The Caminho Portugues,
This ancient road is running from Porto to Santiago. You can start at the Se (Cathedral) and end up in Santiago do Compostela at the "Se". There is a connection with this route from Lisbon, through Fatima to Porto and if you have the energy, go west and finally end up in Finisterre after picking up your "credencial" in Santiago do Compostela.
This is a pilgrimage walking expierience which at least started in the 14th century. After there were bridges built in Ponte de Lima and Barcelos, it was easier to get in Santiago through a more or less straight line instead of getting along Braga crossing all kinds of rivers.
The cities you meet are in headlines Rates, Barcelos, Ponte de Lima, Valenca, Tui, Redondela, Pontevedra, Caldas de Reis and Padron. The Rio do Minho is the borderline between Portugal and Spain with two cities on each side of the river, Valenca and Tui.
In general.
What surprises us was the excellent "refugios" ( pilgrim sleeping facilities) in nearly stop on the way. The facilities are relative small ( from 20/50 people) with excellent places in Ponte de Lima, Pontevedra and Padron. The signs on the way are far more better in Portugal than in Spain. You hardly need any guide until Valenca, so well marked. When you start in Porto, you might skip the city walk until Araujo, because it is a very heavy traffic road. The alternative could be to make a city walking trip in Porto and take the metro/bus to Araujo. From there until Vilarinho the road is better. In Vilarinho you only find a hostal which is not very convenient. We got the bus to Vila do Condo where you have excellent pensions to sleep for the night. Take the next morning bus around 07.00 hrs back again to Vilarinho and proceed your walk from there to Rates and Barcelos. On the way you can find enough possibilities to eat/have coffee, however it is more easy to have lunch on midday than having a meal in the evening, especially in Portugal in the evening a lot of restaurants don't have a meal available. This is more or less the same in Spain but in bigger cities there will be no problem.
The season to do the pilgrimage can be best done in April/May and September/October. We did this one in June and it was in the afternoon in fact too hot to do the walk.
Highlights of the Pilgrimage.
To start with, Porto is a fantastic city where you can spend easily a couple of days to explore the inner city which remind us of Napoli 20 years ago. There is excellent transport to the outskirts of the city ( beautifull designed Opera house).
Ponte de Lima is a beautifull city on the river "Rio Lima"; it is presenting itself as the flower city of Portugal and as a speciality the producer of the "Vinho Verde", a young fresh wine.
One the most green treks we did was the caminho from Lima to Valenca, except for the last few miles.
If you reach Valenca, please go to Tui for the "refugio" because it is beautifull constructed near the Cathedral and a lovely place to set off for a good meal and evening break.
Be prepared for the most bad part of the whole caminho if you go from Tui to O Porriono. You walk at least 5 to 7 miles along factories and traffic roads!!!
Guide information
There are several guide books with details of the treks, sleeping and eating facilities. I only know one guidebook which is, Caminho Portugues Porto Santiago, the portuguese way: ISBN 972-9051-27-5; Copyright, Associacao dos Amigos do Caminho Portugues de Santiago.
At last,
The Caminho Portugues is a quiet and peacefull spiritual walking trek, more than the Caminho Frances. It gives you a very good idea how in the old days many of the beautifull small cities live was going on. It is more than worthwhile to take you 10 or 12 days of walking along an undiscovered landscape with plenty of variaties in nature and culture. I wish you a very pleasant trip and if you want to react, please do at roelportugal@gmail.com
