Camino Day 1, Tui to O Porrino, 18.4 kms

Our first day of the Camino was the walk from Tui to O Porrino, 16km as the crow flies, or apparently 18.4km as the pilgrim walks.

You can see Tui and O Porrino at the bottom of the map.  Our next days walks are to Rendondela, Pontevedra, Caldais de Reis, Padron, and then on the last and longest day (24km) Santiago de Compostela.

Today's walk was very interesting, past some old Roman bridges and through a bunch of small towns that you would never see except on this kind of walk.

The weather was overcast with a light drizzle as we left Tui, although it cleared up during the day.  Tomorrow is supposed to rain :-(

Markers count down the km's to Santiago, this is at about T minus 112km or so.

Entering O Porrino.  During the walk we noticed a lot of houses and fences were made of granite.  Turns out the main industry of O Porrino is ...  granite!

A beer at the end of a long day's walk!  We did the first 16 or so km straight through - about 3 1/2 hours of straight walking - before we stopped for the beer.  No more!  We're planning more rest stops from now on.

Into Tui Spain and the start of our Camino

Today we crossed the bridge into Tui, Spain, and tomorrow is the first day of our Camino walk to Santiago, about 120 km total.

We took the train from Porto to Velenca, Portugal, and then walked across the bridge to Tui, Spain.  We had a short break changing trains in Nine (pronounced "Neeen").

Just across the bridge!

Just across the bridge!

Doing a bit of work at our Airbnb, a medieval dungeon next to the church (where they house all the Camino pilgrims who are actually infidels).

Lisbon and Porto

We spent a very relaxing time in Lisbon (2 days) and Porto (2 days).  Although both are very hilly cities, we viewed it as training for our up-coming Camino walk.

The main plaza in Lisbon.  It's so large that the locals don't bother with it.

Wine tasting in Lisbon - you put money on a card and then buy samples of various wines and ports.  We stuck with the wines because we were (next day) on our way to Porto.

Skyline of Lisbon.

Some streets in Lisbon (and also Porto) are restricted to locals.  The streets are blocked by these barriers, which lower into the street when the locals flash a magnetic card (like a bus pass).

A church in Lisbon, we seen so many I can't even remember which one.  Why so many?  Is the Catholic Church that insecure?

The main plaza in Porto.  That's city hall at the end.

A church in Porto, decorated with hand-painted tiles.

Clerigos Tower, another church.  We climbed this one, but not all the way.

A nice park, next door to the Stock Exchange Palace (which is neither a Stock Exchange nor a Palace).

City skyline of Porto.

One of many "development opportunities" we saw across Portugal.

Port flight at Ramos Pinto.

Outdoors of Ramos Pinto (we took this picture in case we forgot where we did the tasting).

Port tasting at Kopke, the oldest porterie in Porto.

Yet another church, decorated Porto-style with hand-painted tiles.

Some textures from Evora

Evora was an old Roman town with cobblestone streets.  Here are the variety of cobblestones that we walked along.

Small, regular stones.  Sonya's favourite.

Small, irregular.

Large, regular.  Usually roads not sidewalks.

Large irregular.

Large irregular smooth.

Large, I think old Roman stones.

Regular, bur irregular where it's been repaired.

Marble pieces!

More to come from Lisbon and Porto!

Some pics from Portugal

Here is a teaser of some pics from our Portugal trip so far:

Our first day - the view from our apartment in Setubal (a suburb of Lisbon).  We arrived in Lisbon on Sept 16, rented a car and drove directly to Setubal.

Our first meal in Setubal.  We ordered (we thought) a glass of wine & beer, but found that garaffo actually means bottle in Portugese.  First lesson in Portugese.

Coffee and pastel de nata, the national pastry dish of Portugal.  Second lesson in Portugese :-D  I've been eating a lot of pastel de nata!

Fado performance.  Fado is the national song of Portugal.  We saw this performance at the Fado Museum in Tiviro.  (For the first week we were actually staying in Spain, in Ayumonte just across the border, but spent most of our time doing day trips back into Portugal.)

Many houses in Portugal are covered in tiles.

Detail of the tile.

Snail crawling up a wall in Lagos (in the south of Portugal, on our way to Selima).

Sonya enjoying a drink and the view in Selima.  (Selima is a small beach town near the Cape of Segal.)

Visit to the fort on the Cape of Segal, one of the most south-westerly points in Europe.

Ancient Roman temple in Evora, Portugal.  Evora is close to Lisbon and one of the wine regions of Portugal!

Cathedral of Bones in Evora Portugal.

Cathedral of Bones in Evora Portugal.

Ancient Roman aqueduct in Evora Portugal.  It comes right into the middle of town, so people have just incorporated it into the walls of their houses.  What else are you going to do, I guess?

Castle in Montemor-o-Novo, colloquially known as "the castle".

View from "the castle".

There was some kind of photo shoot going on at "the castle" while we were there.

View from "the castle".

View from Lisbon.

View from Lisbon.