First day of the Camino started off with excitement and intrepidation. I stayed last night in a private pension room. Was a double bed and all the usual stuff was ok but 30 euro’s. I guess it is Porto.
I walked the 300m to the cathedral and picked up the Camino. There is some mystifying about following the yellow arrow path without question or fear. The yellow arrows can be anywhere on curbs, posts, walls and pretty much anything they can reach there is normally one every 100m at least.
Today I knew I was in for a not so fun walk due to the nature of big city’s the industrial areas are often on the way out of the city and lots of busy roads. The guide books warn you of this however and many chose to get the metro past the worst of it but I decided I would do the whole thing regardless. Sure some of the scenery was bland but it really wasn’t that bad.
I kicked off the walking today at 6 am so I would miss the majority of bad traffic and busy roads and it worked a treat. After about an hour on the road I stopped for a wee ham and cheese type bread thing that was more like brioche washed down with a long espresso and a bargain at 1.80 euro. I walked on until I was eventually out of the industrial area and starting to get in the countryside. I was making good time and feeling ok tho I was expecting some small blisters on the bottom of my feet where my skin is currently too soft. What is great about these blisters is they don’t really hurt. I stopped again for some ice tea and wee cake thing and once again 1.80 euro.
I let a Korean guy I briefly spoke to yesterday outside of the cathedral and he had a better sheet of the albergue’s so I took a pic of it. Good Intel is hard to find on the full accommodation list it’s not like the Camino Frances where you can easily get a list of public and private accommodation.
I walked on and soon found my end point village for the day I was looking for signs for accommodation and stopped at one to be told it was fully booked by people who reserved. I may need to get more savvy with accommodation. She told me I would either need to walk 11k onwards or go back a 1k and she pointed out some places on my map. I decided to walk back and found this little family run place it’s very small but nice and even has a small pool. The language breakdowns make some of this tricky but I am led away for this room with a single bed and a double bed and a shower. There is a communal toilet next door. The price is 10 euro I’m not complaining.
He hands me me a map and gives my passport a stamp. He points out the local restaurant so I have a shower and head there for lunch.
As I walk in the same guy is sat with his family having lunch. I sit down and ask for a menu which they don’t have or at least they weren’t giving it to me she instead asked me what I like and started mentioning things pork, egg, chips, salad, rice I stopped her and said I like all of them she said ok and walked off 10 minutes later I got all of that on a plate and had another ice tea. Followed with another coffee. The bill was 6 euro and it was delicious so I shall go back there for tea.
Camino washing done and feeling much better after grub all is left is to have a siesta.
Not too many pics today:
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