Lisbon to Santorem

[John Holland]

Hi All,

I have just completed this three day long section as the start to me second camino (other on was Camino Frances in 2011).

I found the first two days very tough and not very enjoyable. Long sections are along national highways with no footpaths and a lot of traffic as you go through logistical/warehousing and industrial districts. The traffic makes it quite dangerous and you really have to be very careful. Even the quieter section along the creek is not at all pleasant.

The third day from Azambuja to Santorem is quite pleasant.

If doing it again on Day 1 I would walk only as far as the suburb of Oriente (7 km) and stay the night there, spending the afternoon looking around and walking a short stretch of the camino along the river.

Next day I would catch the train to Azambuja and then start the camino proper from there, walking to Santorem and then onwards.
Buen camino
John

 

[Former member 22438]

Olá John I was wondering if you follow the route as been described in John Brierleys guide , caminho Portuges ?

 

[mikevasey]

I avoided most of the first 2 days highway walking by starting at Merceana, which is 27 km before VilaNova Rainha, a Fatima group devised this route to go from the pilgrimage church in Merceana, the way has yellow and blue arrows and is mostly trail until you get to Vila Nova where you join the route coming from Lisbon. This little route has a Albergue de Peregrinos at Porta da Luz, 2 pilgrimage churches in themselves, Merceana and Meca, has some senic rolling trail and a historic town of Alenquer. I thought I would mention this route again because it seems a lot of posters on here give up on the way from Lisbon after the first couple of days because of the amount of National Highway. If you start from Merceana you will have a very beautiful first two days walking untill you join the main route 7km before Azambuja and the Fatima contacts who were so hospitable to me and my walking companion even mentioned a alternative route to avoid the N3 when i came to it at Vila Nova, which for various reasons i did not take.

It may not be Lisbon but this route has a lot to recommend it.



Mike

 

[Cliff175]

I avoided most of the first 2 days highway walking by starting at Merceana, which is 27 km before VilaNova Rainha, a Fatima group devised this route to go from the pilgrimage church in Merceana, the way has yellow and blue arrows and is mostly trail until you get to Vila Nova where you join the route coming from Lisbon. This little route has a Albergue de Peregrinos at Porta da Luz, 2 pilgrimage churches in themselves, Merceana and Meca, has some senic rolling trail and a historic town of Alenquer. I thought I would mention this route again because it seems a lot of posters on here give up on the way from Lisbon after the first couple of days because of the amount of National Highway. If you start from Merceana you will have a very beautiful first two days walking untill you join the main route 7km before Azambuja and the Fatima contacts who were so hospitable to me and my walking companion even mentioned a alternative route to avoid the N3 when i came to it at Vila Nova, which for various reasons i did not take.

It may not be Lisbon but this route has a lot to recommend it.
Mike

Mike,
How did you travel to Merceana? I'm thinking about the portugese camino, but would like to avoid walking the highway

Your idea sounds interesting. Did you meet other pilgrims on the portugese route?

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, John, I have to agree with you about the stretch from the river walk at Oriente to as far as Azambuja. There are some nice little snippets in between, particularly the little towns of Vila France de Xira and Alhandra, as well as the river walk that connects the two, though. And I had a TERRIFIC meal in one of the restaurants in the industrial park along the river. So though I agree that in theory it is not a bad idea to take the train a few stages out, I know that many people just like to walk through it all, good, bad and ugly.

I have some comments from a walk now 4 years ago, so a lot of this may be out of date. (But since I could find it so easily with the forum's new terrific search function, I thought I'd post a link): http://www.caminodesantiago.me/comm...camino-portugues-from-lisbon.5398/#post-32038

If you've gone through this section on the Camino Portugues, you'll see there are lots of new albergues, new and better signage, and just general overall improvements.

Bom caminho to you. Tell us more as you go north. Laurie

 

[mikevasey]

Hi Cliff we travelled to Merceana via Torres Vedras, it was a train from Lisbon to there and our plan was to get a taxi in the morning, but Rodrigo from the Fatima friends contacted us and said he would meet us at 7am and give us a lift. He told us afterwards that the best way to get to Merceana would have been to get a train to Villafranca Xira from Lisbon and then get the local bus.

It was a beautiful route with hardly no asphalt until joining the main route from Lisbon, usually on unsealed farm tracks. The welcome we got was totally unexpected, we were being taken to peoples houses for meals, was taken to a Friday night service by Padre Rui and got lots of useful information about the coming days, even an alternative route at Vilanovha de Rainha which avoided the national highway, we still took the highway buts thats a different story.

The Albergue de Peregrinos in Porta da Luz is a work in progress, they have little money but a lot of hard work and love.
I keep checking into their facebook site and they always seemed to have added a little something to it.

We met a peregrina on our first few Km on the main route from Lisbon, my walking partner, Phil, ended up walking all the way to Porto with her, the 69 year old Mary from Ireland, she recently invited us both across to do a 3 day walk on the Kerry Camino. We headed off to Fatima, but would go to Tomar next time, but on that section met two portuguese pilgrims who really were a god send to us, Phil and Mary after Rabacal met quite a few other pilgrims.

A useful contact is www.caminho.com.pt