Caminho português - Page 2

Vilar do Pinheiro – São Pedro de Rates

In the morning we walked about 3-4 km from the mouth of the Douro River to the Casa da Musica metro station. The route that we had walked yesterday into Porto, we went back a bit by metro, because from there it was still 22 km to go to São Pedro de Rates today. Not long after that we landed at the well signposted Caminho Português, which, however, leads along roads a lot at the beginning.

Often there were high walls at the roadside, so that oncoming traffic is difficult to see. Now and then there are well signposted alternative routes, at the beginning I was still hesitant, my saved gpx data had never led me astray, but later we ran these routes. With blue sky, we arrived in more rural areas, as the southern flora showed its beauty. Manu knows the names of the plants, for me it looked only beautiful 🙂.

The first hostel was quickly found, the hospitalera not yet on site, so we went to the next bar to relax with a beer. Later we came with the first pilgrims, checked into the pilgrim hostel and after the usual procedure, we ended the evening in a small cafe with a pilgrim menu and beer. For Manu, the first night in mass accommodation was then also very accustomed: snorers, sleeping bag, stuffy air, early night's rest 🙂. The hostels are usually very good on the Portuguese Camino. And that for the price of 5 euros, today even against Donativo, donation so.

Rates - Portela de Tamel

After we had breakfast in the cafe from the previous evening, we went on the increasingly beautiful path. Many orange and lemon trees stood on the roadside, we missed picking a few. Mostly we ran after a proven scheme: We got up relatively late in the morning, just so that we managed to leave the hostel on time (should be mostly 8 o'clock empty). After breakfast, we ran the first 10 km through, the remaining 10-20 km we went then more relaxed approached. So we strolled through town in Barcelos, sat down in a cafe. A toothless Irishman told us there that the saints in the cathedral here all looked too angry 🙂.

In the afternoon, the sky became a bit cloudy and it rained. In addition, there was a decent climb on the last mountain before our hostel. This was but top cared for and opposite was a restaurant. We already met the same pilgrims in the hostels, we knew each other and we were lucky, they were all nice people. And so we could also spend this day with a good meal and some alcohol. Even the church bells were turned off from 21 clock, so that everyone in the place can sleep fine 🙂.