A much easier day today. Barbara slept in until 7.30 which is pretty much unheard of for her. We had a very lazy start and did not leave the hotel till 10am, getting the metro into the city centre. Lisbon has many types of public transport: the underground metro, the surface light rail, the surface suburban trains, buses, trams, elevators and funiculars. We have used the metro and trains, seen many trams and buses so thought we would check out a funicular and elevator.

Lisbon has three funiculars, Elevador do Gloria, Elevador do Lavra and Elevador do Bica. They are small trams hauled up and down steep streets by cables. They have been in operation since the 1880s. Originally they ran on a water counterweight system, then run by steam and now electricity. They were painted brown but since the 1930s have been yellow – but often covered in graffiti. The nearest one was Gloria so we made our way to the bottom of its hill. We found the stop and waited for Gloria to come down. A queue of about 20 formed behind us but no Gloria arrived. After about 15 minutes a young guy came up and spoke to someone he knew in the queue in a language we did not understand. Immediately everyone dispersed so we guessed Gloria was having a day off today.

A bit disappointed we made our way down the Rua Augusta pedestrian street then up a hill to the Lisbon Cathedral. Officially the Cathedral of St Mary Major, but usually just called Sé (Sé de Lisboa). Construction started in 1147 when the Moors were defeated and expelled. The cathedral is on the site of an earlier mosque. It is mainly in Romanesque style but has been altered, repaired and added to in different styles. Being Romanesque it has round arches, a heavy barrel vault and massive walls with only a few small windows. It has none of the vaulted roofs and large stained glass windows of later Gothic cathedrals. It was free to enter the church but a fee to enter the museum and cloister.

We have seen many cathedrals so decided to go further up the hill to the Miraduoro de Santa Luzia. Lisbon is built on seven hills (like Rome) and there are many observation points with spectacular panoramic views of the city and out over the Tagus River. This one is popular at sunset but we were there at midday. They are lively places with gardens, music, bars and cafes and crowds of we tourists. We took some photos and climbed to the top of the hill and the Castelo de S Jorge. This is an 11^th century Moorish hill top castle and royal residence. Barbara says it is a “real” castle, ie it has walls, castellations, arrowslits, ancient canons, a citadel, towers, courtyards, drawbridges etc, unlike the Castle of the Moors in Sintra which she says is only a wall.

The castle was damaged during sieges and many earthquakes and it is only in the 1940s and 1990s that it has been repaired and rebuilt. What you see today looks magnificent but it is recent construction, a replica really, even if a very accurate one. The location on the hill has some of the best views out over Lisbon. It has the usual museum, gift shop, café etc but also a camera obscura. This is the natural phenomenon where the rays of light passing through a small hole into a dark space form an image where they strike a surface resulting in an inverted (upside down) and reversed (left to right) projection of the view outside.

From the castle we went back down hill stopping for a bite to eat at Potato Project, a very popular place that serves fries with different sauces and toppings. We had guacamole which had fries, tomato salsa, black beans, cheddar and guacamole. Scrumdiddlyumtious. We then went back up the Rua Augusta to find the Elevador de Santa Justa. This is a lift built in 1904 that is used to help Lisbon residents move from a lower to a higher neighbourhood without having to climb steep cobbled streets. It is built of cast iron and has filigree details and is now a popular tourist attraction. When we arrived there was along queue and a sign saying the top viewing platform was temporarily closed. So a second fail for the day. Lisbon had a few of these elevators and we saw a new modern one at the other end of the city as part of the route up to the castle.

Back at the hotel by 3pm and a lazy end to the day. A good day, not too taxing, the castle was the highlight and we will come back to ride a funicular and an elevador.

