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Lots of questions (Caminho Portugues)

Camino2014

Pilgrim
Time of past OR future Camino
Piémont, Frances, Littoral, Norte, Ingles (completed) Baztan, St. Jaume, Portuguese (planned!)
Hi all,

I've just returned from my first Camino (Frances) and already have decided to plan for another in Summer 2016! I am trying to decide between the Caminho Portugues and the Camino del Norte.

I've heard very little about both, except that the Portuguese Way is rather industrial while the Norte is stunningly beautiful. Obviously, this would steer me towards the Norte but I've always wanted to see Portugal, especially Fatima and Lisbon.

In other words, could anyone give me a summary about the Portuguese Way? What's the scenery like? Are there a lot of albergues/pilgrim accomodations en route? Are the locals friendly to pilgrims? How well marked is the path? What about distances between stages? Terrain? And last but not least, would you recommend this route to a second-time pilgrim?

Thank you so much!
 
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Ola - it appears that you have been somewhat mis-informed about the portuguese caminho being 'industrial'. Lisboa and Porto are the largest cities in Portugual - meaning: approaching/leaving these cities, one does encounter suburbs and industrial areas, but the caminho is by no means "industrial". Walking into/out of Leon and Burgos does not make the Frances industrial either, no? Browse the forum site on Portugal Caminho, plus the photos, and you will discover interesting sights and tales.
One certainly does walk at times a fair amount on asphalt - but most of that on quiet country lanes - and as well on field tracks, alongside rivers, through woods and meadow paths, etc - on river plains and hilly sites.
There is plenty of info to research on this forum, shared by experienced pilgrims who have walked those paths before - have fun exploring and preparing!
Bom Caminho ~
 
Walking from Lisbon is the best way to do the Caminho Portugués, mostly rural, even the bustling university town of Coimbra is easily passed. Lovely people, good food, few pilgrims, plenty of albergues and alternative accommodation. Lisbon and Porto are wonderful cities, many beautiful small towns with fantastic markets, it is a joy. Bom Caminho - you can almost always find someone who speaks English, Portuguese? Forget it! If you have any Spanish at all you can usually read the language - street signs, way markers, menus etc, it takes a real talent or be native born to speak/understand, it sounds slightly Spanish missing some of the letters here and there or pronounced differently while all else is pronounced with a Bulgarian accent perhaps only Russian. Impossible. The Camino del Norte is more challenging, the topography more of an issue (like Paul Bunyan's cows it helps if your high side legs are shorter for ease in going up and down hills) and you should get yourself painted with something rust-resistant – the rain comes down along that Camino in buckets with the buckets! Again even fewer people, lovely quiet the views are magnificent and solitude not so many pilgrims or people living there.
 
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I just finished walking from Lisbon and I would not consider the word "industrial" as describing anything more that a tiny, tiny portion of the route. I remember passing two power plants but one of them is on the coastal detour north of Porto. I also recall seeing a couple of factories but I can't remember where. Industrial doesn't come close to describing the route.
 
Probably the polígono industrial at o 'Porriño ? But there now is the controversial detour . Further more Portugal is very agricultural and so is the part of Galicia you will pass. so I agree with Amorfati1 , Scruffy1 and MichaelSG and in my opinion the caminho Portuges is a great walk and can't wait to walk it again next year May.
 
In addition to Amorfati1 's answer, look at youtube by giving in Camino Portuges "and all your prejudices are gone by watching them !
 
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Albertinho said:
I don't think Portugese is comparable in accent to bulgarian or russian I don't think Portugese appreciate this !
Click to expand...
Sorry, no offense intended and I didn't mean the language, the pronunciation was my aim, the Portuguese language, listening as a foreigner, seems to have no beginning and no end, the words slip out and by the listener very quickly and to the uninitiated, with very little to hold it all together. Russian is said to be the language of jellyfish since it sounds as if there is no backbone holding it together. Portuguese is not as formless as that, but my ears cease to function when I hear ir spoken and I couldn't even dream to try and wrap my tonsils around anything more complicated than "obrigado" (a thought, the Portuguese were among the first in Japan where they say thank you as "arigato"ありがとう in the hiragana script for words with no Chinese origin!), "bom dia/noite" while "onde é o banheiro" is about my best! How do bad American movies say it? "It's not you or the Portuguese language, it's me.
 
