The Portuguese Sept/Oct 2014

[CuriousNL]

Good day - I leave for Portugal next week and am grateful for the information and insight gained from this forum. I chose the Camino Portuguese for my first venture as the Portuguese "White Fleet" and the province of Newfoundland share a unique historic bond. My purpose is to learn more about the people and country.

I have the luxury of time and will spend a few days in Lisbon prior to heading out on the Camino. I will be walking solo, slowly and not according to any schedule. I do hope to walk all the way, carrying my backpack. I am a sixty year old female - reasonably fit with no health issues. I have a few questions please.......

I will be communicating with my family through email on a Nexus 7 - will wifi be available on a regular basis? If wifi is scant should I tell them not to worry if they don't hear from me for a day or two?

I need to ship a piece of luggage to Ivar for post-Camino travel - do you recommend using the Portuguese postal service or might there be a transport company I should/could use? It would be for a carry-on size suitcase.

I could not purchase permethrin in Canada. Is it possible to purchase this in Lisbon and treat these my gear there? I am staying in a small VRBO rental apartment. If so, what store should I try?

Thank you all for any advice - you are very generous in taking the time to share your knowledge.

Best regards
C

 

[amorfati1]

Yes, there is WiFi available - and yes, please tell your 'folks' not to worry if they don't hear from you for a day or two.
Sometimes free WiFi is in curious places - I stood in a churchyard under a tree because that's where the free WiFi of that village was so i could use email on my iPad or sat in noisy sports bars w/ WiFi because the albergue did not have wifi.
Most of all... enjoy the Caminho ... glad to hear that you have time and can spend time in Lisboa as well. September is a glorious month in Portugal - best wishes for a marvelous time and blessed encounters and sights!
Bom Caminho!

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, CuriousNL,
Welcome to the forum. If you check through the Portuguese forum posts, you will see some great recent information. There were a bunch of forum members who left from Lisbon this spring. Magwood's blog is a must read.

There is an online guide at the Confraternity of St. James website, one for Lisbon to Porto and one for Porto to Santiago. They were updated in January/Feb. of this year, so though they are not absolutely current, the info should pretty good. http://www.csj.org.uk/guides-online.htm

A bunch of us put together a document to help people who want to walk shorter stages than the 30+ between accommodation on some of the early stages. https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/resources/short-stages-from-lisbon-to-porto.133/ There are several albergue owners who work together, the first one is in Santarem with Mario's Santarem Hostel. He will help you set things up for the subsequent stages.

The ViaLusitana has a pretty up to date guide to accommodations, check it out here: http://www.vialusitana.org/en/albergues_eng/

And that same web site has a Pilgrim SOS phone number. You can call it any time of any day and someone will be happy to help you. This is a great resource that the ViaLusitana has, they are very eager to help pilgrims in need. In addition to Portuguese and English, some German and French is spoken.

If you have questions, fire away. I also put together a walking tour of Lisbon if you are going to be there for a few days. Plus, walking up and down Lisbon's hills is good Caminho training! Hope you have a great trip, bom caminho, Laurie

 

[WildPlace]

I need to ship a piece of luggage to Ivar for post-Camino travel - do you recommend using the Portuguese postal service or might there be a transport company I should/could use? It would be for a carry-on size suitcase.

I would also be glad of advice on this subject too as i will need to ship a small bag ahead to Ivar from Lisbon. Many thanks

 

[shubertj]

I would also be glad of advice on this subject too as i will need to ship a small bag ahead to Ivar from Lisbon. Many thanks

Wildplace,
We will also be looking for a post office to mail small bag to Ivar. There is one at the airport but we will want to use our travel clothes for the couple of days we plan on spending in Lisbon. We understand there are numerous ones about the city so it would depend where you are staying.

 

[Aussie Liz]

Good day - I leave for Portugal next week and am grateful for the information and insight gained from this forum. I chose the Camino Portuguese for my first venture as the Portuguese "White Fleet" and the province of Newfoundland share a unique historic bond. My purpose is to learn more about the people and country.

I have the luxury of time and will spend a few days in Lisbon prior to heading out on the Camino. I will be walking solo, slowly and not according to any schedule. I do hope to walk all the way, carrying my backpack. I am a sixty year old female - reasonably fit with no health issues. I have a few questions please.......

I will be communicating with my family through email on a Nexus 7 - will wifi be available on a regular basis? If wifi is scant should I tell them not to worry if they don't hear from me for a day or two?

