A rest day in Porto and I want to move into our apartment because it is so fab and right in the centre of town opposite San Bento station. After having slept in a few damp cold beds it's lovely to be in a six foot bed with wonderful bedlinen. We met up with Julie and Mike today who are on their way to Madrid and sat down on a train for most of the day. This was for the fantastic train journey down the river Duoro where all the major port houses have their viney...

So the photo is of a flaming sausage. We've arrived in Porto after a hard 15 mile walk and 5 mile taxi ride. Ok the outskirts of the city are not great and it was hot and we wanted to get to our fabulous apartment. So we haven't been true pilgrims today but it has been a day of contrasts. Our lunch stop today was in a fly filled room in a very small village where people had mixed a bit too much. But now we are in the most fab apartment you can imagine and even...

I hope you appreciate that for some reason unknown to me, the photos are all appearing the right way up.. This is Roger trying the local digestive after our meal tonight and I will be doing more atmospheric pics in the future...it's just that we were late into town tonight and not much opportunity to take others. So it was the full 18 miles today and once again we didn't see any other walkers. We suspect that others have jumped on the bus to avoid what are th...

Today was going to be a scathing review of the walk, the town and the accomodation but have found myself softening when I heard about the reality of the life of some people here. However the walking was dull through a lot of industrial estates and only one good section through a pine and eucalyptus forrest. So it meant we arrived early in this small town where ther is little to see or do. Our hotel is almost scary in its old and primitive feel. The bed is defi...

We are feeling well into the Camino now. Mercifully it doesn't rain everyday and my rucksack no longer seems to leave dents in my shoulders. In fact I remember why we like doing this. The photo today is R with Vladimir when we got into town today. In spite of the name Vladimir is Spanish from the Canaries and has walked nearly the whole of Spain. Unlike a lot of the people on the Camino who are doing this in their spare time, he travels permanently. At 43 he h...