Hi, Nicole,
I am living in Lisbon this year and have been able to walk from Lisbon to Coimbra. I did not do it all at once, but went out and back on the excellent train system, except for a three day stretch into Coimbra. I have posted pictures from that part, which you can see here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/laurie.reyn ... Dxipep3Vo#
I also posted some notes on this forum and I'll try to put in a link to it, but I frequently mess this up when I try to do it, so let me know if I didn't do it right:
el-camino-portugues/topic5398.html
I have been in contact with flecher, who posted on that thread. He just finished the Portugues from Lisbon and reported that it was very solitary. I can vouch for that because I have not yet met another walker on this route.
I have been sidelined for the last two months with a heel injury, but it seems to be better, so I am going to try to walk Coimbra to Porto next week, my last chance before heading back to the states. I will let you know if I manage to do it.
To answer some of your questions, I would say that I have enjoyed walking the stages from Lisbon, except for the portions I mention in my report that went through dumps, on busy roads, etc. But after the first few stages, that really almost disappeared. Tomar, the Roman ruins at Rabacal and Conimbriga, Golega, the abandoned palace in Cardiga -- there are really a lot of very nice places to walk through and visit. I was always walking alone (58 year old female), and the people were helpful and friendly -- though very few knew much if anything about the Caminho. By the way, the route from Lisbon is not a new add-on, I believe the route originally started in Faro down on the southern coast, but I don't think Faro to Lisbon has been waymarked with arrows yet.
I haven't walked from Porto to Valenca, but I've gone from Valenca to Santiago and I think it's also very pretty and the infrastructure is good. People have reported that walking out of Porto there are some pretty bad highway sections, but I don't know how long they last.
Bom caminho, Laurie