From Lisabon to Santiago

[katiawt]

Hi
I´m from Brazil and I´ll begin the portuguse camino next october 1.
I know that the french camino is very crowded, but I have no news about the portuguese.
Does someone know if the albergues are very crowded??
Thanks
Katia

 

[Deirdre]

Hello Katia,
Welcome to the forum. I walked the Camino Portugués from Porto to Santiago in July, 2010. There were no problems at all with albergues even though it was the very high season. I cannot imagine that you will have any difficulties with finding a place in an albergue in October.

However, the albergues are not as plentiful in Portugal as they are in Spain. There are many new alberbergues along the Camino Portugues in Spain and they are very well run, clean and nice.

I walked for about 6 days with a woman who had walked from Lisbon and she said that she had some difficulty finding albergues on the Lisbon - Oporto stretch. I know that you can stay with the bomberos, but as a woman alone, she was rather reluctant to do so and as a result was often in search of a hostal or walking long distances between stops. I would agree that the etapas are quite long in Portugal. Before I met this woman, I walked for days at a time without seeing another Pilgrim - and that was in July.
Buen Camino,

 

[Anniesantiago]

When I walked, the alburgues were nearly empty!
It was SWEEEEEET!
But beware, the mosquitos were as big as EAGLES! ::laughing::

 

[mmonomm]

When i walked, in May, i was the only one in the albergues, on the road i have not met anyone in Portugal. in Spain, i met more pilgrims, but there was not a problem to find a bed in the albergues, we did not hurry to be first in line to get a bed at 13:00... so i think in october it will be the same, if not less crowded.

 

[Javier Martin]

When i walked, in May, i was the only one in the albergues, on the road i have not met anyone in Portugal. in Spain, i met more pilgrims, but there was not a problem to find a bed in the albergues, we did not hurry to be first in line to get a bed at 13:00... so i think in october it will be the same, if not less crowded.

Hi Katia,

You will be almost absolutely alone until the Spanish border. From there, not crowds but also no loneliness.

Have you already got a guide for this camino in portuguese?

Buen Camino,

Javier Martin
Madrid, Spain.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Katia,

I have walked from Lisbon to Porto and from Porto to Santiago, so I can only comment on those two parts. But first a couple of references for you.

-- a general guide in Portuguese, which handles Lisbon to Santiago,http://www.amigosdelcamino.com/web/caminos/presen.php?idi=C&fot=camino&cod=2
This was written by the Asociacion Galega de Amigos del Camino de Santiago and was very helpful to me.

-- The British Confraternity of St. James has online guides to the Caminho Portugues, one dealing with Lisbon to Porto (and written by me, so maybe I'm not a good judge of how good it is), and the other for Porto-Lisbon written by Johnnie Walker, another active member of this forum. You can find them here: http://www.csj.org.uk/guides-online.htm. I just put together a page or two of updates that people sent me after walking, and the updates are also available there.

-- My Lisbon to Porto pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/laurie.reyn ... Dxipep3Vo#

I thought it was a very pretty walk, but there are a few drawbacks:

== from Lisbon to Porto is nearly all on asphalt. Rarely on busy roads,but it's on pavement. That's hard on the feet.
== from Lisbon to Porto there are VERY few peregrinos. I met none, and most of the people I have communicated with met either none or one or two others during the entire walk. But I walked alone and never felt threatened or nervous, it is a very safe walk.
==There are no albergues south of Porto, so you will have to stay in private accommodations, or sleep in the Bombeiros Voluntarios (the guides list the towns where they are). A room in a pensao or residencial in these small towns can usually be found for under 25 euros.
Hope this gets you started in your thinking. Bom caminho, Laurie

 

[katiawt]

Thanks Laurie!!
I loved your pictures.
The guides will be very usefull...
Big hug
Katia

 

[periperi]

Hi Katia
I´m currently in Santarem and the route south of Porto is *hard*; hot, long days, incredibly lonely (Iºve seen 3 Fatima pilgrims and they had car support!) not much in the way of facilities...

Itºs possible that being a little more used to warm weather (maybe- Brazil is a big place!) and speaking Portuguese it would be easier for you, eg, a lady in the tourist information told me you can stay at convents and monsteries (not just bombardeiros), but also remember that south of Porto locals wonºt understand the caminho so even if youºve spoken to lots of them you may not have been able to find out that crucial bit of information you´re after (where to stay, whereºs the route gone, where to get drinking water, etc)

It could take a little while to find other pilgrims north of Porto (my first was a few kilometres before Vilarinho, after that -once you´ve had one night in a place where other pilgrims are- I had as much company as I could want), but itºs pleasant terrain, lots of shade, water, accommodation, understanding locals, pretty much always well-marked- in short, very different to the route Iºve been on north of Lisbon so far!

bom caminho!
xClara

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Clara,

Good to hear from you. I enjoyed Santarem, actually I enjoyed a lot of the places where I spent the night, but I agree with you, there is no one who has ever heard of the Caminho.

Which leads me to make one comment about "trusting the locals." I know that is usually very good advice, but not on the caminho from Lisbon to Porto. I cannot tell you how many times well intentioned people tried to steer me away from the Caminho. "Take the more direct route ."(and that's because I want to walk on the shoulder of the busy national highway?) Stay out of the fields (and that's because I prefer asphalt to walking on farm tracks?). My point is only that if you lose the arrows, you will have to ask around a bit before you find anyone (if indeed you can find someone) to help you back to the arrows. I found that generally the arrows were well placed, luckily, thanks to the Gallego Friends Association, but a little more publicity inside Portugal would be a very good thing!

Hope you enjoy the next few stages. I really liked Golega, Tomar, Rabacal, Coimbra -- lots of beautiful churches, nice town atmosphere. Now all they need is a bunch of pilgrims to make it a real camino experience.