Our
Camino Portuguese, 9 April 2017 - 8 May 2017
The
Portuguese Way of the Camino de Santiago, aka, the Camino Portuguese, is approximately
381 miles (614 km) from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela. This route is the second most popular route,
after the Camino Frances. The majority
of pilgrims who walk the Portuguese route start in either Porto (249 km to
Santiago) or Valenca/Tui (117 km to Santiago), rather than Lisbon. The main reason we wanted to walk this route
starting in Lisbon was not only because it is less crowded, but also because we
had walked the route from Valenca/Tui a couple years back and were fascinated
by the historic significance of this route and wanted to experience more and to
learn more about Portugal as well. We also
longed to walk this route completely on our own, without van support or luggage
transport. We're getting older and
needed to do this sooner rather than later, so the time to do it was now.
Since
we had no van support for this Camino we spent many weeks planning which items
we would be able to carry in our backpacks.
Even after continuously cutting back the list, the first time we tried
to put everything in our packs, there was no way to fit it all. After cutting back again, we got everything
to fit, but the packs still weighed more than the recommended 10% of
bodyweight. At that point we didn't feel
that we could eliminate anything else.
We figured that, once we started walking, we would quickly figure out
what else we could eliminate if the backpacks got difficult to carry.
Day 1, Sunday, 9 April 2017
Lisbon
After the Rotary Camino Fundraiser ended, we left our suitcases at the Hotel San Francisco Monumental in Santiago de Compostela and took a bus from Santiago to Lisbon, carrying only our backpacks with sleeping bags and hiking poles. We arrived in Lisbon on Saturday evening, April 8, and checked in to the Ibis Hotel in the Parque das Nacoes neighborhood, near the Oriente train station.
We allowed ourselves 30 days to
reach Santiago de Compostela, needing to arrive there, at the latest, by 8 May. We also allowed ourselves the flexibility to
stay an extra day at some of the places we felt we would enjoy having more time
to see, and the flexibility to take a train, bus or taxi ahead if needed. This would be our 11th Camino trek and we had
already earned 5 Compostelas. We had nothing
to prove on this Camino and wanted to enjoy each moment.
Our first day was supposed to be
Monday, April 10th, but in our excitement, we actually started today, Sunday,
April 9, 2017.
That morning I discovered (or at
least firmly believed at that moment) that I left the pilgrim passports we
received from American Pilgrims on the Camino with our names preprinted, in the
suitcases we left in Santiago. I'd heard
that you should arrive with your own passports because they can be difficult to
obtain, so I worried about it but kept reminding myself that it will all work
out as it should. I always worry about
little things. My first lesson.
Everything did eventually fall
together smoothly after only a little anxiety in the Cathedral. We got to the
Cathedral just in time for the Palm Sunday procession and Mass. As we walked back to our seats after
communion, we found that our seats were taken.
We noticed some seats a couple rows behind, so we walked around the
large pillar, but, by the time we got there, those seats were taken as
well. Just then, the usher began to rope
off the area and scolded us for trying to walk back around the pillar to where
we were before. He was trying to block
the throngs of tourists that had just begun pouring into the church since Mass
hadn't ended yet. We couldn't explain
what happened. He was just doing his job
and we couldn't blame him for assuming that we were just part of the tourist
crowd.
After Mass we needed to find out
where to get our Pilgrim Credentials (passports) and first stamp. A lady who spoke English told us to wait by
the sacristy door and told the usher (the same usher who had scolded us) what
we needed. We had to wait quite a while
because the bishop and other dignitaries were there for the Palm Sunday Mass
and no one could help us until they left.
While we were waiting we spoke to a very kind, young priest who spoke
English. He confirmed what was happening
and assured us that we would be helped soon.
Finally the usher came with two already stamped Credentials for us.
 |
| Lisbon Cathedral |
With our Credentials in hand, we
started walking from the Cathedral, using our Camino Portuguese guidebook by
John Brierley. We had to make a few
turns before we finally saw our first yellow Camino arrow, along with a blue
arrow pointing out the Fatima route. We
stopped at the Fado and tile museums which were on the way and walked our 1st
10 km to our hotel (Ibis) in Parque Das Nacoes. The yellow and blue arrows were
well marked so we didn't get lost yet.
 |
| Finding our first yellow and blue arrows |
 |
| Fado Museum |
 |
| One of the huge tile murals in the Tile Museum |
We were getting hungry by the time we got to the tile museum. There was a cafe inside so we sat down, but
service was very slow. The tile museum
was excellent, but it was getting late, we had not yet eaten lunch and we still
had a way to walk, so we didn't spend as long as we would have wanted. We continued on and finally stopped at a
restaurant called Jardin...something, at Praca David Leander da Silva. There we had an unbelievably delicious
grilled salmon meal for 8 Euros each, including soup, salad, wine and
dessert. It was well worth the wait.
 |
| Our 8 Euro grilled salmon dinner |
On our way home we stopped by the
train station and got tickets, costing 3.05 Euros each for Santarem tomorrow
morning. Then we stopped for coffee. The
waiter was from Bangladesh and we had a nice chat with him. He wanted to give us samosas and some other
Indian items on the menu. Indian items
on the menu at a coffee house in Lisbon...what a surprise!
In the evening before returning to
our hotel, we continued walking along the river and the Camino route a bit more
and stopped at a huge grocery store where we bought tea bags and even found
powdered cream for our morning tea. The
tea that we made in our room each morning would prove to be a godsend on this
Camino. Even as we gradually eliminated
things from our backpack to lighten our load, there was no way we could give up
our titanium cups, heating coil and tea supplies.
We went to sleep feeling so
contented and excited ... our Camino had begun!
