Caminho Portuguese Day 2

August 31, 2017
Matosinho to Vila do Conde
25 km
Sunny and windy

Today was all about walking north with the beach to our left, the sun at our backs and the wind in our faces. 

Many kms of walking along beach boardwalks which was a different sort of hiking for us.

We left our guest house at 0900hrs and after 25 km we were both pretty tired when we walked into Vila do Conde at 1600 hrs.  We learned today that 25 km on the camino is much tougher than we expected and plan to walk shorter distances on future days.

Totally earned our chips and beer today!

Km and km of board walks

Just could not, not buy these

Caminho Portugues Day 1

August 30, 2017
Port to Matosinhos
13 km
Wet fog, then damp fog, then clear and cool

Packed up and walked to the Porto Cathedral for starting pic and then to the tourist office for our first stamp in our Credencials.
The views on our walk were shrouded in fog as we followed the Douro River to Foz where it meets the sea.  Still foggy along the very fetching coast to Matosinhos and our stop for the day.  Later in the afternoon skies cleared and we borrowed bikes from our guest house (Fish Tail Sea House - recommended) and cycle the promenade back 5 km to see the views we missed!

Porto Cathedral - kilometer zero 

Streets of Porto

Douro River - leaving Porto in the fog

Rest stop at one of the 18th century forts we passed 

Interesting public monument to fishermen

Entrance to our roof top room in the Fish Tail Sea House, Matosinhos

From the Foz lighthouse looking back towards the Douro River and Porto

Caminho Portugues Days D-2,D-1

August 28 and 29
Porto

Two days of playing tourists.  We both really like this city.

Portugal is proving again to be very economical. For  example, $132 for three nights in spacious and centrally located Air B&B.  The neighbourhood grocery store sells buns for € 0.12 and a one litre Tetra pack of rose wine goes for € 0.67!

After our first night of jet-lagged restless sleep Lisa surprised me with a three hour motorcycle sidecar tour for an anniversary gift.  Super fun with charming and informative guide Andre.  Recommended.

Wandered the city, taking in a port wine tasting then joined an 11 pm start guided pub crawl that went into the very wee hours.

Some pre-Caminho chores for our last day in Porto - purchase SIM card for local calling, post some of our kit to Santiago for after the walk, obtain Credencial (pilgrim passports) at Cathedral, book ahead a few nights as all signs indicate accommodations are quite booked up for our chosen route.

Cycling the Columbia and Western Rail Trail

Lisa and cycled a 52 km section of the awesome C&W rail trail on August 13th. We started at Paulson and ended in Castlegar.  After the first gentle  uphill 7 km section to Farron it is downhill the rest of the way. Four tunnel (Bulldog is 0.9km long) and three trestles add to uniqueness of the ride. Shout out to the local trail maintenance volunteers!

Caminho Portugues Day D-3

Off we go to YVR via Skytrain (thanks Cliff for the lift!) to Toronto via Westjet to Porto via Sata Air!

Cycling the Slocan Rail Trail

On August 9th our nephew Graham joined us on a great 52 km ride from Slocan to Crescent Valley in the West Kootenays. 

Camino Portugues Packing List

The interweb is awash with Camino packing lists so here is my contribution to this data base...

Some considerations for our Camino:

Traveling a long way (Vancouver to Portugal) to start the walk

After our Camino we are doing a cycle tour and other touristy things

Likely hot in late August in Portugal and cool in early October in Prague

Plan to carry our kit rather than use a luggage shuttle

Desire to look as good as possible

It is about the weight.  Trolling through others' blogs, forums, etc. there is plenty of advice for keeping the weight down.  A friend of ours is walking Leon to Santiago de Compostela carrying five lbs on her back!  Plenty of others are in the sub ten pound weight category.  Realistically, my goal is to land somewhere between fifteen and twenty pounds for the walk itself.

We have already decided upon  and researched a plan to send ahead from Porto to Santiago de Compostela a package with clothing, bike gloves, etc. for the second part of our trip that is not required for the Camino.

Here we go...

Packs

MEC Spirit 40 backpack with rain cover

Arcteryx Sling bag 4

Mini travel backpack (doubles as stuff bag)

Shoes:

Keen Voyageur Hiking Shoes

Keen Hiking Sandals

Socks and Undies:

Three prs of each

Outer Wear:

MEC cycling rain jacket

MEC light fleece

Hats:

OR Radar cap

OR Rain hat

Bottoms:

MEC Zip off hiking pants (grey)

MEC MTB shorts (black)

Lulu Lemon travel pants

Tops:

Synthetic tee

Sleeveless tee

Cotton tee

Synthetic polo

Long sleeve plaid

Long sleeve synthetic

Electronics:

Olympus Camera

Mobile telephone

Chargers

Toiletries:
The usual

Misc:

Guide book

Mini tripod

Sun glasses 

Reading glasses

Buff

Bandanna

Synthetic mini towel

Laundry soap and line

Hiking poles

Swiss Army knife

Spoon

Addition items for Danube trip that will be shipped ahead to Santiago de Compostela:

Cycling jersey 

Cycling gloves

Cycling vest

Cycling under shorts

Using super light weight MEC packing cubes to keep things organized.

Weighing in (minus the cycling package) at 16 pounds.  Acceptable.