Valenca, Portugal

This will be my last stop in Portugal.  I took the train from Porto and I plan to walk tomorrow.  I have been in Portugal almost a month.  It's a very relaxed country.  Comfortable, like your favorite pair of shoes.  People talk more slowly than in Spain, most cafes and restaurants open before 8:00 pm and food and accomodations are inexpensive compared to the rest of Europe.

The alburgue in Valenca.  It has 85 beds and there were about 20 pilgrims staying the night I was there.  In typical camino fashion, six of us took a taxi to a tapas restaurant and ordered paella.  One Korean, one Spaniard, three Portuguese and the American.

Valenca is a medieval fortified city built on Roman foundations.  It sits on a hill top overlooking the river and is surrounded by this impressive wall.  I walked through before businesses were open and the tour buses had arrived.  It was very quiet, only myself and several cats up early.

The camino as it passes through Valenca.

The Rio Minho from one of the watch towers of the fortress.

Porto

Porto has been a great city to take a break.  Lots of restaurants, good accomodations and beautiful churches and public spaces.  And hills.  There is about one square block of flat space in front of this cafe and after that it's up or down hill in every direction. I'm behind in my blog entries so I'll save the narrative and just show you the photos. The Plaza of Liberty is one of the great public spaces in Portugal.  The buildings on either side are almost but not  quite identical.  It's filled with banks, cafes and tourists.

The cathedral in Porto.  It has the same fortress-church look and Moorish decoration.

The cloister inside the cathedral.  Cloisters seem to me to be perhaps to be the most perfect combination of stone, light and space.  It is very hard to take a bad photo in a cloister.  This one is special because of the azulejo (tile) art.  I wonder if this distracted the monks from their meditations?

Another beautiful public space.  The stumpy trees look like sycamores.  They seem to tolerate the pruning that it takes to make such grotesquely shaped trees.

Porto from the south side of the river.  I had a very good stay here and even though I was walking up and down hills, I got the rest that I needed and I now declare myself ready to walk again, almost.  Tomorrow the train north to the border.

Mealhada

I've been absent without any warning.  I've been trying to get back in walking shape with a few more days break.  My last day walking was from Coimbra to Mealhada. The day was beautiful and as I left Coimbra I was passed by five other pilgrims!  Oh boy, Aussies, English, can we talk?  Unfortunately, the operative word is "passed".  In a few minutes I was once again pondering the lonliness of the long-distance walker.  The distance was listed as 14 miles with no intermediate accomodations.  This was going to be a slog.  I finally reached Mealhada to discover that it is a very long town and the alburgue was still about two miles away.  There were eight other pilgrims at the alburgue, all in private rooms.  Once again, I was the only one in a big dorm room.  Here are some photos.

This is something new on this camino.  These have become iconic on the Camino in Spain.

The farms in this part of Portugal are much smaller than back in the Tejo Valley.  This is really just a big rototiller with a seat and a permanently attached wagon.  Very useful and good in tight spots.  I must have seen ten of these on the way.

A trail marker for which I was very thankful.  Several times on this stretch of road I had to look for boot prints to make sure that the path hadn't turned.

If this house had had a hammock hanging on this incredible porch I might still be there.

It looks like a maypole.  This was a very small village that was decorated for some reason.  We have all had this experience in our travels - something happens and we haven't a clue so we just have to sit back and enjoy it.

Days 16,17,18: Coimbra

What a great place to take a break!  But tomorrow I need to walk again.  Fortunately, it's not a long day, only 13 miles.  Cross your fingers.
Coimbra is most famous for the university.  It was founded in Lisbon in 1290 and moved here in 1537.  It sits on the top of the hill.  Much earlier, this was a Roman city. Here are some university photos:

This is very classy.  The students wear suits and capes.  This was Saturday and a day not likely to be a class day.  I suspect these poor, starving students were wandering around hoping to pose for pictures and extract a few coins from the tourists.

The cathedral in Coimbra.  To me, it looks like a medieval castle.  Construction began in 1162 on the foundations of the previous church and the first mass was held in 1184.

The next church is the church of Santa Cruz.  This is where that part about Portugal having everything comes in: even the macabre and gruesome.  Dona Inez de Castro was the beautiful young woman from Galicia (in Spain) and she caught the eye of Dom Pedro who vowed to marry her.  Pedro's dad was King Afonso IV and he said no fearing Spanish influence.  Pedro married her anyway in secret and when daddy found out, he had her murdered.  When Pedro became king in 1357, he exhumed her body and crowned her corpse and sat her on the throne next to him in the church where courtiers were forced to kiss her hand.  Hey, I couldn't make this up!

