Day 1

A brief summary:

After breakfast we took the metro to Campanha. We had an hour to wait for the bus to Caminha, in a bus station reminiscent of Digbeth in the 1970s but with better coffee.

The bus was late but the connecting bus to Caminha was held for us. The second driver overtook everything as we drove along the coast road. We arrived on time.  Then things went a little awry.   

We went to find lunch in the delightful square in Caminha before starting our walk

 We ordered. Seven beers, one wine, seven toasted sandwiches, one burger. One beer and  one wine arrived. We waited. After a few minutes six beers appeared. Then after a short delay, one burger and one sandwich arrived. We waited, And waited… The first two meals were finished. The beers going down. We waited. The one member of the group with any Portuguese, went to ask. The waitress had misunderstood the order. Six sandwiches were ordered. We waited. Twenty minutes later, they arrived.  They were good but it’s questionable whether they were worth the wait. 

We finally started the walk just before 3pm.  We had 14km to do, or so we thought. The walk followed the river passed small towns  and after a brief spell on the road entered and beautiful wooded area, fragrant with eucalyptus, the path wide and bordered by wild flowers. It meandered up and down, gently undulating. The weather was sunny and warm. For a time we were accompanied by Eva woman from Czech Republic bravely travelling the route alone.

The journey to Vila Nova de Cerveira was in fact 17.5km, those last unexpected 3.5km were a slog, chatter was replaced by grim determination, as we walked through the closed featureless town to find our hotel. Legs aching(from when the undulations weren’t so gentle), feet throbbing(from the heat) we arrived just after 7pm.

We asked about restaurants for dinner, the hotel kindly owner phoned while we went to our rooms to shower, change and recover. Half an hour later we regrouped in reception. The hotel owner’s wife, taking pity on us, drove us to the old town in two batches. There, reassured by the sights we expected to find (church, big square surrounded by cafes and fort), we were revived by food, wine and laughter and managed the walk back to the hotel in good spirits.