#332 Camino Portugues Day 1: Porto to Povoa de Varzim

Join me for a few Peaceful Moments starting out on the first day of the Camino Portugues leaving Matosinhos outside Porto heading 25km to Povoa de Varzim. Finally, after flying to the UK, taking a ferry to Santander in Northern Spain, a bus to Bilbao then trains to Segovia, Madrid and Toledo and a flight to Porto...finally, I get to the main part of this trip, a Camino. I picked up my Camino Credential in Porto Cathedral for a couple of Euros, packed up my backback the night before and was ready to strike out early for this brand new experience. Was I fully prepared? Was my backback too heavy (yes)? Was my choice of footwear a good one? Was I up to many long walking days in a row? This first day was quite pleasant as most of it was spent walking along the coast, much of it on boardwalks. It was a little drizzly to start with but turned out to be a fine day in the end. It took about 8 hours to do this 25km walk which included a few stops along the way including a nice lunch served up with a cold beer. #Porto #Portugal #Camino #CaminoPortugues #PovoadeVarzim There is no music with this one - just the sounds of what was around Some Camino Details In September-October 2023 I did the Camino Portugues walking about 280km over two weeks from Porto in Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This was 13 walking days and 2 rest days. As many people who have walked a Camino will tell you, it is a life changing experience. I totally agree with this and understand why people keep coming back. I filmed for 20 to 30 seconds several times each day and these videos are those films put together with some captions added. These films give a pretty good impression of what the walking was like on each day. I stayed mostly in albergues (cheap hostels for pilgrims) but also in one Airbnb and one nice hotel. I pre-booked most of the accommodation. The walking on this Camino is relatively flat (it is along the coast for the most part) and I walked about 20km each day carrying a backpack which weighed about 20lb - yes, I was carrying too much! The food along the way was AMAZING, as were many of the people encountered. A truly memorable experience. There is no fixed itinerary for the Camino - you decide how far you want to walk each day and there are usually many options for accommodation along the way. This is the route I chose which I matched with how far I thought was a good distance to cover each day. Day 1: Porto (Matosinhos) to Povoa de Varzim - 25km