The church is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Coimbra.  It was built in 1131 and is Romanesque style with a bit of Baroque bling added to the front in the 1700's.

Coimbra is a very interesting city to explore.  It's all narrow streets and stairways. Around every corner is a shop or a cafe.  

No pilgrims around to take each others picture.  Alive and well.  Thanks for all the emails.  Tomorrow the turtle is on the road again.

Day Fifteen: rest day in Anciao

Today was a day to not walk so I did the minimum.  Found the grocery store, bank, pharmacy and the bakery.  Prices in Portugal are lower than Spain and everything in Spain is about half the price of France.  A coffee in Portugal is one euro or less.  Europeans don't have mugs like we do.  Even the largest cup is teacup size for the US.
A bottle of Portuguese Sagres beer is usually one euro.  Tomorrow I find a bus to Coimbra.

Day Fourteen: Alvaiazere to Anciao

I walked the nine miles on this stage.  I wasn't easy but I made it which felt like a real accomplishment.  The countryside was very different from the Tejo valley.  Today was limestone hills, lots of stone outcrops and stone walls.  The sun shone all day so I just forgot about how much my hip would hurt when I stopped.

Ah . . . wait.  Oh yes, the yellow arrows are pointing to Santiago.  The blue arrows point to Fatima.  So far Santiago is winning 8-0.

Day Thirteen: Tomar to Alvaiazere

This is the 32k day I was dreading so, hey, I took the bus and gave my poor weary hip another rest.  Tomorrow I walk again.  One of the facts of life on the camino is that plans change and consequences are immediate and must be dealt with because one wants to keep moving forward.  The solitary walk has become more interesting with the addition of a Spaniard, a Dutchman and two Italians.    However, they are all walking the guidebook  which has them walking 30k days.  So after breakfast tomorrow, I won't see any of them again.  Adios amigos.  Buen camino.

                                                                                        

This may be the national pastry - pasteis de nata.  Very flaky crust filled with custard.

The church in Alvaiazere.  The steeple is unusual and a local woman opened the church just for us.

Carlos Pinheiro is the owner of the best alburgue yet on the Camino Portuguese.  He just brought out his private supply of ten year old port wine.  He speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English.  I'm staying in the John Brierley room which is kind of a joke on me because he is the author of the guidebook that says to walk 32k tomorrow.  Sorry John, get stuffed.

Day Twelve: rest day in Tomar

This wasn't planned but I woke up this morning with serious pain in my left hip.  I knew that walking would be a bad idea so I stayed for another day.  Ibuprofen does a lot but injuries take time to heal.  Don't know yet about walking tomorrow.  I likely will take a short bus ride because tomorrow's walk is 19 miles.
Okay.  The downfall of the Templars came soon after the end of the Crusades in the 1290's.  The Holy Land was once again under Muslim control and the Templars were no longer needed except in Spain and Portugal where they had a job pushing the Moors back to Morocco.  King Philip of France wanted to lead one more crusade and needed money so he conspired with the Pope to frame all the Templars in France on charges of heresy and blasphemy in order to steal their gold.  The French Templars are arrested and executed but the survivors escape to Spain and Portugal.  The Portuguese King brilliantly renamed the Templars as the Order of Christ to make the Pope happy and the King got to keep the money.
The King's third was Prince Henry.  As third son, he probably realized he didn't have a good shot at being king so he decided to start a school for navigation and sent ships out to discover Africa, India and Brazil and eventually Japan. All financed with Templar gold.

The central church in Tomar.  The second story of the bell tower is octagonal and the roof appears to be stone.

The interior.

Day Eleven: rest day in Tomar

Tomar is a beautiful small city full of sidewalk cafes and lots of young people and families.  My interest here is that the Knights Templars in Portugal chose Tomar as their base of operations.  But I'm already ahead of the story.  The first Crusade to the Holy Land was announced in 1095.  The purpose was to secure European control over the most important sites in Catholic history.  The effect was immediate - the battles were won, European-style kingdoms were created and pilgrims started traveling to Jerusalem.  The way was long and dangerous and so a Frenchman named Hugh Payens, St. Bernard and the Pope created a special religious order, soldier-monks.  Their job was to protect pilgrims and keep the holy sites from being recaptured by the Muslims.
Probably, most of what we know about the Templars is mythology and popular fiction.  By all accounts, they were ferocious warriors but were also pious and illiterate young unemployed knights from Europe.  At their peak, their membership was nearly 20,000, only about 10% of which were soldiers.  This lead to their eventual destruction.
Many wealthy pilgrims let the Templars manage their property while they were in the Holy Land.  Others simply deeded their property to the Order when they died.  The Templars created one of the first banking systems in Europe.  A prospective pilgrim would deposit a sum of money with the Templars in, say, Paris and receive a letter of credit that could be presented at Templar houses along the way and the bearer would receive cash.  A 12th century ATM.  In short, the Templars became wealthy and many a king and Pope coveted all that gold.  The Crusades ended around 1280 and the end of the Knights Templars came soon after but I'll save that story for tomorrow.

