May 13th was my first official Monday as a retired person, so I kicked it off by joining a hiking group that runs organized hikes around Austin every Monday and Friday mornings. My friend Mary Coppinger had told me about this group back in 2021 so I got her to hook me up with the organizer in time to join right away. You can’t really see since I’m way in the back but I also had my full Camino backpack on, along with my new shoes to give all of the gear a little shake down. (More on that later.)
I made the decision back in February that it was time to leave the workforce. After 23 straight years in the software engineering field I’m ready to drop out and prepare for what is coming next… Because what is coming next is big! We lost my mom last month right before her 84th birthday. Then we very unexpectedly lost my dad last Thursday to pneumonia and other complications. But most critically, my youngest sister Becky has been battling stage 4 cancer for almost 3 years, and she is out of options for effective treatments. When she passes I will become guardian to my niece Hope (13), and my nephew Wyatt (11). Their father died when they were babies. I anticipate spending a lot of time in Dillsburg, PA over the next few months assisting Becky and the kids as much as I can. And then I will devote all of my energies to getting them settled here with us and with all of the love and help they need. Starting again with teenagers! (For reference, Genevieve is now 27 and Tristan is 25.)
Any way I will be busy in retirement, even without two new children. I am currently involved in, or on the board of, 3 non-profits. I have strength-training and pilates workouts, piano lessons, bell choir practices, prayer and service. I let go the yard guy and said good-bye yesterday to my faithful house cleaner. I got a mountain bike for my birthday and I am really enjoying riding the Shoal Creek Hike and Bike trail. And of course walking and both landscape and vegetable gardening.
Speaking of gardening, I had a bumper crop of volunteer parsley pop out in the herb garden and else where in the front yard. The plants are starting to bolt with the warmer weather so I picked a bunch and I made a chimichurri marinade and sauce for steak tonight. I’ll make some roasted potatoes and a salad too.
My garden plot at Sunshine Community Gardens is starting to produce now. We’ve got the early tomatoes coming in, peppers and soon some zucchini. I’ve found out that the new cat keeps eating some of the tomatoes even though that can’t be good for her.
Just a few other photos, in honor of Mother’s Day that just passed.
The final update is a piece of news that will be really obvious in a few days. On Thursday we are off to Portugal and Spain to finish our pilgrimage from last year. Picking up in Porto, we will walk out to the coast and up the boardwalks for about a day before heading back inland to the Portuguese Central route. In Pontevedra we detour to the Spiritual Variant and after Santiago we will continue to Cape Finisterra and Muxia. We should end up walking 19 days. I am really looking forward to this time to deal with the loss and changes that have been and will occur. I am hoping that the Caminho Português north out of Porto has more comradery and friendship. We will stay in quite a few more public hostels this time and I have broken up the really long days to be something reasonable.
I got a bit lazy…
I got a bit tired to post all the days, especially towards the end of the trip. Honestly, a number of days I went to bed not knowing if my feet would take the walking the next day. But the kilometers got shorter and I reaffirmed my determination to walk every single step.
So filling in some gaps… after the Waterfall hostel, which, honestly was a bit too rainy and humid (so no clothes washing and a sort of damp bed), we were off to São João da Madeira, which was a big town. We stayed in some apartment-like suites and the highlight was the washer and dryer and having lunch at an Asian restaurant. It was a wet day.
Our final stay prior to the walk into Porto was in the town of Grijó. The hostel there has a terrible rep, so nobody stayed there. We stayed in a really sweet Casa Rural that I had read about and booked late in my planning after having misgivings about the pilgrim hostel. The Casa was really nice, although it was not rural. We had a neat little two story tiny house. There was a small pool and lovely garden. The best was the little nap I got in the sun lounger!
The hostess here at Couto Rutal couldn’t have been sweeter. She didn’t speak English but that was fine and she made us a beautiful breakfast and greeted us with port and beer when we arrived. it turns out our pilgrim friends from Australia, Cam and Claire, were guests there a few days ahead of us.