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I will violate one of my principles and comment on something that I am not an expert on, but I did meet a Portuguese lady, when I was walking the Coastal Portugal Caminho, who was born and grew up in Portugal and currently has been living in England, who told me that the Brazilian Portuguese language/dialect is different from Portugal Portuguese and that in her opinion, Portuguese sounded more like Russian than Spanish, so I can see how Scruffy would form that conclusion and obviously do so without meaning any insults to anyone, including Russians.
 
 
Magwood wrote a blog from her walk on the Portugese Camino in the Spring. I can recommend you have a look at it - lots of information on the route, alberges, cafes and great pictures.

Albertino: what a beautiful grandchild, congratulations. Thank you for sharing the picture.
 
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Hi,

My wife and I attempted the Portuguese this year,after walking from SJPP to the coast last year,and loved every second.

Walking from Lisbon we unfortunately encountered very hot weather which made our walk a struggle very much a grind,we skipped the section from Tomar to Porto.From Porto the walk was great lots of options for stopping at cafés and accom and plenty of fellow hikers.
Check out following the arrows.wordpress.com which gives a detailed account of conditions and the walk --we were one day ahead (apparently)
After finishing in Santiago we headed to Mt Blanc for a week of hiking,then down to Girona for another week of walking all fun

Good luck with Lisbon
 
Just before Santiago, 20k+- is the town of Padrón, the historic Iria Flavia, home of the poetess Rosalia de Castro who lived in poverty and grief and possessed a strong sense of commitment to the poor and to the defenseless. She was a strong opponent of the abuse of authority and a staunch defender of women's rights. She is the poet laureate of Galicia and the town has a small museum in her honor
Hour After Hour, Day After Day.
between the earth and sky that keep
eternal watch,
like a rushing headlong torrent
life passes on.
Restore fragrance to the flower
after it withers;
From the waves that caress the beach
and one after the other die in that caress,
gather the murmurs and the complaints
and engrave on plates of bronze their harmony.

Times now past, tears and laughter,
dark afflictions, soothing falsehoods,
Ah, where do they leave their mark,
tell me where my soul!

In Padrón within the church of Santiago, under the altar lies a very important relic, the mooring post to which the boat which brought Saint James to Spain was tied known as the Pedron. There is usually a sharp eyed cleric there who after receiving a small donativo, will open the covering to see the post. It is surprisingly moving even for one who has grown cynical with age. The mooring post seen in the public garden is a copy.
Sure Santiago is calling but try and make time to visit both.
 

Hi, Camino2014,
I think the Caminho Portugues is a great second camino, as is the Norte. There are lots of posts and blogs of forum members who have recently walked both, so I'd recommend starting with them for getting some general impressions. I agree with those who say the Portugues is not any more industrial than the Norte, that is to say, there are industrial areas outside some big cities on both routes. The scenery is quite different. From Lisbon, the Caminho goes through a lot of flat (or slightly undulating) terrain, much of it agricultural. The norte has a lot of coastline, lots more elevation gain. On the Portugues, you have small towns and cities that are nice, and a couple of places like Coimbra, Tomar, and Porto, that are definitely worth a longer visit. The Norte goes through many tourist destinations on the northern Spanish coast. Beautiful places, but if they're flooded with tourists, pilgrims sometimes find the prices high and the accommodations not targeted to pilgrims. Also, there are some wonderful cities on the Norte -- San Sebastian, Santander and Bilbao just to mention the main ones.

All in all, they are really very different, good pilgrim infrastructure on both, maybe some longer stages between Lisbon and Porto, but I think either route is a great option as a second Camino. Buen camino, Laurie
 
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Actually, @scruffy1 it's right when talking about an eslavic or eastern pronunciation in our language. It' very easy to find it, and a lot of people say the same. This has to do, with the mix of the Latin left by the Romans, some Celtic dialects, but also the languages that the Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and the Vandals brought to Iberia, in the beggining of the first millenium after the birth of Christ.

About the main question of the post: why don't you come here and see it for yourself?
 
Thank you all for your wonderful input!!!

I was definitely pleasantly surprised to learn that I'd been misinformed about the Caminho Portugues! Now that I've looked at all your pictures and read all your blogs, I'm happy to say I've decided on the Portugues for my second Camino and will be walking in Summer 2016.

-Camino2014 (or rather, now it should be 2016!!)
 
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I've just made a slideshow presentation to a local group about the wild flowers along the camino Portuguese. I walked in May this year and it was stunning. I have uploaded the show to youtube and it can be seen here. Feel free to skip the first three minutes which is the introduction I gave at the meeting.
I hope some of you find time to take a look and that you enjoy it. It was very well received by the audience and I had lots of questions.
 
