28th March 2022

23km

Arrival

We arrived in Lisbon yesterday morning, coincidentally, on the same flight as my neighbours, Bea and Donnie. We did a whistle-stop tour of the city but stopped short of visiting Belèm; a beautiful part of the city and famous for Pastel de Nate. I suspect many of these pastries may cross our path over the next few weeks.

Camino begins

We arrived at the Lisbon Cathedral at 10 am this morning to purchase the all-important Camino passport, allowing us to stay in all the municipal albergues (€10 a night!). The volunteer in the cathedral was surely not filled with the Camino spirit, did not wish us a ‘bom camhino’ and left us feeling rather confused as surely he must be a volunteer?

The route

Today was a rude awakening for feet and hips and well everything, to be honest, but the weather was kind and the ever-changing landscape kept us skipping along, well sort of. We left Lisbon by way of cobbled streets, heaving with tile shops and coffee stops, passing many famous landmarks including Museu Nacional do Azulejo which houses the famous panoramic Lisbon pre-earthquake cityscape (I had to google Lisbon earthquake -1755!), who knew? – https://www.lisbonportugaltourism.com/guide/azulejo-tile-museum.html?

Onwards

We continued through Lisbon suburbs before arriving at Parque de Naçoes which was developed for the 1998 world expo. We loved it; colourful gardens, modern sculptures, cable cars and much, much more. We continued along part of the longest waterway in Portugal and Spain(approx 1000km). The Parque faded as we walked through more built-up areas before ending up following a river surrounded by farmland and barking dogs (my favourite 🙄). Unbitten by rabid dogs we came to a busy road junction about 2km before our destination. Anyone who knows me will know that I am a wimp on a country road with no traffic so given a major road junction at rush hour let’s just say I was a bit difficult. Anyway, we finally made it to our destination and after a very unsatisfactory shower, we are now sitting in the local bar having had an unremarkable omelette and a couple of beers with 7up (Panaché, in case you are ever here and want this beverage), very sophisticated I know!