Today was still not the first proper day on the Camino that I have been building up to. As any wise pilgrim will tell you; life is one big Camino, so applying a specific start and end point to a pilgrimage type endeavour is fairly short sighted.
I woke up feeling very well rested, and my smartwatch also reinforced this with a sleep score of 91/100, which I think is the highest score I have achieved in the 3 months or so that I have owned the watch. I darkened the door of the hotel breakfast buffet, and it was a nice enough is all too familiar set up. An array of 7/10 pastries, various cooked options (waffles, omelette bar) to satisfy the American guests, plus some cold cuts and cheeses. I stuff to fat and protein with some nuts and a couple of cappuccinos. As already divulged, I am all too often finding myself in very unhealthy eating patterns, and have been known to eat things like haribo and marzipan first thing in the morning, but when it comes to hotel breakfasts I actually make better choices and steer away from heavy carby stuff as I know it will make me want to get straight back into bed.
Once I’d had my fill I had a bit more of a wander around the hotel. The whole place had gone in hard for the Wine theme, understandable for a place that is owned by the boss of Taylor’s Port. It’s a bit garishly wine themed though for me, but has a great view out over the city and the staff were very professional and friendly indeed.
At check in on Saturday I had been given a free ticket to the World Of Wine cultural centre which is just down the hill from the hotel, so I formulated my plan for the day starting with seeing what this cultural centre would as all about, then a late check out in the early afternoon from the hotel before heading up to Vila Do Conde up the coast. I toyed with the idea of going to Barcelos instead, which is on the ‘Central’ Camino Portugues route rather than the ‘Coastal’ one that Matosinhos and Vila Do Conde are on. My idea was that I will at some point switch from the Coastal to the Central, as I am quite keen to get into hills & forests rather than seaside boardwalks etc.
I booked a spot at the Youth Hostel in Vila Do Conde in advance. On my Camino 9 years ago I only remember having to pre-book hostel places twice, but I am aware that a) overall interest in the Camino has increased a lot in 9 years and b) the Portuguese route is supposedly the second most popular route after the Camino Frances. After getting off the tram from Porto and arriving at the hostel itself, I had to wait about an hour before some showed up at the reception to get new arrivals checked in. The hostel is in a lovely old building that has been converted into a very clean and spacious hostel. I am sharing the 6 berth dorm room I have been allocated a bed in with two fellow travellers; a youngish (possibly late twenties?) guy called Stephen from Belgium and a Portuguese guy called Johnny. It turns out that Stephen has been walking for 4 months, and started from his home town near Eindhoven. He went all the way through France and Northern Spain, including going to Finisterre. He is now on the very last part of his journey, walking south to end up in Porto and catching a flight back home on Thursday. He told me that he has been given leave from his job (something relating to eco-house building) to do this trip, but that he’s considering whether he should just quit his job altogether. Johnny turned up later in the evening. He is only in town to do some kind of course relating to boats, so isn’t on a Camino at all really. We had a good chat about food (he recommended for me to try smaller restaurants with older clientele ti get the really authentic local food as I make my way through Northern Portugal), and shared some travel stories too. It really is funny how the Camino provides these kinds of opportunities to interact with the ‘right’ people at specific points in one’s own journey. Talking to Stephen briefly was really encouraging for me; it helped me break a bit of my own ice having felt very unsure of myself.
After doing a bit of thinking/googling, my plan for tomorrow is going to be to continue walking on the Coastal route up to Esposende, but then get a local bus from there directly inland to Barcelos and spend tomorrow night there. Even the random bits of walking around I did today made me a bit unsure of how my feet are doing. The undersides of my little toes are both quite sore, and I think the cuprits are the new insoles I bought before coming on the trip. I didn’t do a long walk in my boots with the insoles added in, and now I’m paying the price a bit. What I think my toes just need is a chance to dry out and heal, but I should be fine to do a few hours walking on them tomorrow and see how I go. The stage from Vila Do Conde to Esposende is about 22km which under normal circumstances should take me about 4 hours, but if worst comes to worst I can just get or something from wherever I make it to. I would like to get on the trail tomorrow morning quite early so I can avoid having to walk in the heat of the day. The forecast isn’t for blazing sunshine, but I’m still trying to limit the impact of any potentially negative variables I can.
One Step Bey0nd 