherman’s Street.

And then we found our restaurant.

It was quite busy and they said they only had tables left outside!

We found that so funny because of course we wanted to sit outside.

Since we were outside, Anna could discreetly dump all the sand out of her boots!

We ordered up too much gorgeous seafood, and then of course we ate it all!

Plus dessert!

We had a long, lovely lunch, and even had coffees afterwards. Almost too full to walk, we eventually dragged ourselves away from the sun-soaked terrace of A Ahenza do Mar.

Onward to the final stretch.

One more beautiful afternoon of walking by the sea.

The walking with a full belly was a bit challenging, but we were up for it.

I had to rest a bit on the tops of hills.

Soon the little town that was seated by the sea disappeared behind us.

And the blue sky opened up in every direction. The clouds of the morning were long gone.

The last stretch along the sea was beautiful, like every stretch along the sea so far.

We followed these sandy footpaths until we could see Praia de Odeceixe.

The destination for this stage of the trail is Odeceixe, but the Praia de Odeceixe is a few kilometers out from the town.

When you reach the Praia (the beach), you are actually on the wrong side of a river that keeps you from being able to walk straight on to the beach.

The trail twists and turns down to the river, and it’s at this point that we had to say farewell to the sea.

From here, you turn inland and follow the river to Odeceixe.

You walk along the road for at least a couple of miles to get to town. Lots of folks say this bit at the end of the day is not their favorite on this stage, but we didn’t mind it too much.

The sun was out and we were still floating from our delicious seafood lunch by the water.

When we crossed the river and headed into the town, we realized we were the last of our small party of walkers to arrive that day.

Our Dutch friend had arrived at our shared apartment well before us.

And Jan was sitting in the square having drinks and wondering where we were.

We had a quick shower and a rest in our cute apartment. Then we all four went out for a final dinner.

We had such a good time visiting and talking about the walk. I still wasn’t hungry so I ordered a salad and split something with Anna.

The next morning when we woke up, it was cloudy and raining! We couldn’t believe it!

After a quick coffee and breakfast on the square, we caught a bus back to Lisbon from Odeceixe.

We said our fond farewells to Portugal the next morning, but we both said we would be back before too long!

And I meant it! I am heading back to the Fisherman’s Trail this week! I’m going to get a bus to Odeceixe and pick up right where I left off.

This time I will (hopefully) make it all the way to lighthouse at the far southwest corner of Portugal.

I can’t wait to see what is in bloom two months later.  I wonder if the storks have built their nests in the rocks. Also I’ve heard that you can spot dolphins in the springtime. My trusty pack is ready to go and the trail is calling!

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Almogarve to Zambujeira do Mar 22 km/13.6 miles  

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

I woke up on our third day of walking the Rota Vicentina thinking we couldn’t possibly have ANOTHER day as gorgeous as the previous two. It was just unfathomable that both the incredible views and the sunny weather would continue.

But they did!

It’s impossible to chose a highlight, but every day on this trail was as beautiful as the one before and the one after.

Our guest house wasn’t serving breakfast (because I think we were the only ones there), but our host told us where to find breakfast early the next morning.

We had a long day ahead of us, our longest day of the four on the trail, and so we stocked up on snacks at the same little shop where we had coffee and croissants. Everyone in town seemed to be getting their morning coffee and pastry before starting their days.

Fueled and ready, we set out on our journey of passing one beautiful deserted beach after the other.

We waled around the coves, wondering at the rock formations below.

Many of the beaches had tiny little winding trails or even stairs down to the water below. This area is super popular for surfing, but I cannot imagine how hard it would be to tote a surfboard down these little trails.

I’ve included a couple of videos from this day because I think that they manage to capture the grandeur a little more than a photo.

We passed a cove full of fishing boats and saw fishermen getting ready to head out to sea.

There were actually several spots like this on the trail, reminding us that all of the fish we were eating was incredibly fresh.

Soon we were climbing up the sand away from the fishing boats and back up high above the sea.

I love how far you can look back and see where you’ve come from on this trail, as well as where you are headed.

If you walk this trail north to south, you have the sun on your face all morning, which as a winter walk, was such a treat to me, but if you’d rather have the sun on your back, I recommend walking it south to north. It’s clearly marked in both directions.

We were excited this morning because for the first time on the trail, there was a stopping point about halfway through our day with a few cafes and restaurants.

I had wanted to get an early start, and it helped to know we would have a longer rest stop earlier in the day at Cavaleiro before pushing on to Zambujeira do Mar.

But it was a while before we got there. We had a full morning of climbs up and down, maybe the most gains and drops in elevation so far.

But the dramatic drops and climbs are what make for such great views.

We also left the seaside for a while and walked through a small forest, a strangely welcome relief from the sandy trails underfoot.

This entire portion of the trail is in a protected area full of sand dunes. When you walk inland a bit, you get a feel for how vast this protected area is.

