May 6th 2022 – Day 0
Dublin to Porto
I have arrived home from the Camino de Santiago. With compostela in hand, I have many more memories to take with me. The Camino Portugués from Porto is a beautiful Camino and one I walked with great company. However, it would be remiss of me to say that it was easy, as it was challenging at times. That said, all those difficult days are put in the past when I walked into the Plaza in the shadow of the Cathedral. I walked into Santiago on Wednesday, the 18th of May 2022 and we (as a group) had a free day on Thursday to collect our compostelas, go to the pilgrim mass, pilgrim watch and wander the streets. The town was particularly busy with close on 2000 pilgrims receiving their compostelas the day we arrived.
Many of you who are reading this may have followed me on Instagram or Facebook as I have posted regularly during the 2 weeks. I deliberately decided not to write here until I returned home as it takes up a good bit of time. For those of you who have followed me, thank you – you know who you are! Over the course of the next 3 – 4 weeks I will be writing posts about my experiences on a daily basis. Don’t forget to click the subscribe button so you will be notified of any future posts. There are some photos that I did not post on Instagram that I will post here. I would like your questions too. If you have any questions about the Portugués Camino, please write them in the comments and I will answer them for you. In each post I will talk about each of the accommodation too, so this might interest you.
Handy links:
ClearskiesCamino.com links page
Gronze.com – for open albergues and distances between towns
Our flight to Porto from Dublin was at 4.30pm. Of course, I was awake and prepared at crazy o clock and ready to be picked up by my father. We would leave early as we had heard news that the security was slow. This was not my first Camino but I didn’t want to miss this flight. On arrival at the airport, everything went to plan and we were waiting for our flight at our gate – only for the flight to be delayed!
Arrival in Porto was at 7pm – the sun was still shining and it was humid. The weather was due to be hot for the next few days. We taxi-ed to the colourful Porto Wine Hostel situated in the historical district. We made a quick walk to Sé Cathedral however it was closed by the time we arrived (it closes at 7pm), and there was plenty of opportunity to take photos and check out the great views of the city. We did get lost a few times getting from the Sé Cathedral back to the Wine Hostel but this is where the wonders of Google maps comes in. We passed the beautifal Sao Bento Station and it’s colourful interior. It is enough reason to visit Porto. We ate from a pasta place in a tiny side street beside the Sao Bento and it was amazing. It is these hidden delights that make Porto great. I really need to go back and visit as a tourist. It is a shame I had a few hours to check out the city.
Tomorrow we walk to Vila do Conde. The distance is over 30 km – something that we couldn’t manage in one day. So we decided to skip the walk out of the city for another time. Wallace would catch the metro to Matasinhos Sul while Ray and I would catch the Line 500 bus from Sao Bento to Foz do Douro – about 5 kms behind Wallace. Back in our hostel, our room consisted of 4 bunk beds and a shared bathroom. We shared the room with a girl from the USA who is travelling the world. She had been in Seville the evening prior, would be spending 3 nights in Porto and then would be moving to Barcelona. I asked her name and I thought she said “Candle”, but I suppose she said “Kendall”. Any how, I hope she is enjoying her trip. Our plan for the morning was to wake up on time and see some sea!
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Clearskies Camino 
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