Camino Day 1 – Matosinhos to Angeiras

Walked: 12.8km (12.4km) | 2h34m (2h34m)

Followed: 0km (0km)

Our pilgrimage officially got underway today at noon in Matosinhos which is a suburb of Porto. We got there by bus after picking up our Camino “passports” from the Cathedral – behind the post where they used to hang criminals. The bus went by several of the sites we visited yesterday on its way out of the city.

It was a gentle first day along the coast with beautiful flora and big Atlantic waves. 12.8km with no hills. Most of the walk was along a boardwalk.

Not too hot and sunny – we stopped in the shade of a big beach rock for sandwiches, and rewarded ourselves with a Zero beer, green tea and ice cream at 4pm – we know how to live it up!

The most unusual thing to report is our accommodation. The Angeiras Beach Hotel. It’s not really a hotel and it’s not on the beach. It is a bunch of very high quality, sound-proofed(!) sheds set up on the first floor of a warehouse above a fish market. It’s not totally clear how we would have got in if the fish market had been closed!

It’s beautifully done. Our “room” (shed) is the one at the end of the hallway in the picture above.

It has a communal area with free tea, coffee and biscuits. There’s also a toaster, microwave etc.

There’s also a self service washing machine and drier which we are using right now.

A complication was that the address given for this place was a private house two blocks away so it took us a short while to find it.

We got the impression that this was someone very entrepreneurial, trying to do something different and being clobbered by bureaucracy: not being able to put up signs – even on their own door – or publicise the actual location etc etc.

The baggage transfer is working! When we got here, the bag that we left in the reception at our last hotel was waiting.

Tonight we are going to try out a family- run fish restaurant 300 yards away.

Tech note

The battery in my iPhone is really good. It’s never run out of charge during the day since I bought it 3+ years ago. That is until yesterday when I thought I’d try recording our day-long wanderings around Porto on Strava. That gobbled up the battery in no time.

I’d not seen anywhere that might sell an external battery pack so I asked a waiter at the cafe on the tourist list – The Majestic Cafe – for advice. His advice was spot on.

He directed me deep into a shopping mall which looked nothing like one from the outside and I was able to get a battery pack for €15. It’s worked brilliantly. My phone’s been recording our progress on Strava all day, keeping us on track with the Camino Ninja app and allowing me to write this blog and it’s still 50% charged.