My journey on the Camino starting from Lisbon . I am now at the lounge waiting for the flight. Full of trepidation, excitement, but taking it one day at a time. Looking at it as a journey of meditation, self reflection. I have a slight cold and flu, but hopefully I'll be better by Monday , 15 September and be able to keep up the pace of doing at least 30 to 40 kilometers a day.
14 September 2025
Today is the 14th of September, my mom's birthday, and it's a very nice day in Lisbon. I arrived last night. It's a good flight, but still suffering from the effects of the flu that I picked up in Singapore, but I managed to get some sleep on the flight and got in at about 10:30pm to the hotel. It was a fairly quick exit from Lisbon airport, although very long wait to clear immigration and it was very quick to get my baggage and walk out. I had to wait about 25 to 30 minutes for the driver that I booked, but got into the hotel in about 20 minutes with no difficulties. Today I managed to get a pretty good night's sleep. Got up a little early because of the time difference and then went for a walk after breakfast at 10:00 am down to the tourist office at the center of the city where the river Targus is located.Lots of tourists. It was quite warm. I passed the street where the tram crashed, killing 15 people a week ago. I then went to the Lisbon Cathedral and managed to get my credential Camino passport which is a great start so that I can start on my Camino walk early tomorrow after breakfast. The Camino has a fairly well documented history in summary around 44 AD James was killed in Jerusalem and his remains were brought back by two of his disciples to Galatia where he apparently converted and taught in the Iberian Peninsula between 20 AD and 44 AD. That's at least is the legend. They brought his remains back and buried them and they were lost in history at least the burial spot till about the 9th century when a hermit found the remains and a church was built at Santiago de Compostela and basically from the 12th to around the 15th century it became a significant pilgrimage spot with many pilgrims coming from all over Europe. It basically that pilgrimage declined rapidly after the black Plague and various wars but was revived again at the end of the 19th century and has become extremely popular now with the Camino Frances and the Camino Portuguese , being the two most popular routes of the main five. I start the Camino Portuguese tomorrow, the 15th of September, with the plan to try and complete it before the 8th of October. It really will depend on whether I can walk 30 odd kilometers a day and get to various accommodation along the way. It will be a good experience. I have no expectations. Today I went to get the credentials/passport and had a good moment to sit in the Lisbon Cathedral and do a short meditation, a metta meditation which I think was a good start. I feel pretty relaxed despite the flu and it would be nice to just be out on the journey walking in solitude and peace. Hopefully the weather will be good although it has been raining in northern Portugal. I would expect that there will be cooler days but presently it is nice and warm. And I look forward to the journey.
First Day September 15 2025 . The first day of the walk on the Portuguese Camino. I started off from Lisbon
from the hotel and I had to walk about 2 and a half kilometers to
get to the Lisbon Cathedral and then from the cathedral I used a GPS navigation
tool on my Garmin which had downloaded the route at least the first
two sections which totaled about 35 kilometers.
Unfortunately, walking from the hotel and with a number of deviations on
the trail because of construction work and closures, I ended up doing
40 kilometers today and it was quite a hot day. I didn't check the
temperature, but I'm sure it was between 28 and 30 odd degrees. It
wasn't humid, but it was very hot because there was no shade for most of
the walk as it was next to the river. It's interesting that the first
five or so kilometers was through industrial estates and fairly poor
suburbs. There were absolutely no Camino markings. I then got onto
a walkway which was obviously a much modern part of Lisbon where the Oceanarium is and that was fairly well set out. I had a drink at a cafe
there which was run by Sikhs interestingly enough. so I had a coke and a water and I then continued from there. Unfortunately
there was no cafes for about 12 kms and finally found one at the end of the walkways and had a break with coke and bread.there had no cafe. Got my first stamp as well.
I then continued to villa Franca. I met a Hungarian girl walking .We walked together for about an hour till the next town and she was staying there for the night as I continued .I got to Villa franca de Xira about 5 pm and tried to find accommodation but eventually asked the locals and I was directed to a private hostel and I got a bed and they directed me to a restaurant for dinner.
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