 

We are feeling refreshed this morning after a good night’s sleep. I think we are getting on top of the jet lag. Looking back at yesterday the three things I liked the best were:

The Castle of the Moors. There was just a raw, brutal honesty to this place, nothing superfluous or frivolous. The Pena Palace was one cultured and artistic powerful man’s fantasy at his summer palace and the Quinta Regaleira was another wealthy man’s fantasy about Templar and Freemason rituals. The castle was built from materials at hand on the site, was as efficient and economic as possible and at the end of the day its success or failure was a question of life or death.

The Initiatory Well, Quinta da Regaleira. This was just such a wonderful, crazy thing to do. Even without the hidden meaning of the number of steps and columns etc it is just so eccentric.

The Kitchen at The Pena Palace. When walking through historic palaces, homesteads, colonial cottages etc, I get a bit over going through grand halls, dining rooms, bedrooms, nurseries and the rest, but I always find the kitchens fascinating and the one at the Pena Palace was a beauty.

If you are in Lisbon then a trip to Sintra is a must. Places are quite spread out so it is a full on day to get to even three things as we did. If you want to see more then multiple trips are required or else go out and stay at Sintra for a day or two.

There are dozens of companies in Lisbon who run guided tours to Sintra. We wanted to visit three places but most of the tour companies only visit two as they almost all include going to Cascais, an historic fishing village now a swanky beach resort and Cabo da Roca which is continental Europe’s most western point. The most western point of a European country is Bjargtangar in Iceland.

The Pena Palace

The Castle of the Moors

Quinta Regaleira

And the rest.

 

I am writing this feeling utterly exhausted so please forgive all the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. My proof reader and censor, Barbara, has gone to sleep so I am on my own. Left the hotel at 7.40 this morning and got back at 5.40 this evening, 10 hours and we were on the go almost every minute.

Today we did a day trip out of Lisbon to Sintra. Sintra is a resort town in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains about 30km from Lisbon. A UNESCO World Heritage/Culture/ Landscape site it has long been a favourite of royalty.  It has a plethora of palaces and their gardens, aristocratic estates, a castle, parks, stately homes, woodlands and fountains, churches, chapels, convents, monasteries and hermitages. And now it is a huge tourist destination.

We had decided to visit just three sites and had pre-purchased entry tickets on line. These were: the Pena Palace and Park, the Moorish Castle and the Quinta da Regaleira. At the Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira you had to chose an entry time, eg 10.00, 10.30, 11.00 etc and the numbers entering at each time slot are capped. They are very strict about entry times. If you have a 10.00 slot and arrive at 10.35 then tough luck you miss out no matter what the reason. We had 10.00 booked at the Pena Palace and 2.30 at the Quinta de Regaleira.

We left the hotel at 7.40 and took the Metro to Oriente train station, the largest in Lisbon, where most suburban and cross-country trains leave from. From there a 50 minute ride to Sintra in a suburban train which was also covered by our Lisboa Card. From Sintra station you can walk up to the Pena Palace or take a bus. The walk is only about 1.5km, is very steep and windy but does go through beautiful woodland. The few people who walk take about 50 minutes and arrive, hot, sweaty and exhausted. Most take the bus although it has a bad rap. Scotturb have a monopoly on the service, charge high prices, always run late and at peak times do not provide enough buses. Not helping is the authorities pleading with people not to take their cars to Sintra attractions as there is little parking on the steep hill sides. We initially thought we might walk up but when we got off the train there was a bus right there waiting for us. It was nearly 9 am and new it would be tight to make it to our 10.00 time slot. So we got the bus, €4.55 each. It is 1.5km to walk up but the bus needs 10km to slowly wind up a narrow steep one-way road with innumerable switch backs and very tight corners. The bus took half an hour in a snail pace procession of buses, other cars and tuk tuks crawling their way up the hill. Both Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle are located on the top of the highest hills in the area.

