When my brother asked us if we would like to walk the last part of the Camino de Santiago with him and a few other friends, we said, sure, why not, we like walking. We did a little reading, watched some you tube videos, and thought, yea, let's do this. Let me preface that we did have our luggage transported from place to place and had hotel rooms prebooked by SantiagoWays. We were not foolish to think we could walk with a full pack nor have a set place to sleep every night.
Thirteen of us met up in Sarria, Spain on September 16 to begin our walk the next morning. There were joyful faces all around, and shouts of Buen Camino as we started out at 8 am on the morning of the 17. Well, there weren't very many smiling faces by the time we finished our first day, 8.5 hours later. Let's just say it was a very long 6 days with very short nights, at least they seemed short when we had to get up and be ready before 7 am.
We met lovely people along the way, mostly from Ireland and Spain. We saw groups of school children walking for the day, singing their hearts out and having fun like only teenagers can. We on the other hand were hot, sweaty, and tired most of the way. But we did manage to finish and live to tell everyone about our adventure. If anyone is thinking of going, you can PM for the nitty, gritty details.
After our walk, 4 of us ventured to Portugal. I will give you just the highlights:
Porto - Very, very hilly but very vibrant, with many young people.
We attended a Fado show without dinner which was very nice. 45 minutes, just enough to appreciate the music. It was a very small venue along the waterfront on the Vila nova de Gaia side.
We also popped into Sandeman's for a tour and explanation of Port Wine. Wow, we did not expect to enjoy it as much as we did. And the Port, specifically, ruby was delicious.
We ate at a wonderful restaurant on the Porto side called A Grade Restaurant. It was fabulous. The other places were ate were okay.
Tomar, Fatima, Obidos, Alcobaca - all very, very small cities. We thought staying in Tomar for 4 nights, with a car, and doing day trips to each place for an entire day. Not necessary.
Tomar is very small, walkable, and not much going on. We ended up taking a 2.5 hours tuk-tuk tour with a local woman. We visited the Templar Church, the Matchbook Museum Rick mentions, the aqueduct, and the Convent of Christ/Templar Castle. It was a fun tour and much better than walking to these places ourselves. (I'm sure we would have by passed the Matchbook Museum, but it was kinda quirky and interesting). The highlight in Tomar was an Italian Gelato shop with the most outrageous flavors and concoctions and very creamy, delicious ice cream.
Fatima - unless you are religious, I would tell you to bypass. The church and other buildings are stark but meaningful to Catholics. We attended a Rosary Prayer service, Mass, and confession.
Obidos - so small, it only took us about 2 hours to walk up and down the main street. It was a Sunday so the 2 main churches were closed for services. We had already attended mass in Tomar so we didn't wait to enter. The main street is fun but lined with so many souvenir shops, selling the same items, and a few other tourist places - Ginja liquor, cod fish cakes, etc. that you kinda go pretty fast.
Alcobaca - We ended up visiting after leaving Obidos. The church and monastery are very impressive and worth a visit, if you are in the area.