Porto to Aldeia Nova, Portugal

 September 23, 2026

Breakfast was great again and we even took a little bit for later.  We were walking by 8:20 and we weren’t far from the hostel when a garbage man, he was really black, started waving and pointing.  He ran to the truck and gave me a pair of walking sticks. That’s the last thing I wanted but he wouldn’t take no thanks for an answer-

I tried walking with them but they don’t have the rubber stoppers on the bottom so every step involves a click and that gets annoying really fast.  They got in the way of a couple of pictures so finally I left them on a cement fence-

Ten minutes later a walker came up to me with my poles- she thought I had forgotten them.  All right - I guess I’m supposed to have them.  We kept walking.  I stopped at a bathroom and just left them outside the door-

Mirjanne saw them and thought I’d left them but I’d only put them there so she could see where I was.  We continued walking and stopped to sit to look at the waves.  I left them again and twins from New York-

noticed immediately and called out!  We just couldn’t get rid of the poles however Shannon and Kristin are potters and they made a bunch of shells to give away-

so that’s why we figure I had to keep the poles!  Anyway, awhile later I left them near a building-

and no one chased after me to give them back so I hope whoever has them puts them to good use!

Leaving Porto we walked beside the Douro River and came to the Ponte Arrábida-

Soon we were walking beside the ocean and the waves were crashing in-

There were a lot of people taking surf lessons-

Tragedy at Sea depicts the people left behind after the greatest nautical disaster ever to happen in Portugal when the storm of December 1-2, 1947 caused the death of 152 crew member leaving 72 widows and 152 orphans-

We carried on and came to the Lantern Tower which was built on the spot where on May 3, 124 the image of Bom Jesus reached the shore at Matosinhas. This lantern tower was built in 1758 and used to be surrounded by sand-

The first camino sign I’ve seen and this route is the second most popular after the Français-

We had to cross the Rua Leça by walking into town to cross a draw bridge-

In 1642 during the Spanish Portuguese War, the Fort of Nossa Senora das Neves was built to defend the coast.  It was finished in 1720-

The day’s walk concluded with a lot of walking along the coast-

There were a lot of these pretty flowers-

Once settled in our house-

we went across the street to the beach for a beer which was the best part of the day!

Tomorrow will be a little bit longer than 16 km - I think I can do it!

P.S.

Me madly typing my blog while relaxing on my bed-