The Pena Paláce ( Palacio da Pena, Pena means pity or mercy) started as a small chapel in the middle ages and by about 1500 had developed into a monastery. In the eighteenth century the monastery was damaged by lightning and was reduced to ruin by the 1755 earthquake. In 1838, as king consort, Ferdinand II, bought the monastery, surrounding land and estates and set out to transform what was left of the monastery into a summer palace for the royal family. The reconstruction was complete by 1847 and is an exuberant fairytale romantic style with vividly painted terraces, ornamental battlements, statues of mythical creatures, Moorish, Manueline and German Romantic influences. We made our time slot and had a great time exploring all the rooms, battlements, towers etc. It is always packed with visitors and you have to follow a defined one-way route through the building. You quickly become sensually saturated and overwhelmed with all the different colours, materials and designs. It was a relief to go outside and walk in the extensive gardens. This is also romantic with winding paths, pavilions, stone seats and plants from all over the world.

From the Pena Palace it is a short walk to the Moorish Castle (Castelo dos Mouros, Castle of the Moors), a hill top medieval castle built in the 8^th and 9^th centuries by the Moors who occupied most of Portugal and Spain. The castle has a 450 metre perimeter sits on top of a mountainous cliff and meanders over the steep granite terrain. The castle walls were badly damaged in the 1755 earthquake and Ferdinand II eventually bought the castle and lands when he bought the ruined monastery for the future Pena Palace. He repaired and embellished much of the castle walls and it quickly became a tourist attraction. The location is magnificent with views far out over the land and to the coast. Because the mountain is so steep you feel you are right on top of the Sintra village below.

From the castle we walked down to the historic centre of Sintra. This was the path we may have walked up and boy was it steep, with hundreds of steps and cobbled all the way. This was part of an ancient pilgrimage route to the old monastery. In the village we stopped for lunch at a tiny café and had Bacalhau á Bràs  a Portuguese dish made from shreds of salted cod, onions and thinly chopped fried potatoes, all bound with eggs, garnished with black olives and sprinkled with fresh flat-leaf parsley. And very nice it was too.

After lunch we went to the Quinta da Regaleira, the main building of which is the Regaleira Palace, sometimes called the Palácio do Montiero dos Milhões, the nickname of the owner Antonio Augusto de Carvalho Montiero. The palace and surrounding gardens were constructed between 1904 and 1910 and are based on mixed designs of Romanesque, Renaissance, Gothic and Manueline architecture. The lush gardens have lakes, caves, towers, and a beautiful chapel of the Holy Trinity. By far the most fascinating structure is the Initiatory Well.

The well is an underground gallery with a spiral staircase supported by sculpted columns which leads down to the bottom of the well. The staircase has nine levels separated by flights on 15 steps, invoking references to Dante’s Divine Comedy and the 9 circles of hell, paradise or purgatory. Montiero was very much into alchemical meanings such as those found in Freemasonry, the Templars and Rosicrucians. The well is said to be initiatory as it is said to have been used in initiation rites in Freemasonry. The symbolism of the site is related to the belief that the earth is the maternal womb from which life comes, but also the tomb to which it will return. At the bottom of the well are tunnels carved out of the rock which lead to a lake and waterfall, another unfinished well and lower areas of the gardens. By now we were wilting with sensory overload and so after a quick look through the palace and gardens we made our way back to the train station and our train back to Lisbon. Sintra station is a little gem with beautiful tiles, and historic Sintra is beautiful with steep narrow little streets and alleys and some very fine buildings including a very highly decorated building for the local City Council.

So it was a full on day and we need a quiet rest day tomorrow to recover. In Sintra it was at first quite misty up on the mountains but the sun eventually came out and it warmed up to about 22 degrees. Up on the tops, on the north side of the palace and castle walls it was breezy and cold, but on the south side it was calm and warm. I suspect there is always some breeze up there.

I have now run out of steam so the photos will have to wait until tomorrow.  Don’t forget to come back and have  a look, there are some amazing ones!

Day one of exploring Lisbon.

We have discoverd there is a little shopping mall just around the corner at the back of our hotel. It not at all touristy and is used mainly by people living in the many surrounding apartments. There is a very good supermarket and a nice little cafe that sells very good coffee. I think we will pass through there every day. One euro forty for two black cafes.