On our way into Grijó we were really ready for lunch but had difficulty finding the part of town with restaurants. We finally found a likely place, but alas. It wasn’t open yet. The proprietor saw us looking through the door and was really kind. He opened 30 minutes early and provided us with a fantastic meal. Including French Fries, because he says “All Americans like batata frita”. He wasn’t wrong. I ate them all. It turns out it was Portugal Day, a national holiday. We had wondered at the amount of traffic we’d seen on the roads that day. While eating our meal we watched the parading of the troups on TV, mixed in with all sorts of Trump headlines, as I recall.
Our final walking day was pretty nice to start but then we were basically walking in through the city of Porto along busy major roads and light rail tracks. There was an extensive section of Roman road and some of it through a very nice forest.
Lots of shrines to Fatima along the way, and even one or two to Santiago. And some oddities other oddities…
So that’s pretty much it for this Camino (Caminho). We did some sightseeing stuff in Porto. Tasted some Port, went on the 6 bridge river cruise (nice to NOT walk). I will take a while to digest this experience. My thoughts right now are that it was more physically challenging than expected due to the road walking, longer distances and warmer weather. It also didn’t feel that spiritual. Both times on the Camino Frances I had a more emotional experience. I’m glad I did it though. We definitely got an experience of Portugal we never would have gotten otherwise.
We made it!
Just a quick post now and then I’ll write about our last few days. Time for some R&R. Especially for my feet.
To Paradise
Yesterday was another long day because I booked at a hostel in “Paradise”, at a former watermill. The water was freezing which is great for pilgrim feet. Rich and I admired the great rock schist around too, although that proved a bit complicated to explain to our German host.
Yep. Lots of pilgrims here about, but most of them headed south towards the shrine in Fatima. Still it is great to hear everybody on the street call out “Bom Caminho” or “Boa viagem”.
Rain from storm Oscar today. We are passing along old Roman roads, medieval bridges and the Caminho Real but into increasingly busy areas as we approach Porto.
Onward from Coimbra
We headed out very early from Coimbra due to expected afternoon temperatures of 87. It was reminiscent of our early morning departures on the Camino Frances, but no headlamps needed.
We have been left behind by our old crowd of pilgrims due to the extra day in Coimbra. No worries! We have now met Javier from the Asturias region in northern Spain, a couple of Italian pilgrims, some Polish, and a new Australian couple, who coincidentally have some colleagues in common with Rich, due to his work in Melbourne.
The countryside has been a mix of small towns, vineyards, and eucalyptus plantations. Oh, and with a few industrial parks thrown in.
Yesterday’s hostel the “truck stop” version I would say and was stuffed full. There was one really bad snorer so not a good night.
Today we are in a beautiful hostel with absolutely gorgeous patio area.
Conímbriga and Coimbra
It’s been a bit tough but we made it to Coimbra and our rest day. We spent the previous night in a beautiful modern hostel in the backyard of a suburban home near the Roman ruins of Conímbriga.
Coming out of the town of Alvorge that morning a little “puppy-grino”, doggy pilgrim followed us all the way to the next village.
Coimbra is a gorgeous town and so much to do. Last night we went to a Fado concert, which was great fun and then got entertained again by a really talented street musician while we were dining outside.
Today we went in a guided tour (by 4×4 vehicle) to the Schist Villages on Lousã mountain about an hour away. They are truly peaceful and beautiful.
This afternoon we took a tour of the University of Coimbra. We had a very passionate guide who filled our heads with valuable Portuguese dates and history. The highlight is the library, but no photos were allowed.
We’re heading out very early tomorrow morning to try to avoid a very hot afternoon that’s being predicted. However, the remnants of a tropical depression are headed our way. We may have large amounts of rain for the rest of the trip. We’ve been tossing around the idea of back up plans if my feet don’t heal up or the weather is unmanageable.
Miserable distances
Well, if I had a chance to go back in time I would advise myself to start in Tomar and skip all the stages out from Lisbon. The previous 3 stages were absurdly long, repeatedly over 30km (20 miles).
We made it into Tomar (really cool hostel) but we were so exhausted we almost missed our chance to see the major sight of the Convento de Cristo. We ended up taking a Tuk Tuk up the hill and doing a quick visit right before closing.
Yesterday we ended up walking much of the day with Cam and Claire from Australia. We never thought we’d meet them again after the first day!
The countryside turned quite beautiful, with eucalyptus forests and rural hill villages. But the distance was 34km to get to the next destination from the guide book. Adding in the hilly terrain and lots of asphalt and cobblestone roads made for an absolutely miserable day.