I need to ship a piece of luggage to Ivar for post-Camino travel - do you recommend using the Portuguese postal service or might there be a transport company I should/could use? It would be for a carry-on size suitcase.

I could not purchase permethrin in Canada. Is it possible to purchase this in Lisbon and treat these my gear there? I am staying in a small VRBO rental apartment. If so, what store should I try?

Thank you all for any advice - you are very generous in taking the time to share your knowledge.

Best regards
C

Hello CuriousNL. I am Aussie Liz and I also will be in Portugal on 2nd September. I am 60, reasonably fit and healthy and am doing the Camino starting out on the 4th September. Would love to catch up with you or at least have contact I am not too good with this communication, but will see what happens.

 

[katdavis]

I walked from Lisbon to Santiago in June/July this year and found it a challenging walk but with lots of time for reflection. The locals were so incredibly friendly and had terrific English. There was wifi practically every night in the hostels / albergues / pensions, but I also picked up a Portuguese Sim card from Vodafone at Lisbon airport for my phone, so I had 1GB of data. If you have a phone that is unlocked, you could do this too.

I got bitten by bedbugs 3 times on this camino (call me unlucky), and although I'm not sure about Portugal selling Permethrin, Spain certainly does as that's where I picked up a bottle. I also picked up a powder that can be used on bedding or to treat anything that you think might have bugs in it (throw everything into a bag with the powder, tie up, shake and leave in the sun or warm room for as long as possible), then machine wash and dry everything.

My daily blog of this camino and others is here: https://followingthearrows.wordpress.com/

Good luck and Buen Camino!
kat

 

[Ken Martin]

Good day - I leave for Portugal next week and am grateful for the information and insight gained from this forum. I chose the Camino Portuguese for my first venture as the Portuguese "White Fleet" and the province of Newfoundland share a unique historic bond. My purpose is to learn more about the people and country.

I have the luxury of time and will spend a few days in Lisbon prior to heading out on the Camino. I will be walking solo, slowly and not according to any schedule. I do hope to walk all the way, carrying my backpack. I am a sixty year old female - reasonably fit with no health issues. I have a few questions please.......

I will be communicating with my family through email on a Nexus 7 - will wifi be available on a regular basis? If wifi is scant should I tell them not to worry if they don't hear from me for a day or two?

I need to ship a piece of luggage to Ivar for post-Camino travel - do you recommend using the Portuguese postal service or might there be a transport company I should/could use? It would be for a carry-on size suitcase.

I could not purchase permethrin in Canada. Is it possible to purchase this in Lisbon and treat these my gear there? I am staying in a small VRBO rental apartment. If so, what store should I try?

Thank you all for any advice - you are very generous in taking the time to share your knowledge.

Best regards
C

My wife and I, fellow Canadians from Vancouver will be on the Camino starting from Porto around the 6th or 7th of October. Although you may likely be ahead of us leaving Porto we will watch for you. Last summer we were in NFLD, hiked Gros Morne and did a couple day hikes along the East Coast Trail. Wonderful time.

 

[yellowshoes55]

Hello C

There will be four of us leaving Porto on Monday 22nd September to walk to Santiago by Sunday 5th October.
We are from Australia and all in our late 50's early 60's - hopefully our paths will cross at some point.
It will be our first Camino, but not our last we hope.
We were able to purchase a tube bushman deet water resistant insect repellent in case of bed bugs.
Not sure if this product is available overseas.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

We were able to purchase a tube bushman deet water resistant insect repellent in case of bed bugs.

DEET does not keep bed bugs away, but it will help with the mosquitoes being reported on the Camino Portugues!

Bom caminho!

 

[CuriousNL]

Thank you all for your advice and words of encouragement. I have arrived in Lisbon and as Peregrina2000 noted have been getting a great workout just poking around the city. Today I went to the cathedral and obtained my credential......odd the fellow who provided it was not nearly as excited as I?

I am concerned about the permethrin (and my lack thereof) considering the bedbug problem is usually much worse at the end of the long hot summer. (My skin is creeping as I type this). I will contact the ViaLusitana organization to see if they can suggest an alternative. I am not sure if that type of thing is their mandate but will make contact with them.

I have just been getting my bearings to this point - still have to locate a post office for shipping.

Best regards to those who wrote to say they too are making this journey - safe travels!

Lisbon is a beautiful city.....so much to see.

Best,
C