From our hotel we took the red line underground metro and transferred to the green line underground metro to get down to the riverbank (Tagus River). From there we came back up to fresh air and took the surface train along the river to Belém where there are several notable historic sites to visit.

First up Belém Tower (Portuguese: Torre de Belém – literally Bethlehem Tower) built in the 16^th century as a fortification to protect Lisbon from raiders coming in on the Tagus River. Officially it is the Tower of St Vincent. Originally it was on an island near the riverbank but the great earthquake of 1755 raised the river bed and altered the course of the river so now the island has merged with the land. It also served as a ceremonial gateway for sailors leaving and returning on the great voyages of discovery. It is built in the Portuguese Manueline style and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manueline style is Late Gothic with a flamboyant use of decorative elements using elements like rope, chains, anchors, shells, seaweed, pearls, oak leaves, acorns, poppy capsules, thistles, corncobs etc, and celebrated Portugal’s status as a great maritime power.

Further along the Tagus River is the Monument to the Discoveries (Padrāo dos Descobrimentos). The original monument was built for the Portuguese World Fair in 1940 but the perishable materials were replaced by the present stone and concrete replica in 1960. The monument is a tribute to King Henry the Navigator and as well as he there are 32 statues of great men (there is only one woman – the queen) of the age of discovery including Vasco de Gama (discoverer of the sea route to India), Ferdinand Magellan (first to circumnavigate the globe) and Pedro Alvares Cabral (discoverer of Brazil). We took the lift and stairs inside the monument for panoramic views up and down the river. In the forecourt is a 50 metre diameter compass rose and a part map of the world. Part of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific is missing.

From there we went over the road to the Jerónimos Monastery (Mosteiro dos Jerónomos), a former monastery of the Order of St Jerome. It is also in the Portuguese Manueline style, built in the sixteenth century and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It took a hundred years to build and was financed with a 5% tax on commerce with Africa and the Orient. King Manuel 1 selected the order of the monks and their role was to pray for his eternal soul and to provide spiritual assistance to the sailors who set off to discover new lands all around the world. This they did for 4 centuries until 1833 when the order was dissolved and the monastery was abandoned. We were keen to go into the monastery and its cloister but there was an enormous line with a wait time of 2 hours to enter. We have seen many monasteries and cloisters in Spain and will see more when we start our Camino so decided not to get baked standing out in the hot sun.

Next stop was the Pastéis de Belém bakery where they sell the original Pasta de Nata, a Portuguese egg custard tart pastry with crispy pastry crust and rich custard filling dusted with cinnamon. The following is the history of the tart from this bakery:

At the beginning of the 19th century, in Belém, next to the Jerónimos Monastery, there was a sugar cane refinery associated with a small place of varied commerce. As a consequence of the Liberal Revolution that occurred in 1820, all the convents and monasteries in Portugal were closed in 1834, expelling the clergy and workers.

In an attempt to survive, someone from the Monastery puts some sweet pastries on sale in that shop, quickly named “Pastéis de Belém”.

At the time, the Belém area was far from the city of Lisbon and the route was provided by steamboats. However, the imposing Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém Tower attracted visitors who soon became accustomed to tasting the delicious pastries that originated in the Monastery.

In 1837, the production of “Pastéis de Belém” began in facilities attached to the refinery, according to the ancient “secret recipe” that originated in the Monastery. It was passed down and known exclusively by the master pastry chefs who made them by hand in the “Oficina do Segredo”. This recipe has remained the same to this day.

In fact, the only true “Pastéis de Belém” factory manages, through a careful selection of ingredients, to provide today the taste of ancient Portuguese sweets.

Only this bakery can call the tarts Pastéis de Belém, all other bakeries call them Pasta de Nata. We bought some, freshly baked and warm, and ate them in a nearby park. Very yummy. We have bought them from two places back home in Wellington but they were not nearly as yummy as these.