The paths show evidence of lots of other walkers, but we only saw a few others. This was the first day we would actually meet some of our fellow walkers.

But when you looked behind or ahead on the trail, usually, we saw no one.

We couldn’t get over the feeling that we seemed to have it all to ourselves. I kept thinking of people I needed to tell about this incredible trail!

As we walked, we were already dreaming of when we could come back.

Before lunch we passed another empty beach cove that had a steep staircase all the way down to the bottom.

It had a deep gorge that cut into the landscape so that we had to wind around it a bit.

Here’s a video of this section of the trail.

When we got to the other side, I walked over to the top of the cove to spot the stairs going down below.

The stairs looked fairly precarious so we didn’t make our way down. Besides, we were so close now to our lunch spot.

Just one more kilometer to Cavaleiro!

At lunch we met two ladies from Germany who were walking north on the trail. Plus we finally introduced ourselves to the only other lone walkers walking south with us. One German man was walking in Portugal on his own for several weeks and then the Dutch gal we met in the hot tub on our first night also joined us for lunch.

We all sat outside in the sun on a patio comparing our days on the trail. We swapped advice with the ladies who were walking south. The happy gathering of six was the most people we had been around since leaving Lisbon.

After coffee and some sandwiches, we said our farewells and headed off to Zambujeira do Mar. Do Mar means of the sea in Portuguese, so we were excited about staying in a town that was right on the water. Plus we had a recommendation for a curry place in town for dinner.

The walk back to the beach was through some sweet little farmhouses. We even saw a few sheep, cows and horses.

With yellow flowers in bloom, you would never know it was January.

We had also started seeing storks on this day, perched on rocks all along the coastline.

Once we saw them, we couldn’t stop looking for them. And there were so many!

I think they migrate away for part of the season but it was so warm that we saw quite a few.

They say that in the spring, there are storks nesting all along the rocks on this part of the trail.

As I looked down to spot storks, I was also so fascinated by how the rock shapes seemed to change right before my eyes as I walked.

A long skinny rock would shift into a round shape when I got to the other side of it.

It was just so, so stunning.

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, so we passed a few other day walkers out for a stroll on the trail.

Even though this day was long, it was easy to keep going.

The sea views practically carry you forward.

I was so distracted by how beautiful everything was that I wasn’t focused on how long we had been walking.

We stopped once or twice to sit and rest and just watch the storks and seagulls flying.

As we got closer to Zambujeira do Mar, we descended far down from the cliff tops again.

We passed another little fishing outpost, and then just above it, there was a restaurant called O Sacas serving food straight from the sea.

It was super busy. The gorgeous weekend afternoon had drawn folks out for lunch, so we couldn’t squeeze in but we did sit and have a drink at a picnic table just outside. As we watched the plates of food coming out to tables, Anna said she would like to come back for dinner. However, we were still about 3 km from Zambujeira do Mar. I didn’t suspect we would want to walk back.

We decided we would plan to eat there the next time we walked this section, because of course there will be a next time!

After our drinks, the trail carried on down a road for a little bit, and then back out to the sea one more time.

The trail circled around another big cove and beach.

We watched another gorgeous beach come into view. And then it disappeared behind us.

Again and again, this is what you see on this trail. I never got tired of it.

Maybe it was the delight of being out in the sun after the dark, rainy months of November and December in Bristol that made these days so special. But I suspect that I would enjoy walking this trail at just about any time of year. They say it can be unbearably hot in the summertime, so I probably wouldn’t come back then. But spring or fall would also be lovely.

Soon our destination appeared in the distance: Zambujeira do Mar.

The town is almost tucked into the cove by the sea. It was the closest we stayed to the water on our whole trip, and we could even hear the sea when our window was open.

There was a sweet little church right on the main square of Zambujeira do Mar. And then just up the street from the square is where we stayed.

Hostel Nature came highly recommended to us, so I was excited about staying in this sweet hostel run by a local family.

It just has a few rooms, but there is a great common area and kitchen to use. And maybe the highlight is that they have a washer and dryer that is free to use for guests! We were excited about washing our clothes for the first time since arriving in Portugal. In fact it was hard to choose what to keep on because we wanted to wash everything!

After we washed our clothes and went shopping for yogurts and fruit for our breakfast the next day, we went closer to the water to watch the sunset.

Jan, who we had met at lunch was also down watching the sunset and he said he had hoped he would see us there because we had all said at lunch that we would go to have a curry at the place the German ladies had recommended.

So after the gorgeous sunset, we went to find the little restaurant. We all ordered curries that came with freshly baked garlic naan. It tasted so good. It’s amazing how good food tastes after walking all day!

We had a lot of fun visiting with Jan and hearing about the many different trails he has walked. He had the most infections laugh!

I made a few notes about routes to check out later.

After dinner, we said farewell and headed back to our hostel where our Dutch friend had also checked in. She was staying in the common bunk room with two other guys. They were also walking the trail, but we hadn’t seen them before.

