Despite last night’s rain warning, we woke to just a light drizzle—enough to freshen the air with the scent of eucalyptus but hardly requiring the rain poncho I threw on just in case. The skies soon began to clear, and we were blessed with blue skies for much of the day. The smoke that had blanketed everything during our Douro River cruise yesterday was just a haze in the distance.

Instead of walking through the industrial areas along the river, we took the metro blue line from Porto to Matosinhos, covering 11 kilometres in twenty minutes. As we stepped off the train, we quickly found the first yellow arrow and soon found a most welcoming café where we stopped for breakfast. We bumped into Philippa and Bonnie, a mother-daughter duo from Australia, also having breakfast. Later in the day, near Labruge, we saw Philippa again, looking utterly exhausted—though I’m sure we looked just the same. She said they probably should have done more training before starting the Camino.

We also met four young women from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, which brought a nice reminder of home.

Though our itinerary noted that we’d have a 15-kilometer walk from Matosinhos to Vila Chã, it felt much longer. We couldn’t help but go slow to admire the coastal beauty and stop to take a lot of photos. The scenery was breathtaking, with boardwalks winding along the beaches. 

The only eyesore at the beginning of our walk was the oil refinery looming to our right, but after a quick Google search, we were relieved to learn that the industrial complex is being demolished—hopefully disappearing from the landscape in a year or two.

As for today’s notable landmarks, we passed the Boa Nova Lighthouse, Portugal’s second-highest, built in a spot notorious for its hidden, dangerous rocks that have long been a threat to sailors at high tide. We also saw the Obelisco da Memória, a monument erected in the 1800s to commemorate the landing of 7,500 troops led by D. Pedro IV in 1832. That moment marked the beginning of the end for Portugal’s absolutist regime, paving the way for a modern, liberal government.

Tomorrow we are walking a short seven kilometre because there is so much to see in the next town: Vila do Conde.