Then what was probably the highlight of the day. We came across the National Coach Museum (Meseu Nacional dos Coches).  This is one of the finest collections of historical coaches in the world. The original museum was created in 1905 by Queen Amelia to house an extensive collection of carriages belonging to the Portuguese royal family and nobility. The collection gives a full picture of the development of carriages from the late 16th through the 19th centuries, with carriages made in Italy, Portugal, France, Spain, Austria and England. The oldest carriage was from 1619. At the museum we also have a very nice lunch of lentil soup and toasta de queso y jamon.

From the elaborate baroque decoration of gilded carriages we caught a much more banal train to the Praço do Comércio, a huge square facing the river. The original buildings of this square were destroyed in the 1755 earthquake and subsequent tsunami and fire. After the earthquake the square was completely remodelled and rebuilt and housed all the government bureaux regulating customs and port activity. There is a huge triumphal central arch called the Arco da Rua Augusta which has a clock and is crowned with statues of Glory, Ingenuity and Valour. We climbed the tiny stone spiral stair to the top for views out over the square and river and inland up the Rua Augusta. From the square we walked Rua Augusta, Lisbon’s main pedestrian street that links Praço do Comércio with another important square, Rossio Square. It is a lively street full of cafes, music, performers, shops and of course the usual beggars and drug pushers.

From Rossio Square we went underground again to get back to the hotel. It was pretty warm today, 28 degrees, no cloud and no wind. We are still suffering from jet lag and were pretty zonked by the end of the day. I am getting to really like Lisbon and there is so much more to explore.

 

The Longest Day

We have made it to Lisbon. 37 hours 10 minutes from leaving the front door of our apartment until walking in the front door of our hotel. Everything went pretty much like clockwork and it always seems like a miracle when you check your bags in at Wellington and the next time you see them is in baggage claim in Lisbon. It is so easy getting from Vivian St via the Airport Express Bus to Wellington Airport compared to when we were leaving from Paraparaumu Beach.

Qantas left 5 minutes early from Wgtn and must have arrived early off Sydney as according to the flight tracker we went up the coast and back for about 20 minutes and still landed on time. We did have one funny ‘situation’ on this flight. Barbara was seated next to the window, I was in the middle and a lady was on the aisle. About half an hour into the flight Barbara kept asking me what the funny noise was. I had head phones on watching a movie and wasn’t hearing anything. Other people nearby also started to look in our direction, aware of something. We then noticed the aisle lady had a tablet and was playing backgammon. The noise was the rattling of dice in a cup and then the scattering of the dice across the board. The lady had ear phones and was listening to music. The dice were being thrown about every 15 seconds and after a while this was driving everyone crazy. Eventually Barbara spoke to her and she was very embarrassed, not realising she did not have the game on mute.

Emirates were 50 minutes late leaving Sydney, it takes a long time to load 500 plus passengers onto an Airbus A380-800. This leg, Sydney to Dubai was long – 14 hours, but there are 750 movies + tv shows + music + games, so plenty of entertainment. I watched David Lean’s classic masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia, all 3 hours and 20 minutes of it. Still a great movie 62 years after it was made but definitely needs to be seen at a wide screen cinema, not a 10inch screen 400mm from your nose. There are absolutely no female rolls in this film. Also watched the black and white 1942 film Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and a great supporting cast). I had an ear worm of its theme song “As time goes by” for ages afterwards.

When the eyes are tired, dry and heavy from lack of sleep then I listen to the music channels. Listened to Chris Rea, “The Road to Hell” Album, which I thought was appropriate for travelling cattle class on a full plane for 14 hours. The flight from Sydney to Dubai was also a little remarkable in that we left Sydney in Darkness, flew east ahead of the sun for 14 hours of darkness and arrived in Bubai about 5.30am still in the dark.