Apparently, these two men had gotten into a rather absurd altercation. (One of them hadn’t showered and the other one thought he smelled. So he had told him that he was making the whole room smell bad.) As a result, the atmosphere was a bit awkward and we were feeling very sorry for our new friend. We wished we had an extra bed in our room to offer her. But as a consolation, I offered her the extra bed in the apartment we had rented for the next night. That way she could have one night off from the common bunk rooms.

Anna and I went to bed fairly tickled about the whole evening, which warded off the sadness I might have felt about the next day being our last one. I wasn’t quite ready to leave the Rota Vicentina.

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The Fisherman’s Trail

Vila de Nova Milfontes to Almograve 15.5 km/9.6 miles  

You can find all of the Rota Vicentina posts here. 

After a substantial breakfast at our hostel in Vila de Nova Milfontes, we headed back out onto the coastal trail. We had a shorter day today, under 10 miles to Almograve.

First, we walked inland along the River Mira, away from the sea.

It’s about a 3 kilometer detour inland to cross the bridge and walk back out to the coast, which isn’t too far, but it’s for sure not the most pleasant part of the day. You’re basically walking along a highway.

From the bridge, you can see Vila de Nova Milfontes in the distance. After you cross, you walk through forest and farmland to get back out to the sea.

In the busier season, you can hop on a boat to cross the river and save yourself the detour, which could mean you reach Almograve before lunch and might consider walking a bit further.

But soon enough, we were back by the sea again and headed into the beach dunes.

It was another gorgeous day in the sunshine with spectacular sea views.

We climbed up to the cliffs above the sea again and walked the winding trail that dipped into the land and back out to the sea all morning.

The Fisherman’s Trail is quite well-marked with these blue and green striped markers. Sometimes there are red and yellow markings as well but those are a different part of the Rota Vicentina.

We were more ready with supplies on this day. We’d stopped at the store for snacks and we had extra water, which was good because we didn’t pass any open restaurants or shops all day.

The trail turned inland for a while and took us through a forest.

We also walked alongside some farmland for a stretch.

This day was going to be one of our shortest, but as we turned inland and walked along a farm, somewhere along the way I missed the clear markings and we walked inland much further than we were meant to.

We both had gotten in our groove and were just marching on forward, but in the wrong direction. When I finally realized it, we turned around and of course on the way back we noticed that there was a green and blue X indicating that we were not to go in that direction.

Whoops!

Since I turned our 10 mile day into a 13 mile day, it was a good thing we packed snacks.

We made it back to the sea side and walked along the coast for the rest of the day. This part of the trail had very sandy paths. For a while, Anna took off her shoes and walked barefoot. She said it made it a little easier and we had seen one other man pass us walking north in bare feet. But my ankles are so unsteady that I didn’t risk coming out of my boots.

It was a such beautiful afternoon. Heather was blooming all along this section.

One of the highlights of the Rota Vicentina is the flora on the path, but I didn’t expect there to be flowers in bloom in January.

But I was wrong. We spotted quite a few flowers along the trail.

Of course, for sure there are loads more flowers in the spring, which would be a great time to walk it.

Towards the end of our day, we reached a big wide of expanse of beach. We continued to walk along the cliff above the beach and turned back inland to reach our destination for the day: Almograve.

We were staying in a small guest house and our host’s mother was meant to meet us, but we went first for lunch at a restaurant called Churrasqueira Isa that she recommended that was right behind the guest house.

It was 2:30pm when we sat down to lunch. We ordered the special of the day, a fish called Dourada, which is sea bream. It came whole on the plate with vegetables and it was delicious. We devoured it hungrily.

While we were sitting in the restaurant after lunch, our hostess from the guest house came and found us. She treated us each to a small glass of the traditional Portuguese liqueur made from sour cherries: Ginjinha.

Then we headed off to our room for showers and naps.

We walked back down to the beach to watch the sunset before exploring Almograve’s restaurant scene.

It was another beautiful night. We kept marveling at the views and how we seemed to have them all to ourselves, sharing them with a lone fisherman or two.

We found a small place to eat, Torralta, that just had a chalkboard with what was on offer for the day. The menu was fairly meat-heavy so I explained that I don’t eat meat. I said in very broken Portuguese that I would love a big salad, and maybe some fries. A farmer who was hanging out at the restaurant helped the cook by taking our order and serving us drinks.

When he came back from the kitchen he said that the cook could make us falafel along with our other requests. He told us that she is a great cook and really she can make you whatever you want.

We really had no idea what we ended up ordering but when our food came, it was perfect. The salad was gorgeous and we ate all our fries and falafel along with it. We washed it all down with a couple of Portuguese beers (Sagres) and of course, one more shot of the local liqueur, this one homemade from the cook’s own grape skins.

So far everyone in Portugal was so friendly and welcoming.

We laughed as we fell asleep about my communicating with our impromptu waiter. Between his broken English, my broken Portuguese and a lot of hand motions, we made it work.

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