Today was better because I planned a shorter day. Pretty landscape but with a greater percentage of dirt paths and a cooler morning really helped. A thunderstorm welcomed us into the town of Alvorge where I booked us a private room at the nice new hostel/restaurant.
Over the last few days we have really started to make those pilgrim friends that are the heart of the Camino experience. Tonight we’re with a girl from China, a South Korean student, and a young Portuguese woman.
My feet are a mess of blisters and pain but in a day and a half we’ll be in Coimbra for our rest day.
Golegã – 34km, too many
Today we passed some pilgrim graffiti that really struck a chord – “My feet hurt, my shoulders are wasted…” It was written on a wall in the middle of a corn field. Lots of vineyards and corn fields and mud. We got caught in rain so the ponchos made an appearance.
A really long, really hard day that I hope to forget. Despite being famous as the home of the Portuguese horse Golegã was kind of a low point. We were so foot sore and couldn’t even find a restaurant open for dinner. Finally a place with menu in Portuguese that I couldn’t translate. I wanted vegetables and finally managed that after much back and forth. Rich had a huge barely cooked steak. On TV in the restaurant were bloody bullfights from Spain. Poor bulls.
Valada and Santarém
Yesterday we got off to an early start at about 6:45. It’s a good thing too because we ended up with a 33km walk and a bit too much sun. There were some nice sections of the walk with amazing birds (storks) and some really ugly sections.
In Azambuja we ran smack into their May festival complete with bull running and traditional costumes. After that, though, we were in for an 11km slog with no towns, much of it on pavement which causes extremely painful feet. Not fun at all.
Our host for the night was Enrico. He is Italian and there were 4 Italian pilgrims bound for Fatima also staying, so we enjoyed a wonderful meal with them.
Valada is on the banks of the Tejo so this morning we had a nice view setting off towards Santarém.
Our feet were still so very sore and today we had only one town and then a 16km stretch through rural lands. The fields are mostly tomatoes and vineyards, with some corn, kale, and some sort of grain. Also some beautiful wildflowers.
A pilgrim swing was a pleasant surprise but we quickly gave it up to a pair of South Korean pilgrims. Nice to have some fellow pilgrims on the trail today!
Santarém is strategically located on a bluff above the river. There have been settlements here since some number of centuries B.C. It was an important Roman center, a stronghold for the Moors and then recaptured by the first king of Portugal. Which means we had to go uphill!
Fabulous views up and down river from the Portas do Sol garden at the site of the citadel.
A bit of bad luck today with rain, some of the sights being closed, and fighting with recalcitrant machines at the laundromat. Tomorrow is scary. Over 34km. Insane! Who planned this?!
Vila Franca de Xira
The home of Portuguese bull fighting, V.F. de Xira is a very nice town on left bank of the Tejo River.
Below we are hanging out at a cafe in the town park.
We had an inauspicious start to the day. We went to the train station and realized we had just missed the train we needed. Since it was Saturday, the trains were running on a reduced schedule, so we walked up a really busy road with no shoulder. Nothing was open for breakfast and we ended doing a lot of extra walking until Rich finally found a very nice pastry shop open and conveniently located next to an Aldi supermarket. So at 9 am we finally found ourselves back on the trail, behind schedule and already foot sore.
The next section of the trail was quite nice though. Boardwalk and trail through river wetlands. Lots of folks running and biking the trail and bountiful bird life. We saw so many mamma ducks with their 6-7 ducklings floating up and down the water channels. I took some photos but they didn’t really come out well.
Then a very dangerous section, again on a major road where the shoulder kept disappearing. I would not walk that section again and would advise folks to take the train.
Finally another beautiful riverside park until we reached out destination. Today felt really hard which makes me apprehensive about tomorrow which will be about 10km longer.
We didn’t meet any pilgrims on the trail today, but saw some coming into town a short time ago. Two women who had their backpacks on push trailers. Our bunk mates tonight are both Brazilians from the state of Minas Gerais who are passing time while waiting on their immigration paperwork.
We also met Mohamed Naeem from Pakistan who somewhat randomly ended up here in Vila Franca on a sightseeing trip. He showed us how to get to the city park and talked to us a bit about his travels.