26/04/2026 Sunday - The official start of our Camino Portuguese.
Breakfast at 7.00am, bags down by 8, and we were on our way. RAW Travel's schedule had us catching a train to Matosinhos to avoid walking the outskirts of Porto and the airport. This would have meant walking 25km on our first day, so caught a taxi to Labruge and walked 17km instead.
The perfect sky's of yesterday had disappeared and the fog had set in. Driving out of Porto we couldn't see the river.
Once we arrived in Labruge, our driver dropped us off at the Alburgue and we walked the 900 metres to the coast. All we could see was fog. The shoreline was somewhere out there.
Walking along the board walks was hard on our legs, especially since the storm 2.monrhs ago had damaged some of it and it was at a 45 degree angle. An obstacle course was not on the agenda.
A man stopped and spoke to us near a memorial, so I got out my phone and put on GoogleTranslate and asked him to speak into it. He said that the Germans fell here and that's what the memorial was for.
After about 7k. We stopped and sat on a side offshoot of the board walk and ate our pastries from breakfast for morning tea. We were serenaded by the frogs in the marshes under the walkway.
An hour further into Vila de Conde and the sun finally decided to make an appearance. We sat at a cafe, had lunch with homemade lemonade, and a welcome rest.
Instead of walking the intended route through the back streets, and not wanting to add 3km to our day by walking the peninsula, we navigated our way through town across to the coast again.
As the weather is warming up in Portugal and it was Sunday, everyone has headed to the coast and the pavements were full.
Another hour of walking through the crowd was testing all of us. Alison was up ahead even though she was not well, Julie got her poles out to help with her aching knee, followed by Kim with her sore hips, and me at the rear trying not to lose sight of Alison.
We finally made it into Povoa de Varzim, found our hotel, and checked in.
We ventured out for dinner but we were too early, so we sat down at a gelato shop and had sweets for dinner (Kim did have a small soup as well).
Back to the hotel by 7.00pm. We deserve a cup of tea and an early night.
Breakfast at 7.00am, bags down by 8, and we were on our way. RAW Travel's schedule had us catching a train to Matosinhos to avoid walking the outskirts of Porto and the airport. This would have meant walking 25km on our first day, so caught a taxi to Labruge and walked 17km instead.
The perfect sky's of yesterday had disappeared and the fog had set in. Driving out of Porto we couldn't see the river.
Once we arrived in Labruge, our driver dropped us off at the Alburgue and we walked the 900 metres to the coast. All we could see was fog. The shoreline was somewhere out there.
Walking along the board walks was hard on our legs, especially since the storm 2.monrhs ago had damaged some of it and it was at a 45 degree angle. An obstacle course was not on the agenda.
A man stopped and spoke to us near a memorial, so I got out my phone and put on GoogleTranslate and asked him to speak into it. He said that the Germans fell here and that's what the memorial was for.
After about 7k. We stopped and sat on a side offshoot of the board walk and ate our pastries from breakfast for morning tea. We were serenaded by the frogs in the marshes under the walkway.
An hour further into Vila de Conde and the sun finally decided to make an appearance. We sat at a cafe, had lunch with homemade lemonade, and a welcome rest.
Instead of walking the intended route through the back streets, and not wanting to add 3km to our day by walking the peninsula, we navigated our way through town across to the coast again.
As the weather is warming up in Portugal and it was Sunday, everyone has headed to the coast and the pavements were full.
Another hour of walking through the crowd was testing all of us. Alison was up ahead even though she was not well, Julie got her poles out to help with her aching knee, followed by Kim with her sore hips, and me at the rear trying not to lose sight of Alison.
We finally made it into Povoa de Varzim, found our hotel, and checked in.
We ventured out for dinner but we were too early, so we sat down at a gelato shop and had sweets for dinner (Kim did have a small soup as well).
Back to the hotel by 7.00pm. We deserve a cup of tea and an early night.
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