Day 2 Porto to Vairão

Last nights alburgue was really lovely and I was surprised by how many pilgrims… 8 or 9 I think?  It was a little chilly but I slept very well.

There are a couple of ways out of Porto… Along the river to the coast or follow the central route from the cathedral.  We choose the latter and walked yesterday from the cathedral to the alburgue and then planned to continue today but… Storm Cecilia was due to arrive here at around midday so we decided to take the metro to the edge of the city which saved us we thought about 10 kilometres.  (we misjudged that though and didn’t save as much as we hoped)

We stopped for coffee and Sheila sampled a Pastel de Nata before heading off onto the camino and the yellow arrows. Rain threatened all morning but apart from the odd shower it really wasn’t so bad.  The sky wasn’t as blue as when we arrived yesterday but it wasn’t raining so I was counting my blessings.

The walking however was a bit dull.  We seemed to follow the same road that just meandered on and on edged by the rather magnificent wall.  Old stone walls flanked both sides of the cobbled road and as cars zoomed by there really wasn’t much room to manoeuvre out of the way.  I’m grateful that it was Sunday morning as I guess the roads were more quiet than a weekday.

Every now and then we could smell cows or hear sheep but we never saw them from behind our wall.

On we walked stopping for more coffee and dodging showers.  From our road we could see distant fields and forests and church spires but we never seemed to leave that road.  I have to say it really was a tad dull.  But the rain held off.

We’d planned to go to Vilarinho but about 2km before we arrived the heavens opened.  We saw a sign for the albergue in the old monestary at Viarao and decided that was a better option.

It’s a beautiful old building with a 1000 years of history but what it doesn’t have is heating.  We were welcomed by a wonderful man from Brazil… Wearing his coat, gloves and a woollen hat… This should have given us a few clues.  However he is a wonderful host and he gave us a tour and a history lesson and directed us to a cafe for a late lunch.  When we returned he made us tea and chatted with us for an hour.

We returned to our beds and showered and sorted our things for the morning.  I’m currently wearing all of my clean clothes and I’m in bed with three blankets and I still can’t feel my toes. It’s going to be a long cold night… Such is life on the camino! I Hope you’re all feeling warmer than we are!

Ps my fitbit says 29km which I think is more than we walked but it’s usually quite accurate… I’m left wondering if we took the metro the wrong way!