Porto Day 3: 12 September
The first day out of Porto on the camino (or caminho, for the locals) is a pretty brutal 34 kilometres. Some just start at Matosinhos, at the end of the metro, which cuts off ten clicks, but Brierley, the master guide, suggested it was a nice walk along the Douro, so we got our credenciales stamped at the Cathedral and walked out past the point (Foz de Douro) and turned north to Matosinhos.
I’m still trying to figure Portugal out. The closest I’ve got is to Ireland in the 1990s, when money was flowing in but decades of poverty and neglect still impacted many people. There are many parallels, including both countries having a retrogressive Catholic leader in cahoots with the Church authorities, who was intent on maintaining a romanticised version of national history and enforcing gender roles and class structures. Portugal is still poor and more rural than it should be, but it is lovely in many ways and the people are very friendly.
The walk along the Douro confirmed much of the economic challenges. The historical buildings out here are under threat, under conversion to expensive apartments or kocked down for nondescript concrete blocks.
The Atlantic is clearly colder that anything we would expect: no one was swimming on the beaches and most of the swimming areas were patches of sand between granite outcrops. It looked great, but there was nothing like the Autumn weather that we would expect.
As for the sunset tour, watch the video! Great for the views, but the champagne and canapes didn’t arrive. The World Heritage area is fabulous but bonkers in the evening. We went back to our little street and found a classy bar.