This is the street leading to the plaza and the Templar castle is on the hill above the city.

The Convento do Cristo was the Templar church.  Like everything in Europe, the architecture can read in layers.  Every new style was added to a building like this one which at it's roots is 12th century.  A sure sign of Templar influence is an octagonal shaped sanctuary, copying the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Both the inner and outer structures here are octagonal.  This room is filled with unusual church images.  Instead of the usual saints, there are many men wearing turbans.  The decoration on the columns is gold-leaf.

Scallop shells and a painted on pulpit mirroring the real pulpit opposite.

Over time, the Templars became almost entirely a monastic order and this entire site became a monastery.  This is one of at least seven cloisters that were built.  There is one entire cloister that was used by Santiago pilgrims and other travelers.

Day Ten: Vila Nova Barquina to Tomar

Today is going to be 20k (12 miles) but promises to have some challenging navigating through the eucalyptus forest.  Eucalyptus is grown in Portugal and Spain in tree farms but I haven't worked out what it's used for.  Some people are a bit put off by seeing trees growing in rows.  The tree plots also are monocultures.  But from the perpective of a weary pilgrim, it's shady and they really are beautiful, strange looking trees.

This area is criss-crossed with logging roads and one plot after another is clearcut. That makes establishing a permanent trail a real challenge.  Markers can't be put on trees becuase a year from now the tree may disappear.  The Spanish use concrete mileposts but the Portuguese camino is still a work in progress and is improving year by year.

Another crossroad in the Great Eucalyptus Forest and I stood looking for a sign.  See the little yellow arrow.  This is perhaps the most important symbol of the camino for me.  On the camino in Spain, all one has to do is follow the crowd.  Here in Portugal there is no crowd and so every yellow arrow is a blessing.  Below is another one.

A flower garden to brighten up the way.

Day Nine: Golega to Vila Nova de Barquina

This was an easy day meant to follow the long day yesterday . . . well, anyway.  The weather was nice.  Rain started after I found the pension.  The weather cleared  and so I walked to a castle nearby that was built in the 12th century by the Knights Templars.  More about them when I reach Tomar.

I meant to write about Fatima a day or so ago and now I can get to it.  Fatima is just two days walk west of here (Tomar) and many pilgrims do walk there.  Fatima was the daughter of the Islamic prophet and founder, Muhammed.  The modern history of Fatima begins in 1917 when three children, Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta witnessed an apparition of a lady dressed in white.  The lady indicated to the children that she was sent by God with a message of prayer, repentance and consecrations.  She visited the children on the 13th of each month from May until October.  On the last appearance, 70000 people were witnesses and the lady delivered three secrets, the third of which has never been revealed by the Vatican.  I'll pick this up again in a few days.

Knowing where we are should not be taken for granted.  It's just a sign but I  felt so reassured that I was where I wanted to be and that someone had thought ahead to tell me that.  Thank you!

This is Quinta Cardiga.  It's an abandoned farm, not farm really.  Estate, Southfork, one of Ted Turner's ranches.  This is the residence and it is immense, perhaps a city block in size.  The buildings take up at least five acres.  It was peaceful and beautiful and a bit creepy.  As I looked up at the house, I imagined seeing Miss Havisham part the curtains and look back at me.

The final view of the Rio Tejo.  The camino continues north and the Tejo turns to the east.

Day Eight: Santarem to Golega

Plan was to walk 31k to Golega.  I got lost three times leaving Santarem.  Since the Fatima people have left the camino the waymarks are a bit dodgy.  Then I took the wrong road but thought that I could correct my mistake.  No, sorry, not today.  Proceed to beginning and start again.  Back to Santarem three hours later, forget walking 31k today.  So I hopped on the train and rode about 20k to Mato de Miranda.  That means roughly, death of Miranda, but I was undeterred.  By the use of dazzlying Vulcan logic and clicking my heels together three times I found the yellow arrow.  The path was mostly on farm roads and Golega turned out to be a pretty little town with the first scallop shells on the Camino Portuguese.

