Genie19 said:
The vast majority who have walked the
Camino Frances will hate Lisbon to Porto, but will love Porto to Santiago.
It was the other way round for me, I enjoyed the sections south of Porto a lot more than the ones north of the river, but the southerely ones were cut short by tendonitis. My friend Philip and the 69 year old Irish woman who walked with him from Rabacal had a great time south of the Douro, they have both walked the Frances.
The whole situation with pilgrim albergues is changing, there is least 2 opening next year, Coimbra and Albergaria, there could be more. Since I have started looking at the Portuguese route in the last 9 months there has been a lot of additions to the Pilgrim infrastructure and it is going to continue, even the routes might(will) change, the Fatima groups and Via Lutsitana are trying to open stretches of trail which is in private hands and if this happens it will take out long stretches of road(N3) walking just outside of Lisbon and at other places as well.
I started on the 22 September from a little place called Merceana which is 34km from Azambuja, it is virtually all trail until you hit the N3 at Vila Nova da Raina. It was only signposted this year, and already they have a former schoolhouse converted into pilgrim hostel.
Little routes like this are an alternative to starting in Lisbon, some people may be put off by walking out of a large city and its suburbs.
What all these things indicate is that is becoming more accessible to pilgrims of all ages, means and walking ability.
If we both were to walk this camino again 4/5 years,like someone else to said me, it would probably be completely different.
Mike