Nice presentation Maggie ! A great promotion of the caminho Portuges. Many happy memories .we walked the same trail last year at about the same time as you .
We are preparing our third caminho Portuges in May 2015 now and are starting from casa da Fernanda and from there we will go to Viana do Castelo and follow the coast from there. A new challenge.
Thanks for sharing and maybe we will meet you again somewhere

Regards from this side of the world
Albertinho
 
Sim Mario ! I worked for three years in Catalunya and although I can read Catalán and partly can understand it ,I cannot speak it except for some social words like bon dia, bon profít (enjoy your meal) , Adeus and molts regats. To me it looks like a mixture of Italian,some Portuges sounding like sssjss (fonetical) some Spanish sounding but after all it is their language and I liked it to listen to .but maybe somebody else has another meaning and I respect that.
Myself as a former Dutch salesman had no problems at all with speaking to them because I speak castellano .

The language of País Basque does not sound familiar to me We were there last april but I cannot understand one word of it except some international words which come from the modern technology like from computers .
But in our Europe with so many different languages are more examples. Hungarian is one of them .or Finnish !

Portugese and Castellano (Spanish ) have so many in common like grammatics and with the knowledge of assimilation and the intention of understanding each other-isn't this the very beginning of solving international and political problems ) you will find your way far better.

Anyway I was thinking to improve my knowledge of the Portugese language and coincidentally I am going to attend an "open house " of a language school here end of next week and will start to learn this beautiful language.
However I will choose for "samba Portuges" . We have many Brasilean friends and I love this beautiful Carioca accent of Rio de Janeiro. And their samba and bossa nova music from Jobim,Bonfa, Vinicius de Moraes etc etc.

Um abraço disso lado
Albertinho
 
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Ah, Albertinho, that's a reckless decision you are making if you are hoping to be more fluent when you walk in Portugal. I lived in Brazil once for a year, in the late 1980s, and had studied Brazilian Portuguese for a year before that. I got to be basically conversant, not fluent. Then we spent a year in Lisbon in 2004, and I couldn't believe that the people were actually speaking Portuguese. I couldn't understand a thing. I struggled everywhere I went.

One day in November, after we had arrived in August, I was flying back to the US for a meeting, and the flight attendant got on and told us in Portuguese we were going to have to return to Lisbon to make an emergency landing. Aside from the terror that that announcement created, I did have a flicker of pleasure realizing that I had understood every word she said, so my Portuguese must be improving, right? Wrong -- I later learned the flight attendant was Brazilian.

After having lived in Lisbon for two academic years, and spent about 3 weeks a year there for the past 10 years, I am still hopeless with Continental Portuguese. I blame it on the Portuguese, though, because they speak such excellent English.

Bom caminho, Laurie
 
My plan is to walk the Portuguese Camino in late spring 2015 to avoid the heat of summer. I have owned a home in Portugal since 2005, near Obidos and as an American spending many many weeks each year all I can say is I love Portugal. I can not wait to walk through my second home, enjoying the villages, people and food. The language is difficult, after 8 years I still speak very little. However, many locals speak English or French and if you can not find a common language, you can resort to hand gestures and smiles. Good natured, welcoming and generous is how you will find the Portuguese. I'm afraid that is not how I found many of the Spanish on the CF. Enjoy!
 
Diane,
Since you spend so much time in Portugal I was wondering where to find information about the weather such as temperature and rain fall. I do not want to walk in strong heat either. What weather do you expect I late spring and what do you call late spring? ; )
Stefania
 
Let us pick up your suitcase once you arrive in Europe....
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
Hi Laurie,
Although I have to half Portugese/Dutch nieces I prefer the samba Portugese because we have so many Brasilean friends .And Nel and I have been a few time to Brasil . And I love the Brasilean music so much .I do it just for fun.
Last year we met a couple from the south of Brasil somewhere around Ansião and later two Brasilean ladys at Fernanda's and I noticed they easily communicated with the Portugese locals.Anyway thanks for your remarks
Best regards from Rotterdam

Albertinho
 

Hello Stefania,
It is hard to generalize about the weather. My favorite times have been in May-June (late spring) and September-October, in part the weather tends to be nice and the summer tourists are not there. Lisbon and the eastern Alentejo can be 40+ c in late June - August. Just too hot to walk 25k. Rainfall is not predictable, historically it rains in the winter, although in our current crazy weather situation can change.

Details about Portugal and weather can be found at: http://www.portugal-live.net/UK/current-conditions/weather.html

Enjoy!
 

Hi
See oficial:
https://www.ipma.pt/en/index.html

AMSimoes
 
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