The photos below were all taken inside South Mountain Park in Phoenix. This is where Gary and Rangeley hike every morning. We love having this in our “back yard.” Actually it is about a 2 mile drive to the trailhead we go most often.
Live the moments you can’t put into words – Clo Mailen
April 9
I am travelling solo for these first few weeks, so will do my best to keep up with the journal without my key writer and photographer. I have done a lot of solo trips in the US, but this is my first time in Europe on my own. I have an idea of where I will be when, but no reservations between April 11 in Porto and April 29 in Madrid. I am hopeful that finding a place to stay at night isn’t a challenge since it is April. We shall see how that goes. I have purposely done little research on the Portuguese Costal Route, so I will figure things out as I go. I have heard from friends that they love this route. I haven’t studied any Portuguese, but have heard that this route isn’t a problem speaking English. I will not be carrying a book, but will have an app on my phone.
Tomorrow morning I take a flight to Philadelphia, where I connect to a redeye to Madrid. In Madrid I have a flight to Porto, Portugal. From the airport I will take the metro to the cathedral to get the first stamp in my Compostela. From there it is about 4 miles to my home for the night. I am not a city person, so decided to get to the coast on the outskirts of Porto. I have figured out where a bank is, as well as a few geocaches along the river out of the city. That is where my planning has stopped. I plan to take 11 or 12 days to walk to Santiago, because that is what most people take and I want to be part of the community of walkers.
April 10, 2024
Gary’s random thoughts as I make my way to Portugal.
Why am I headed to Europe 20 days before Elizabeth?
Elizabeth has had a very busy winter and spring travelling the country for work and pleasure. I have been home with Rangeley. I have done many solo adventures and was just antsy and ready to go. Last summer when we finished, I could have gone back to the beginning and started walking the 500 miles all over again. I have done the 500 miles on the Camino Frances 3 times, done a 1,100 mile section hike on the AT and through hiked the AT (2,200 miles), so adding 250 miles of walking to this summer’s adventure should not be a problem. We have friends that have done the Portuguese Coastal Route and the Ingles, and all have really enjoyed their journey, so I will get my own first hand experience. Elizabeth has another job next week, so she couldn’t leave early and she will be busy while I am gone, so here I am, on my way to Portugal.
Living life in your comfort zone.
I feel society pressures us to live our lives to always be as “comfortable” as possible. We as parents try and remove roadblocks for our kids so they don’t have the bumps in life we experienced. In my opinion, life does not always go the way we plan. I firmly believe we learn (or at least should) from adversity. The potholes we experience through life makes us stronger. In past journals we have brought up the stock market – as that is how we are able to travel the way we do today. I have learned through the years not to fear the downward moves in the markets like our media seems to want us to, but to embrace it as the opportunity that it is. Life isn’t about what happens to you, but how you react to those things.
Especially as we age, we tend to gravitate to what we know and understand. On this trip I am purposely travelling solo, do not have set plans, plan to stay in bunk rooms and just go where my spirit takes me. It will still be way more “comfortable” than life on the Appalachian Trail. I have 17 pounds on my back, which is everything I need for the next 10 weeks. Two and a half pounds of that is my computer so I can keep up with my business and post to our blog. When you have to carry everything you need, you figure out what is truly important.
Walking the Camino is a very interesting experience.
I do not have the talent to express what walking across Spain is truly like for me. It is always interesting to talk with other people at or near the end of their month long walk. Many are “how do I explain this to my friends” where others are “it was a beautiful walk”. For us, this is our fifth time, so it is so much more than a beautiful walk. For me, spending 35+ days walking with others from all parts of the world should change you for the better. If you don’t leave Spain more appreciative of what you have and more understanding of others, then you missed out on an opportunity. This is not a vacation to a fancy resort where you will be catered to. No matter your age, gender, background, financial situation… you still need to wake up and walk consistently to reach Santiago. There are no rules on how fast you go, you literally walk your own walk. You follow your own rules that are important to you.
As you know, we love quotes. There are sayings written all along the way. One of my favorites we saw in 2015. It said: “We buy stuff we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t know.”
I feel spending a month+, walking 500 miles across Spain gives you a better understanding of what is truly important to you, and it shouldn’t be impressing others.
OK, I am off my soap box now. Thanks for following along.
It is now Thursday morning in Madrid. The flight from Philadelphia is only 7 hours. We had some turbulence to start, so dinner was late being served. By the time the lights were turned off we had 3 ½ hours to landing. They turned the lights back on with a little over an hour to go to feed us breakfast. That left less than 2 ½ hours of lights off time. Going through customs and back through security was a breeze. Now I am waiting for my 1 hour flight to Porto. Madrid is a huge airport. It seems like they use less than half the gates. We have always gone through terminal 4. When I fly back here in a couple weeks, I will land at terminal 1. It is a 15 minute drive to get there by car from terminal 4. The metro that connects terminal 1 to 4, stops in the town of Barajas between the two terminals.
Day 0 – Porto to Foz do Douro – 4.0 Miles
April 11
Quiet morning in Madrid. This is the “line” to get through customs. 
The Metro stop at the Porto airport. 
Inside the Porto Cathedral, built in 1497. 
Lots of tourists outside the cathedral. 
The Rabelo boat is a Portuguese vessel, typical of the Douro River that traditionally transported the Port wine kites from the upper Douro, where the vineyards are located, to Vila Nova de Gaia – Porto, where wine was stored. 
Ponte Luís I bridge, built between the years 1881 and 1888 
New concrete bridge, the Atlantic Ocean in the background. 
A pretty park I walked through. 
Working on getting dinner. The entire river was lined with fisherman all afternoon. 
Finally made it to Porto. After taking the Metro into town and stopping at a bank to pick up a few Euros, it was off to the cathedral to pick up a new Compostela and my first stamp. I then made my way down the steep old streets to the river Douro and followed it to the Atlantic. On the way I picked up my first Portuguese geocache. According to geocaching.com I have finds in 15 different countries. What inflates this number is Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and American Samoa are considered different countries. I stopped and had my first Menu of the Day, Portugal style. Here they have 3 different choices, all just one plate. Basically what we consider Today’s Specials. It was still a good value – 10 euro for a salad, fries, rice and beef, chicken or fish.
A beautiful weather day in Porto was completed with a wonderful sunset. I made a slight miscalculation in that I thought I could see the sunset from the bar on the top floor of my hotel. Nope, there was a building in the way. Oh well, it was still a wonderful night to sit outside and enjoy the evening. Before sunset I did walk around the area. I will see plenty of the ocean over the next week or so.
What we find in a soul mate is not something to tame, but something wild to run with.
Robert Brault
Gary and Elizabeth's Adventures 