March 20 - 21: In Porto (and onward to Póvoa de Varzim

We enjoyed a lazy rest day in Porto today. A lie in; a long breakfast; a stroll around the old town; a beer in a river-side café, entertained by a succession of excellent buskers. I visited the Church of St Idelfonso for a little pray and was astonished by the vibrant stained glass (See album: Camino Week 3: Mar 15 – 22). For Carey’s devotions, we went to Starbucks. It was emotional.

Carey went up on the picturesque/monumental Iron Bridge of Luis I, which I call the “Bridge of Death”, a hundred metres above the river, in high winds, to shoot some video. I did not. I barely got across it the first time! I explored our neighbourhood and got thoroughly soaked, dodging low-flying sandwich boards unleashed by the wind.

We explored the Cathedral together. It has a surprisingly small Sanctuary, but beautiful cloisters, monumental staircases, state rooms. The Cathedral Square is so redolent of Santiago. We commented how it felt like a competitor space (if the Spaniards have Santiago, we are going to have this…)

Porto is a truly wonderful city – vibrant, prosperous, historical, picturesque, a real quality of life location. Our hotel was right on the river front, inside the Medieval Walls, a converted 6-story townhouse overlooking a cobbled square.

We scoped out the metro. Tomorrow starts with a 10km metro ride to the Coastal Trail. We booked ferry tickets for Tuesday, the crossing into Spain. It will surprise no one that I like to get those things sorted well in advance.

Today we navigated the train without incident and started Stage 3, the Coastal Camino. This is what people usually mean when they say they “walked the Portuguese Camino”. The Way is well-marked with attractive rusted iron markers. There are many cafés, Albergues. We even saw “Pilgrim meals” advertised. This is also a general tourist area (sea, sand, surf, coves and fishing villages). The route was gorgeous – winding past golden beaches and picturesque dunes on a raised boardwalk for kilometres; the roar of the surf, the scale of the sky… But, it was very exposed, a little too exposed for the “Severe Coastal Weather Warning” (rightly) in force all day. We got wet, then blown dry, then wet, then blown dry... Horizontal rain straight off the Atlantic, 51mm in the last 12 hours, plus winds of up to 48km/hour. We spent the day in full rain gear. We needed it.

The route took us inland for about 5km, which was much more sheltered, but involved literally fording a river that had burst its banks. We walked the last 10km with squishy, sodden socks, boots. It really closed in on us about 3km from the end of our day, which was a total blessing. It could have been on us all day. There was a bizarre exhilaration in it, totally drenched, buffeted by surging wind, unable to feel (and in my case also to use) our hands. I found myself giggling often. We do this for fun, after all.