Camino Portugues 2009

Last year while walking the long route to Santiago, some of us started talking about walking another route the following year. We figured that due to various circumstances we would not all have the luxury of a month this year...nor would we all be able to work out the same vacation days. We toyed with the the idea of walking in Portugal. And so it has come to pass (or sort of ) I have managed to coordinate with the above four individuals (pictured left to right: Christian, Catherine, Carlos, Ina) to meet up this spring. As the centuries old pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela had people walking from all parts of Europe, there are several routes. Last year's, the so called, French Way, is the most popular and, I think, features the strongest infrastructure of accomodations,etc. Due to a shorter amount of time, we will walk the latter part of the Portuguese route--starting in Oporto and ending, once again in Santiago. It is only about 150 mile walk and should take just over a week. I leave tonight to fly to Madrid and will arrive tomorrow morning and will spend the day there. That evening I will get another flight to Lyon, France where I will visit Christian for a few days. Sadly, won't be able to join us so I will visit him for a few days first. He and his friend, Joelle, have planned a number of activities for me while I am there. Then I fly to Porto, Portugal where I will spend a couple of days on my own. When I lived in Spain, I lived very close to the Portuguese border and made frequent visits there. I love Portugal and am so happy to be returning as I haven't been for years. I think the first couple of days I will travel a bit outside of Porto to the reportedly charming town of Guimaraes. Then back to Porto where Catherine will meet up with me. Inspite of having to put up with me on last year's trip, put up with me at work, and be in the midst of planning her wedding, she has decided to join us for about 10 days. I couldn't be happier. Our plan as of now is to go to Lisbon for a couple of days to visit Carlos and his family who live there. Carlos is an engineer and works a lot. He won't be able to get the days off to walk with us but might try to meet us to walk one weekend. We really look forward to seeing him. Then, Catherine and I will go back to Porto and meet up with young Ina who will be arriving from Germany. The following day we will set out on the walk to Santiago. Catherine will stay with us and walk a couple of days and then fly home and Ina and I will continue onwards to Santiago. It should be fun to meet up with the old crowd and I suspect we'll meet others as well. I'm all packed...if I could just shake the stuffy head, allergies, headache, etc. I'd be set.