Portuguese Camino Day 2: My First Pilgrim’s Hostel (Albergue)

On the second day of my pilgrimage, I awoke feeling refreshed and raring to go. I was ready to to give the Portuguese Camino (Camino Portugués) another shot.

After my disappointing first day, I doubted whether I should even try to continue. Dealing with an injury on the very first day certainly didn’t bode well for the rest of the trip. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to recover, and if pushing too hard too soon could make things worse.

But after a rest day full of stretching and relaxing and icing my ankle, I was feeling a bit better. Walking up hills was still painful, but I seemed to manage flat surfaces ok. Mostly.

So I took an Uber to my stopping point at the Minipreço Market in the Monte dos Burgos Neighborhood and headed north.

I’ve finally walked out of Porto! Yay!

The Industrial Outskirts of Porto

The first part of my walk was primariky through through industrial areas in the outskirts of Porto. I passed some office parks, factories and gas stations along with some residential housing.

This part of the walk wasn’t terribly interesting. I walked on sidewalks along major roads most of the way.

While in Moreia, I grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe. I was the only pilgrim and felt a little out of place, but the staff was friendly. On impulse, I grabbed a pastel de nata and packed it away for a snack later in the day.

Following some other pilgrims out of Porto.

This is where the Coastal Route branches from the Central Route

This chapel is one of the highlights of this section.

Welcome to the Countryside

It wasn’t until I left Moreia, which is next to the airport, that I finally left the big city behind. At this point I entered an agricultural area and passed a number of farms along with the occasional small village.

The path followed along busy roads for the most part that didn’t have much of a shoulder. I’ve noticed a lot of pilgrims wear bright clothing and reflective material so they are more visible to cars. Maybe I should look into that.

I managed to snag a couple of stamps in this section though which was nice – one at a cafe and a self-stamp station at an autobody shop.

At the village of Gião, the Camino Central branches off onto an alternate route. This is to avoid a particularly dangerous stretch along the main highway without sidewalks.

So I rook the alternate route along a small country road to Vairão.

Walking in the countryside

DIY Camino Stamp

A country lane along the Camino

Albergue de Peregrinos do Mosteiro de Vairão

At 5:30 pm I arrived at the albergue, which is a hostel restricted to pilgrims on the Camino. This albergue was located inside a monastery which I thought was pretty cool.

I was placed in a small female dorm with two other solo female pilgrims. It was nice to finally meet some other people walking the Camino.

The three of us went out for dinner at a local cafe and bonded over a bottle of wine. One of my roommates is from Russia where she owns a wine bar. The other is from Portugal and works in a pharmacy.

Lights out was at 10:00 sharp and we all fell asleep.

My new friends!

Walking to a restaurant down the street for dinner.

Dinner of seafood rice.

The monastery

The Sore Foot Update

This was my longest day on the Camino so far and it was more challenging than I anticipated. Although I’ve done longer training hikes recently, my foot injury is making everything harder.

I was feeling pretty good for the first half of the day, but the second half was rough. By the last hour I was limping again. So I went slow and took a lot of breaks.

I made some adjustments to my gait to compensate, which caused some new problems. Now I developed a blister (which I’m treating).

I also have some sort of allergic reaction to my socks. There is a huge red welt on my ankle at the sock line. This has happened a few times on previous hikes, but it’s rare. I wore these same Injinji wool socks along the entire Pacific Crest Trail and they were usually fine.

Ah well. The Camino wouldn’t such an adventure without some hardships to keep things interesting.

I’m looking forward to the next section which is supposed to be more scenic and fun to walk.

The mysterious allergic reaction rash

Break time in the shade! Glad I saved this pastel de nata…

Portuguese Camino Stats

Date: Wednesday, October 6
Starting Location: Minipreço Market in the Monte dos Burgos Neighborhood
Ending Location: Albergue de Peregrinos do Mosteiro de Vairão
Camino Distance Walked: 12.5 miles/ 20.2 km
Distance to Santiago: 133.7 miles/ 215.2 km

AllTrails Map Recording

Click here to view my map recording for today:

Portuguese Camino Day 2 on AllTrails

Note: the distance in this recording doesn’t match my Camino distance because it includes some off-route walking.

Stamps Collected Today

Cafe Ramiro Stamp

Self-stamping stamp from an autobody shop on the Camino

Albuerge de Mosteiro de Vairão stamp

Continue Reading

• Previous journal entry: Portuguese Camino Day 1: A Rocky Start
• Next journal entry: Portuguese Camino Day 3: Hitting my Stride

For more information about my pilgrimage along the Camino Portugués, visit my Portuguese Camino web page.