Chapter 1 - My Way on the Camino Portuguese

A New Adventure Begins

The Camino de Santiago gets in your blood. It starts with a calling. Somehow, you learn about this special pilgrimage walk, and it piques your interest. Some learned about it from friends, or many Americans watched the movie The Way, starring Martin Sheen and directed by his son, Emilio Estevez. The Way was influential in the increased number of Americans walking the Way of Saint James. When walking the Camino Frances in 2023, I met many people from South Korea and learned that there was a popular television show there that introduced many of them to the Camino. The Camino is growing in popularity and for some purists, becoming a tourist destination, which is taking away from the spiritual nature of the Camino.

I learned about the Camino in 2020 from my neighbor, Rick Boyd, when I started walking the neighborhood with him to lose weight. He kept saying he was “training” for the Camino. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He suggested watching The Way. After watching that movie, I also watched other movies and documentaries about this religious pilgrimage. Then I started buying books: memoirs, histories, and guides about the Camino de Santiago. I got hooked.

In the fall of 2021, I walked the Camino Frances with Rick and Dave. Dave lives not too far from where I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, and we had an immediate connection, sharing many of the same views of the world, politics, food, and more. That was a good thing since we would be spending the next 35 days or so together. All worked out well, and with another promotion for my first book, I suggest you read about it in Another Camino Story: Learning to walk my own Camino through life on 500 miles to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

While writing that book, I realized that every person who walks the Camino has a story to tell. Even though I walked with Dave and Rick, we each walked our own Camino, and each had his own experience. Every Camino walked by anyone has its own story to tell, even if you walk the same route. On my return from my second Camino Frances, however, I decided not to publish a book about that walk since I felt it would be a little repetitive. Every Camino walked is different with new people and experiences, but I did not feel there were enough differences to justify another memoir. I did keep notes during my journey, and I will make references to my first two Camino walks in this memoir.

I did expect the Camino Portuguese to be different since I planned to walk alone from Lisbon to Vigo, without the support of friends. I also hoped the walk on the Camino Portuguese would offer new insights about myself as a person and as a pilgrim. I also looked forward to experiencing the culture of Portugal.

Dave was the first to bring up walking the Camino Portuguese with Rick and me. Soon after he mentioned it, I went to New Jersey in late September 2023 to visit with my brother Dave, my niece Barbara, and her husband Michael. I do not often get back to New Jersey, so Dave took advantage of the opportunity to drive down from Bergen County to Manahawkin on the Jersey Shore. We walked to a Cafe a couple of blocks from my niece’s house to enjoy breakfast and, of course, talk about the Camino. We talked a bit about the one we walked together in 2021, but mostly about plans for the Portuguese Camino.

Dave wanted to start his Camino from Porto. It took less time because it was not as long as the Camino Frances. He could get a direct flight to Porto out of Newark Airport, which is close and more convenient for him. He had also heard and read that the walk from Lisbon was mostly through industrial areas and not so scenic.

After my conversation with Dave, the seed was set, and I knew I would walk the Camino de Santiago from Portugal. At the time, I was still unsure about my starting point. Although Dave wanted to start in Porto on the Coastal Route, I still felt a need to walk from Lisbon. Since I was arriving in Lisbon, I felt it was the closest I could get to starting my walk from home, like many Europeans can.

While talking with Rick, he expressed interest in walking from Porto, as well. He mentioned that his wife Lisa may join us, but take a bus, taxi, or train from village to village. Due to the limits of time off from work, Pam, who had walked with Rick and me from Sarria in 2023, would join us in Vigo to start her Camino. Vigo is about 100 kilometers from Santiago, the minimum distance to qualify for the Compostela. Dave had learned that Linda, a Camino friend from our first walk in 2021, would be starting from Porto on April 24th. A wonderful benefit to the pilgrimage walk is the number of fellow pilgrims met along the way. Some become good friends, and through social media, it is easy to keep up with them. This would be an opportunity to catch up with a Camino friend in person.

Whoa, I thought, with all these people, I felt my Camino becoming complicated. I realized right away that coordinating a walk with six people would be difficult. Everyone had to make their own arrangements. No way one person could coordinate all that, nor should they have to. I would make my arrangements and let everyone know what I worked out. There are services to do this for you, but I was not interested in becoming part of a tour group.

I wanted to fly into Lisbon and start my Camino from there, even though Dave had warned me that the Camino from Lisbon to Porto was through industrial areas, not attractive, and not popular. You will read in my account that in some respects, he was right. In other ways, it was a good decision. I am stubborn by nature, and once I had decided to walk from Lisbon, there was no going back.

I started planning by backtracking from April 24, the date Dave planned to start walking from Porto. To meet up with the others, I needed to fly out of Orlando on April 4, arriving the morning of April 5. I then needed to start walking on April 6 to arrive in Porto on the 23rd to meet up with Rick, Lisa, Dave, and Linda. We would start walking the next day. Pam would meet us on the first of May in Vigo.

