13 sep Flight to Porto. Overpriced crappy hotel just outside the old city with cocky owner matrona a la Bambolina in Zorba.

14 sep Sightseeing in Porto.

15 sep Out of Porto following the Douro river on it’s way to meet the Atlantic Ocean. Meeting thousands of Porto Half Marathon runners. The rest of the day walking north along the coast mostly on boardwalks. Rather boring. Room for the night upstairs in a bar in Vila do Conde.

16 sep More boardwalks and uninteresting coastal landscape made the decision easy to change direction in order to switch to Camino Central. Spent the night in Povoa de Varzim. Blister on the pad just behind the big toe on my left foot.

17 sep Reaching Camino Central in Barcelos. Spent the night at a hostel by the river in rooms with a sloping roof that made me feel like Gandalf when visiting Bilbo in his house. I now have two open wounds in the region of my left big toe that takes quite a while to attend to.

18 sep Continued to struggle on hard, uneven cobblestone roads all day. The open wounds that only got worse when they didn’t get relief meant that after just over 20 km I took the bus to Puente de Lima. I booked a guest house on the fly but fell out with the fuzzy owner who said that I spread “nervous energy”. I didn’t even get to see the room because “that’s not what she used to do”. Walked 300 m and checked into a hotel of good class but cheaper than the bodhisattva’s ashram and with breakfast included!

19 sep My left foot could not be walked on anymore for quite a while as the wounds take several weeks to heal so that they do not burst open again so I took the bus to Porto and continued by train to Faro.

20 and 21 sep Chilling in Faro.

22 sep Return flight home.

I just have to accept that 1) I’m not a young man anymore and have to be more observant of especially my feet 2) it might be a good idea not to start a walking excursion after several years off the camino by walking 30 km stretches carrying a 16 kg rucksack.

But on the other hand…