Walking in the Footsteps of the Saints: Greetings from Porto!

Tour of the port cellar at Ramos Pintos

Hello from Porto, Portugal. Because we kept pace with our friend Mike on the Camino, we actually finished it three days earlier than we expected. At the end in Santiago I was sick and worn down and the weather was turning to rain after a beautiful month of sunshine. Mike and Maureen were leaving on Sunday to fly back to the UK. John and I decided that rather than a rainy long bus ride to Finisterre for a short visit prolonging our Camino experience instead we would leave the Camino and Spain and just go someplace to relax and be tourists.

We left Santiago at lunchtime yesterday. I mostly slept on the bus and we arrived in Porto on a rainy afternoon. Our hotel room turned out to be fantastic! (Thank you, Tripadvisor!!) We have a suite overlooking the river with an actual king sized bed!!(in Spain it was all twin beds!) This city of a million people is one beautiful postcard everywhere you look. We had a nice walk and early dinner last night and went to bed at 10. I slept ten straight hours and woke up feeling human for the first time in a week.

Today we rode a cable car and a funicular railway, saw the old part of the city including an ancient bookstore which was part of the inspiration for Rowlings' "Hogwarts". It was an architectural marvel. We toured one of the big Port wine producers including the cellars and a tasting. I learned so much about port and have become a fan.

We've eaten a lot of cod, learned to say about four words in Portuguese including cerveza, pronounced "sayer-vay-zha", and had time to talk about the Camino and think about it. We are relaxed and recovered.

Tomorrow, we will fly from here to Madrid and spend a couple of days sightseeing and then it's home on Thursday as this adventure winds up.

It's been a buen camino!