We didn’t catch up any lost time before getting to Dubai so a layover of about 3 hours was reduced to 2 hours. Then a relatively short leg of seven and a half hours to Lisbon. This time on a Boeing 777-300ER with about 400 passengers. Lisbon Airport, Humberto Delgado Airport, was a bit different in that it seemed to have very few planes connected by air bridges to the terminal. There must have been 50 planes out on the apron with stairs. Passengers being loaded and unloaded from buses.

The lay overs are very easy these days. No need to go to baggage claim, no passport control, customs or biosecurity. Just go through security and into the departure area. Lisbon airport was very busy with long lines to get through passport control (where we actually got a good old stamp in our passport) but very quick at baggage claim. Before leaving home we had bought Lisboa cards online so we had to go to the airport tourist office to swap our vouchers for plastic cards. These are 72 hour tourist cards for unlimited travel on trains, the metro, buses, trams, elevators, funiculars and access to 50 museums, galleries, churches, castles etc. Then we met Marcio our shuttle driver who drove us to our hotel about 7 minutes from the airport. We shared the shuttle with a lady of our age who was from Sydney but grew up in Karori and lived just a couple of streets away from where we lived in Donald Street.

The hotel is a standard Ramada by Wyndham which you find all around the world. There is one 50 metres along the road from where we live in Wellington. Does all the basic things well and you know exactly what you will be getting. We tend to like boutique hotels which are a bit quirky and have some character even if the plumbing is lousy, they are noisy and beds are not very comfortable. The hotel is also located a bit out of the city but close to the airport. There is a metro station over the road so we will be using our Lisboa cards a lot. The metro station is very modern and colourful, see the photos.

We are not going to do anything for the rest of the day. Just a shower and crash and try and catch up on some sleep. 21 degrees in Lisbon this evening and supposed to get up to 30 degrees tomorrow.

Camino Portuguese 2024
The Coastal Way

Day 1 Monday September 2^nd
Airport Express bus Vivian St to Wellington Airport
Fly Wellington (WLG) to Sydney (SYD), Boeing 737-800, 3hr 45mins
Qantas 0164, depart 3.50pm, arrive 5:35pm
Layover 2hr 35mins
Fly Sydney (SYD) to Dubai (DXB), Airbus Industrie A380-800, 14hr 20mins
Emirates 0417, depart Sydney 8.10pm, arrive 4.30am local time (Tuesday Sept 3^rd)
Layover 2hrs 55mins

Day 2 Tuesday September 3rd
Fly Dubai (DXB) to Lisbon (LIS), Boeing 777-300ER, 8hrs 10mins
Emirates 0191, depart Dubai 7.25am, arrive Lisbon 12.35pm local time
Shuttle from Humberto Delgado Airport Lisbon to Ramada by Wyndham Hotel by Talixo Services GmbH
Ramada by Wyndham Hotel Avenida Engenheiro Arantes E Oliveira 9, 1900 221, Lisbon
www.wyndamhotels.com/ramada/lisbon-portugal.com
 
Day 3 Wednesday September 4^th
Day in Lisbon
Ramada by Wyndham Hotel, Lisbon
 
Day 4 Thursday September 5^th
Day trip to Sintra.
Local train from Lisbon to Sintra
Visit Park and National Palace of Pena, The Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira
Ramada by Wyndham Hotel, Lisbon

Day 5 Friday September 6^th
Day in Lisbon
Ramada by Wyndham Hotel, Lisbon

Day 6 Saturday September 7^th
Train Lisbon to Porto
Hotel Doura Porto (Breakfast)
www.hoteldoura.pt

Day 7 Sunday September 8th
Day in Porto
Hotel Doura Porto (Breakfast)
www.hoteldoura.pt

Day 8 Monday September 9^th
Day in Porto
Hotel Doura Porto (Breakfast)
www.hoteldoura.pt

Day 9 Tuesday September 10^th
Walk Porto to Matosinhos 11km
Tram Matosinhos back to Porto
Hotel: Doura Porto (Breakfast)
www.hoteldoura.pt

