Porto to Matosinhos by train 12km
Walk Matosinhos to Povoa de Varzim 25km + 2km diversion +2km tourist route at Villa Conda
Total distance walking 29kms
Climb 20m
Total climb 20m

This turned out to be a long, tough day. Not the distance, although we like to keep our days 20km or less. Not the terrain, it was dead flat. Not the surface, 75% on boardwalk and the rest on pavement or cobble stone. It was the wind. All day we were walking into a 30km/hr wind gusting to 57. This was really energy sapping although it did keep us nice and cool as otherwise it was a 27° day.

We were pretty excited to get walking today. Lisbon and Porto are busy, beautiful, vibrant cities and I loved them both but we are here to walk and we were ready to get away from all the people and follow the peaceful, quiet Camino. We had an early breakfast and by the time we had got the train ride over with it was 8.45am when we started walking from Matosinhos and we didn’t reach our hotel in Povoa de Varzim until 5.10pm.

We also think it was more than a 25km day today. Near Vila Cha early this afternoon there was a large sign saying the boardwalk we were on was closed and there were some temporary signs directing us inland. We were walking with a young Spanish guy and two American women. The diversion took us on suburban streets but then onto a dirt road. The others, glued to the GPS on their phones didn’t like the look of the track and decided to go further inland to find a road. We decided to believe the temporary signs and carried on along the track. There were lots of footprints in the sandy earth so we were pretty confident. It was a delightful walk under trees and out of the wind. Eventually it rejoined the boardwalk and were glad we had not followed the others. This added at least 2km to the beach route.

The other “extra” was at Villa Conda where there was the option of going through the city or the “tourist” route around the coast. Without knowing it we went the latter, where it was windiest and added another 2km. For all that we had a wonderful day, So many interesting things to see. Among them; a lighthouse, an oil refinery, sea weed harvesting, a chapel, an obelisk monument, two working fishing villages, sculptures, art works, Roman Fish pits for salting fish, surf schools, life guards, one person actually swimming, wind surfers, a replica Portuguese caravel, (gosh they were small), azulejos (painted tiles), a huge convent and a castle.

We walked most of the time on boardwalks. The path follows the coast and between the sea and the buildings along the road there is about a 100 metre strip of nature reserve, which is dunes. The path goes through the dunes but is on a timber boardwalk raised about a metre above the sand. This is very easy to walk on. Vastly better than walking on dry sand where you slip and slide, and cobble stones, concrete or pavement which are hard on your feet after a few hours. The timber on the boardwalks is softer then cobble stone and the structure was very slightly springy so was easy on the feet and legs.

Our hotel is in an oldish building but the decor and fittings are very slick and modern. Dinner is included in the tarrif and we were given a voucher to a very modern restaurant about 30 metres away. The meal was a choice of salad or vegetable soup, halibut fish or meat with salad and fries, fruit salad or trifle with cream, red or white wine, coffee. An excellent meal but we were so tired it was a struggle to eat and we thought the wine was going to knock us out.

We must be tired as we had a laugh when we came back to our room after dinner. We have balcony and there are two layers of sliding doors with about a hundred mm gap between them. We thought this must be for acoustic reasons, like double glazing. When we came to pull the curtains there was only a thin net type curtain. We thought this must be all there is, but it didn’t matter because it was dark outside. Later I was playing around with a bank of buttons beside the bed when an aluminium roller shutter came down between the two sliding doors giving us total blackout.

We are tired but happy this evening. One of the nice things about today was that there were dozens of other pilgrims along the way. We didn’t get to make any new friends but said high and a brief chat with a few. It is nice to feel part of a community, all with one purpose, to get to Santiago de Compostela.