Day 1: From Porto to Póvoa with Ponchos and Pilgrims
Day 1 is in the books! And what a day!
Leaving Porto
We checked out of our hotel around 8 AM and caught the metro to the trail on the coast. (We decided not to add an extra 4.5 miles just to get to the start of the El Camino.) We got moving around 9 AM.
The weather was good but storms were brewing on the horizon.
Little did we know that a small tropical storm was swirling of the coast.
New Friends
We met a couple at the hotel, and ended up hiking with them the whole first day. Barb and Steve were such a blessing. To have someone to talk with while trekking along the coast was a welcome distraction to our aching feet and legs.
The Rain
About an hour into the hike, one of the bands from the swirling topical storm finally hit the coast and started coming down hard. We donned our rain gear to stay dry as possible. But we kept moving. Along the way we’d see some chapels that were common for early pilgrims.
After a few hours, we stopped for some quick food/fuel.
We saw lots of snails on the trial. In fact, we often had to step over and around them because there were so many.
At least our pace was faster than the snails!
Póvoa de Varzim
We finally arrived at Póvoa de Varzim, the city where we’ll be staying tonight.
Once we crossed a large iron bridge, we were officially in the city. But, we still had a few miles to get to the hotel.
