Month: May 2022

Didn’t get much sleep last night. Too anxious about starting the walk. We left around 08:00 and then found ourselves still out on the Camino past 15:00. It topped out at 85 degrees today with almost no shade.

The albergue we are staying in sleeps 10. No sheets, no pillow, no blankets…. no problem. Couldn’t walk further today. We met one of our roomates Craig from Scotland/London. Nice guy….. but aren’t all Scottish nice?

There is no Wi-Fi at the albergue so we are at a cafe nearby with spotty service so the blog will be brief today. Also there is a local guy at the cafe talking so loud it feels like my head is splitting open.

Talk to you tomorrow, hopefully better Wi-Fi and less screaming at the cafes…..Follow the yellow arrow.

Took the 12E tram today to the Castle stop. As we walked up the hill just before the castle is a public urinal which is a metal screen where you just pee into a drain. This is wrong on so many levels and no I did not use it…..yet

We walked down a bit to the Miradouro Santa Luzia lookout for some nice views.

Headed further down to the Lisbon Cathedral to get our first stamp on our “Credencial del Peregrino”. We start from here tomorrow. Shouldn’t be too hard, just follow the yellow arrows, right?

We took the 28E tram to Campo Orique to have a meal at the food market. Turns out that Lisbon was playing Porto in football and everyone was hanging out. Cool.

When we got back to the plaza outside the hotel. I asked a guy if we can share the table he was at and we spent the next hour and half talking to Ricardo who is a doctor in Lisbon. Great evening, great conversation. He would like to visit NY someday so Beth shared her Instagram account with him and said he is welcome anytime.

Hope tomorrow goes well. Good night.

We made it to our hotel using the Metro from the airport. Very easy and got to check in early. Grabbed a quick bite as the 1930 28 tram rode by then got a 2 hour nap. So tired.

Went for a walk before heading to our traditional Portuguese dinner at A Provencia. Cobblestone sidewalks everywhere. So cool.

We walked by a Tourist attraction which is an elevator from the 1900s that would take you up 7 stories rather than having to walk up the hill.

Got to try “Green wine”. It’s a thing. More like a spritzer. Nearby, there were 15 guys celebrating a bachelor party in the plaza. The groom was dressed in a full wedding gown and vail. So funny. Regret not taking a picture.

There are many pastries we want to try while here. I tried a coconut bread cake. Not bad. When we got back to our hotel we had 2 Pasteis da Nata (popular custard tart) waiting for us in our room. Damn good.

Dinner at a traditional Portuguese restaurant down a hidden street. Momma cooks, Dad works the bar etc and the daughter is the only waitress. Crazy. The allure is that there is always a line outside waiting to get in.

I got to try the sardines (good) and Beth had bacalhau/ cod fish (not so good…sorry Momma)

The whole place is decorated by homemade clocks that the dad made…..none of which had the correct time but are hysterical to look at.

Good night.

Almost 6 years since our last Camino. We decided it’s time to try the Camino Portuguese from Lisbon, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Hopefully, our older bodies can handle this. We are a little undertrained right now and will be going slow the first week.

We’ve decided to go lighter than we did 6 years ago. Our backpacks are 15 an 14 pounds with water as opposed to 19 and 16 pounds that we carried on the Camino Frances.

Wish us luck. We start walking Sunday after spending a couple days in Lisbon.