Day 10 Wednesday September 11^th
Tram Porto to Matosinhos
Walk Matosinhos to Povoa de Varzim 25km
Hotel: Costa Verde (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hotelcostaverde.pt

Day 11 Thursday September 12^th
Walk Povoa de Varzim to Esposende 22km
Hotel: Suave Mar (Dinner @ breakfast)
www.suavemar.com

Day12 Friday September 13^th
Walk Esposende to Viana do Castelo 24km
Hotel: Pension O Laranjeira (Dinner & breakfast)
www.olaranjeira.com

Day 13 Saturday September 14^th
Day in Viana do Castelo
Hotel: Pension O Larajeira (Dinner & breakfast)
www.olaranjeira.com

Day 14 Sunday September 15^th
Walk Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia de Ancora 19km
Hotel: Hotel Meira (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hotelmeira.com

Day 15 Monday September 16^th
Walk Vila Praia de Ancora to A Guarda 13km
Hotel: Vila Da Guarda (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hotelvilladaguarda.com

Day 16 Tuesday September 17^th
Walk A Guarda to Oia 12km
Hotel: Glasgow Hotel (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hglasgow.com

Day 17 Wednesday September 18^th
Walk Oia to Baino 18km
Hotel: Pension El Mosquito (Breakfast)
www.pensionelmosquito.com

Day 18 Thursday September 19^th
Day in Baino
Hotel: Pension El Mosquito (Breakfast)
www.pensionelmosquito.com

Day 19 Friday September 20^th
Walk Baino to Nigran 6km
Hotel: Vinotel 7 Uvas Nigran (Dinner & breakfast)
www.7uvas.es

Day 20 Saturday September 21^st
Walk Nigran to Vigo 20km
Hotel: Hotel Junquera Vigo (Breakfast)
www.hoteljunquera.com

Day 21 Sunday September 22^nd
Walk Vigo to Redondela 15km
Hotel: Rua do Medio (Breakfast)
www.ruadomedio.com

Day 22 Monday September 23^rd
Walk Redondela to Arcade 8km
Hotel: Hotel Restaurante Isape (Dinner & breakfast)
www.gbchostel.com

Day 23 Tuesday September 24^th
Walk Arcade to Pontevedra 12km
Hotel: Hotel Avenida (Breakfast)
www.hotelavenidapontevedra.com

Day 24 Wednesday September 25^th
Day in Pontevedra
Hotel: Hotel Avenida (Breakfast)
www.hotelavenidapontevedra.com

Day 25 Thursday September 26^th
Walk Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis 22km
Hotel: O Cruceiro Center (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hotelcruceiro.com

Day 26 Friday September 27^th
Walk Caldas de Reis to Padron 18km
Hotel: Hotel Rosalia (Dinner & breakfast)
www.hotelrosalia.es

Day 27 Saturday September 28^th
Walk Padron to Teo 12km
Hotel: Parada de Francos (Dinner & breakfast)
www.paradadefrancos.com

Day 28 Sunday September 29^th
Walk Teo to Santiago de Compostela 13km
Hotel: Alameda Rooms (Breakfast)
www.gescahotels.com/alameda-rooms-santiago/

Day 29 Monday September 30^th
Day trip to Finisterre with Camino Ways
Hotel: Alameda Rooms (Breakfast)
www.gescahotels.com/alameda-rooms-santiago/

Day 30 Tuesday October 1^st
Train Santiago de Compostela to Lisbon
Hotel: Ramada by Wyndham Hotel, Lisbon

Day 31 Wednesday October 2^nd
Shuttle from Ramada by Wyndham Hotel to Humberto Delgado Airport Lisbon by Talixo Services GmbH

Fly Lisbon (LIS) to Dubai (DXB), Boeing 777-300ER, 7hrs 50mins
Emirates 0194, depart 9.15pm, arrive 8.05am Thurs October 3^rd (local time)
Layover 2hr 10mins