This has become the symbol for the camino in Europe not just in Spain.  The European colors are yellow and blue.  It's a stylized image of a conch shell which is the symbol for St. James and each of the rays represents a camino and they all converge at Santiago.

The central plaza in Golega.  The town bills itself as the horse capitol of Portugal and horse images were everywhere.  The tourism director for the town saw me aimlessly wandering and directed me to the alburgue that I wanted.

This is the door to the church built in the 14th century.  Almost looks like a mouth.  I'm not sure about the style - flamboyant gothic?  There is an architectural style refered to a lot in Portugal which is termed Manueline after King Manuel I.  He ruled over the golden age of discovery and he even walked the camino to Santiago. 

Day Seven: Rest day in Santarem

I believe in the liberal use of rest days on long walks especially when the resting places are so interesting.  Santarem sits on a hill above the river and was the choice of Julius Caesar for his administrative center.  When the the Moors arrived sometime after 711, the city was considered too strong to be conquered.   Portugal's first king, Dom Afonso Henriques recaptured the city in 1149 and sent the Moors packing.  The Moors played a big part in Portugues and Spanish history.  How did they get here?  The Roman empire collapsed in the late 400's.  Sweeping in to fill the void were a collection of Germanic tribes, collectively known as the Goths.  In the case of the Iberian peninsula, the Visigoths were the rulers but weren't yet able to create a centralized government.

Fast forward to 711 when two Visigoth leaders were having a bit of an argument and one decided to ask the neighbors across the water, in Morocco, for help.  They helped alright.  By 720, the Moors had overrun the Iberian peninsula as far north as Burgos and Leon and had spread into southern France.  Moorish and Islamic art and architecture are found throughout Portugal and Spain and certainly helped pull Europe out of the Dark Age.

The Igreja de Graca.  Pedro Alvares Cabral is buried here.  He "discovered" Brazil which meant immense wealth for traders and ship owners carrying goods and slaves back to Portugal.

The interior of Graca.

The cloister at the convent of Saint Francis.  Both the church and cloister are being used as art gallerys and performance space.

All the walls in this church, Igreja de Marvila, are covered with ceramic tiles.

The view from the park overlooking the river.  Santarem is where the roads to Fatima and Santiago split.  Fatima is west of here about two days walk.  Tomorrow I will leave this park, head down the hill and walk 31 kilometers (18 miles) to Golega.  Feets, don't fail me now.

Day Six: Azumbuja to Santarem

I knew that this was going to a long day, 8-9 hours of walking.  I was well stocked with water and snacks and there were two cafes along the way.  The secret to long-distance walking is pacing, slow and steady.  Fortunately, the entire walk today was along the river and past farms.  The Rio Tejo is a wide shallow river with wide flood plain.  The soil must be a sandy clay judging from the texture and color.  I saw miles and miles of drip irrigation lines.

Flat, eh?  This is very much like the Rio Grande.  Not as dry but the Tejo valley is crisscrossed with ditches to drain excess water.  The tillage equipment is also very similar.  

This a crop that I recognize.  This is what we call collard greens.  The Portuguese use it to make Caldo Verde, or green soup, made with potatoes, onions, garlic and chorrizo.  I think that it is the same as the Spanish Caldo Gallego.

I walked beside this levee for nearly 15 miles and as far as I know (I'll see tomorrow),

it extends both north and south and on both sides for many more miles. The levee is about 20 feet high.  This village is on the dry side of the levee and a park is built on the side that floods.  There is stone nearby that marks the high water level in 1979, one foot from the top of the levee.  

A sort of monument to life along a big river.  The marks on the column indicate flood levels in the past.  The top mark, which was over my head, was from 1979.  Picture 7 feet of water standing here.

This is the road that I walked.  On the right is the levee and on the left a line of trees and then farms.  There is farmland and people living on the river side of the levee as well.  I suppose living in area prone to flooding is a calculated risk.  Once every twenty years the farmers take a year off and get to travel.  The camino marker is on the right andf has two arrows - blue for Fatima and yellow for Santiago.  They are still pointing in the same direction.  Santarem is built on a hill over the river so after 31k I weary pilgrims have to climb 300 feet but the reward is wonderful new alburgue and I am the only one here.  So far Lisbon to Santarem - 92 miles.  Pilgrim sightings - a French couple left here this morning but I haven't seen anyone carrying a pack and walking.