Since my travels for nearly forty years as a sales manager in the hotel industry required an itinerary for my manager, I was comfortable making travel arrangements. I went online and booked a flight to Lisbon, then started booking my accommodations. After several days, I had all but one night of accommodations booked. The municipal albergue in Labruge, the first stop after Porto, did not take reservations. Other accommodations within a reasonable distance from Porto were too expensive or not available. On that first day out of Porto, I would be a participant in the “race for a bed.” With my bad knees, I am a slow walker, and that concerned me a bit. I decided to let the Camino provide on that day.

Once my itinerary was completed, I sent a copy to Dave and Pam and printed a copy to give to Rick. Now, it was up to each of them to make their travel arrangements.

I did have concerns about walking on my own from Lisbon to Porto because of my bone-on-bone arthritis in my left knee and a couple of bone spurs to boot. The left knee usually got very painful when I walked about the neighborhood, usually three to five miles. I decided to stop my daily walks several weeks before my departure day. If I was going to screw up my knees, I did not want to do it before I left. I did not want to miss the opportunity to walk the Camino Portuguese.

It is about 360 kilometers from Lisbon to Porto, then another 260 kilometers from Porto to Santiago de Compostela. I decided to walk from Lisbon to Porto to have my own Camino without the joint decisions needed when walking with others. Since I had already walked the Camino Frances twice and was familiar with requirements for international travel, I was confident I could get to Portugal and walk the first 400 kilometers without issues. It would take me about three weeks to get from Lisbon to Porto, including a planned rest day in Tomar.

The journey from Porto to Santiago de Compostela is about two weeks or longer, depending on the route chosen. There are two main Camino routes through Spain out of Porto: the coastal route and the central route. The names are self-explanatory; the coastal route runs, for the most part, along the North Atlantic Coast, and the other route runs inland. There is also a “spiritual variant” on the coastal route from Pontevedra to Padrón, which is considered by some to be more scenic and more conducive to an introspective journey while traversing through quaint villages, rural roads, and peaceful forests. Some pilgrims may start on the coastal route from Porto, then move onto the central route later. There is no exact route to walk the Camino de Santiago, although many debate which is the best route to take. I have no opinion on which is best. It is up to the individual to decide. The best route for me was the route I took, including the many personal variants I had by getting lost.

As I was making my plans and thinking about all the people involved, I thought about the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz, a story about pilgrims per se, following a road that promises the answer to their burdens or problems of life. I was off to see Saint James instead of the Wizard of Oz. Will I find the answers in Santiago de Compostela, or will I find that the answers are already inside me? I think we all know the answer to that question.

While making my plans, I thought about why I wanted to walk alone. I enjoy walking alone. Growing up in North Arlington, New Jersey, across the Meadowlands from New York City, with a quaint, in some sense, Mayberry childhood, was conducive to traveling by foot or bicycle to visit friends or explore the world. That is not to say I did not want to cut the walk short sometimes. For instance, when visiting my friend Brian on the next block over, my twin brother Tommy and I would climb over the back fence at the end of our yard, squeezing down between a garage and the retaining wall from our property. We lived on a hill, so there was a drop of about eight feet into the yard below to the courtyard of the four-family apartment house on the next street. We would land in the courtyard, then run down the driveway to Brian’s house across the street from the apartment. We ran so we did not get caught. The owner of the apartment house did not want us to cut through his property. Going to Brian’s house that way was much easier and much more fun than walking all the way around the block. It was part of the adventure of growing up.

Even as a teenager with a driver’s license and a car, I often preferred to walk. Even in cold weather, I would walk. With snow on the ground, it was easier to walk a few blocks or a few miles than to waste time trying to find a parking space in some neighborhoods.

I enjoyed walking around New York City. It was easy to get there by taking the PATH train from Harrison, New Jersey to New York City, usually to Penn Station on Thirty-third Street. If I did drive, I would enter the city through the Lincoln Tunnel and park in the nearest parking garage. From there, I would continue moving about the city on foot or by subway, if necessary. Most often, when I arrived, I went directly to the Madison Square Garden Ticket Center to see what concert tickets were on sale. Occasionally, I got lucky and would spot a band that I wanted to see. I liked to buy up to half a dozen tickets without any idea who would be going with me. When I returned home, I would see which friends wanted to see the show. Back then, the shows were more affordable than they are now.

With concert tickets stuffed in my pocket, I would pick a direction and start walking.

I enjoyed carrying my 35mm Honeywell-Pentax camera while exploring the city. During my stroll, I constantly looked for an interesting subject to photograph. I still do that today when I walk. I like to walk using my photographer’s eye to find a moment to photograph. Most of my Camino is done with photography in mind. How could I not want to photograph and record such a wonderful experience?

Walking is a way of life. Walking is a way to see life. Walking is a way to experience life. I looked forward to experiencing life on the Camino for the next 30 days or so.

( You can buy the book at https://mybook.to/MyWay )