Day 32 Thursday October 3^rd
Fly Dubai (DXB) to Sydney (SYD) Airbus Industrie A380-300, 13hrs 50mins
Emirates 0412 Depart 10.15am, arrive 6.05am Friday October 4^th
Layover 3hrs 30mins

Day 33 Friday October 4^th
Fly Sydney (SYD) to Wellington (WGN), Boeing 737-800, 3hrs 10mins
Emirates 5047 (Code share Qantas), depart 9.35am, arrive 3.45pm
Airport Express bus Wellington Airport to Vivian Street

On the road again.
Just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Last year while we were walking around the Isle of Portland section of the South West Coast Path, we met a lady from Nova Scotia, Canada who was also walking some of the path. As usual we compared notes on the different places we had walked. She had walked the Dingle and Kerry Peninsulas which we had done in 2017. In 2022 she walked the Camino Portugués and the way she talked of it piqued our interest.

After walking the Camino Frances in 2016 we always had in the back of our minds going back and repeating some of it as we had enjoyed it so much. We were aware of the Camino Portugués but had not looked at it in any detail. After talking with the lady from Nova Scotia we researched it a lot more and looked at dozens of You Tube videos.

It looked like an interesting and manageable walk. Fairly flat – much less climbing than the Camino Frances, Ireland or the South West Coast Path. If we started in Porto the distance of 270km was about right for us these days. The journey could be split up into walking day lengths of about 20km interspersed with “rest” days. We have never been to Portugal before and I like going to new places. Lisbon and Porto look like beautiful historic cities. The food and wine in Portugal are renowned. Also in contrast to the Camino Frances which was 100% inland, 70% of the Coastal Way follows the shoreline with lots of pristine beaches and opportunities for swimming.

So that was that, we decided to do it.

There are at least 14 Caminos that I am aware of, starting in different parts of France, Spain and Portugal but all ending in Santiago de Compostela Spain. Last year 442,073 pilgrims successfully completed a Camino route. 219,785 did the Camino Frances, 88,717 the Camino Portuguese Central, and 52,746 the Portuguese Coastal route.

The full Camino Portugués starts in the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, and finishes in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It is about 640kms. We are walking from Portugal’s second largest city Porto to Santiago de Compostela, about 270kms.

The Camino Portugués, O Caminhos Portugueses, is a general heading with at least four alternate routes: the Central Way (Caminho Central), Coastal Way (Caminho da Costa), Seashore Path (Senda Litoral), and Spiritual Variant (Variante Espiritual).

In Portugal the main historical route is the Central Way, an inland route, and is the most popular and busiest. The Coastal Way follows the coast from Porto before joining the Central Way at Redondela and going on to Santiago de Compostela. The Senda Litoral and Spiritual Variant are variations of the Coastal Way. You can see the routes in the map above. The Coastal Way, while not the traditional route for purists, is becoming more popular and is promoted by Portuguese Tourism to get better wayfinding and infrastructure (accommodation, food, transport, medical facilities etc).

We are walking the Coastal Way from Porto to Santiago de Compostella by way of Matosinhos, Villa do Condo, Povoa de Varzim, Esposende, Viana do Castelo, Caminha, A Guarda, Oia, Baiona, Vigo, Redondela, Pontevedra, Caldas de Reis and Padron.

 

We are using a tour company, Caminoways, to book our accommodation and transport our bags eash day. We have  previously used Caminoways when we walked the Camino Frances in 2016, and the Dingle, Kerry and Beara Peninsulars in Ireland in 2017.  In those days you used to get paper maps but now they have an app for your phone which shows the exact route and you can follow your progress by way of your blue dot on the path. It is pretty much impossible to get lost if you are using the app. When we used Macs Adventures on the South West Coast Path they also had an app of the route and many times it saved us from taking a wrong turn and getting lost, or walking a lot of unnecessary kilometres.