Dingle to Santiago to Porto

Total: 195 miles

Notable memories

Where to next

I've been weighing all the options and it seems to me the best choice is the camino Portugues. So I've been checking the travel arrangements and I've got myself confirmed back to Santiago de Compostela.

From there I can catch a bus to Porto, Portugal and begin the camino Portuguese.

Leaving Dingle

10/19 3:30 pm. Caught the bus to Tralee.

10/19 5:30 pm. Bus to Dublin.

10/20 12:00 Dublin airport

10/20 3:00 pm London Heathrow

10/20 11:00 pm Madrid Barajas airport

10/21 9:00 am Santiago bus station

10/21 2:00 pm Porto, Portugal

Dublin

10:00 pm. Arrive and check into Spire Hostel. Headed out to a bar for Guiness ale and Irish folk music.

Madrid

It's odd but in Ireland, I did not feel at home. Warm, gracious people but I did not feel the fit.

Stepped off the plane in Madrid and I felt at home.

36 hours of travel so far. 2 busses and two airplanes done. Over night in the airport at Madrid and then in another 18 hours, I'll be in Porto, Portugal.

Santiago

Cafe Con Leche in the bus station. Life is good.

Porto, Portugal

Well, I spent a couple hours walking around the city. I have to be honest in that I was not impressed.

One goal I had was to get to the cathedral but when I got there it was not that impressive a structure. And also it was quite a distance from the albergue where I'm staying.

In fact if I had gone to the cathedral to start my Camino tomorrow morning, I would have gone backwards one or two miles and then had to add that distance back in to get out of town. So tomorrow morning, I'm heading for the shortest path I can take to get to the Camino and heading out.

Right now I am sitting outside the hostel and watching a thunderstorm rolling in. The breeze is refreshing. And the temperature is dropping.

Reviewing the Camino stages, and it looks like I do have one rest day in there if I want to take advantage of it. Regardless and it's always hard to believe, I can see the end of this year's trip coming. Because two Fridays from today I have to be on a train headed back to Madrid to catch my flight to the states. Incredible.

The highlight of my day in Porto was the evening dinner with other pilgrims. We had two German young women. One spoke English and the other English and Spanish. We had an Italian man who spoke Spanish. We had an Italian woman who spoke Spanish, English and German. And me who spoke Spanish. So we had lots of cross conversations and multiple languages all going on at the same time. It was a hoot.