This is me at the Best Guest Hostel in Porto ready to go.This is my pack with Abe along for the ride.Abe doesn’t look like he is very excited about the Camino Portuguese.
It was overcast with a light drizzle when we left the hostel. The route is easy to follow. Go down to the river and then take a right and walk along the Duoro River out to the Atlantic Ocean. Once you get to the Ocean you take a right and head north. As long as you keep the Atlantic to your left you probably won’t get too lost.
I spent most of the morning and early afternoon walking a bit and then ducking into covered bus stops to get out of a rain squall. The rain would clear up and I would walk for another 30 minutes before another rain squall would chase me into another covered bus stop. I walked 11.5 kilometers but it took me 5 hours. At this rate it will take me forever to get to Santiago.
The mouth of the Douro River as it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.The Ocean was anything but placid today.Sandy beaches with big boulders.As most of you probably know, at one time Portugal was a nation of world class mariners. It started to rain really hard just as I was walking by a natural food cafe. I figured the cafe would be a good place to get out of the rain and while I was there I decided to eat lunch. This is mushroom and leek lasagna and it was delicious.
I got to my hostel a little early so I sat at a nearby bus stop to get out of the rain. A bus pulled up and disgorged a couple of pilgrims who walked across the street to the hostel.
This is the bus that leaves Porto every 15 minutes and takes you to Matosinhos. Why in the world did I spend the morning and a good part of the afternoon walking here in the rain when I could have taken the bus. Abe gave me an ear full about that.
The Fishtail Seahouse Hostel where I am staying this evening is very nice although the six person bunk room I am in is very crowded and I have a top bunk.
Good night from Matosinhos, Portugal. I hope you had a good day wherever you are.
This morning I spent some time deciding what to take in my backpack. After that I made a reservation to see the Livraria Lello, reportedly the most beautiful bookstore in the world.
A little bit of hubris? We’ll see.
I had to go on line and make a reservation and pay an eight euro entrance fee. When I got there I had to stand in line for thirty minutes to get into the store.
What a crowd clamoring to get in.This is the huge stained glass window in the ceiling of the bookstore.This is the staircase leading up to the second floor.Another photo of the staircase.They have a huge selection of Harry Potter books in many languages. Did you know that J. K. Rowling lived in Porto before she started writing the Harry Potter books?
After the Lello bookstore I decided to visit a nearby church to say a prayer for good fortune on this Camino.
This altarpiece is gilded with gold from Brazil, which was once a colonial possession of Portugal.
As I was walking back to my hostel I spied an Irish pub.
I just had to stop for a pint of Guinness.What a great way to end the day.
I hope you all are having a good day wherever you are. Good night from Porto, Portugal.
Steps walked – 12,810
Kilometers walked – 10
Flights of stairs climbed – 16
10 feet in elevation gain equals one flight of stairs.
Robert Hansen – Born August 30, 1928, Passed away April 12, 2023.
As some of you know my father passed away a little over a year ago. He had a wonderful, eventful life and was ready to go at the end, but his absence has left a hole in my life and in my heart.
I won the parent lottery when I got Bob and Rita as my parents.
My parents Bob and Rita.
My mother and father were happily married for 71 years. Their courtship and marriage is an amazing Norman Rockwell love story.
They met in the summer of 1952 on the corner of 5th and Monroe in Springfield, Illinois. Dad and his friends were hanging out on the street corner and mom and her friends were promenading by hoping to attract the boys’ attention. Mom, who usually wore flats, decided to borrow her older sister’s heels for that night’s promenade.
As mom strolled by dad and his friends he was instantly smitten. He thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. And he thought she had great legs in those high heels. I am sure that the hem of my mother’s skirt was well below her knees and I am sure that her heels weren’t all that high, but my father instantly and resolutely concluded that my mother had Betty Grable legs.
Dad wheedled an introduction and then asked mom if she would allow him to buy her a drink at the Saddle Club.
Thank God she said yes!
Dad’s mother, Henrietta, was a devout Catholic and her most fervent prayer was that her only child, her precious son Robert, would meet and marry a good Catholic girl. My dad quickly found out over a drink at the Saddle Club that those Betty Grable legs were firmly attached to a good Catholic girl. My mother was the answer to my grandmother’s fervent prayer.
At the end of the evening my father asked my mother if she would like to see a movie with him next weekend.
Thank God she said yes!
The next weekend my father knocked at the front door of my mother’s house. Her mother opened the door and there was dad all dressed up in the only suit he owned. It was a zoot suit. The suit coat of Dad’s zoot suit had lapels that winged out beyond his shoulders. The bottom of the suit coat hung below his knees and he was wearing blue suede shoes. He must have been quite a sight.
They dated for a year and a half and then he decided to propose. His proposal went like this. “Rita, would you like to open a joint checking account?”
Thank God she said yes!
A few months later dad was drafted. He spent two years in the Army and spent one of those years in Korea during the Korean War. During his two years of service he was promoted from private to sergeant first class and was awarded two bronze stars.
Before he was drafted he drove a truck for a typewriter repair service. When he got to Korea he was assigned to an artillery company as a truck driver for the forward artillery observers. The life expectancy of a forward artillery observer was measured in days or weeks, not months or years.
Within a couple of weeks the company clerk got sick and was sent back to the United States for treatment. In order to be a company clerk you had to know how to type. The company commander pulled dad aside and said: “Before you were drafted you worked for a typewriter repair service, I assume you know how to type.” Dad smartly saluted and told the company commander that if a typewriter was a musical instrument he would be playing the typewriter at Carnegie Hall. In truth dad couldn’t type at all but he did get the company clerk job. But for that little white lie who knows what would have happened to dad in Korea. It didn’t hurt that mom said a rosary for him every day while he was in Korea.
In late February of 1953 my father rotated back from Korea to the United States. He got off the plane in San Francisco, immediately found a pay phone, called my mother and said: “If you aren’t doing anything on Saturday would you like to get married?”
Thank God she said yes!
They married in early March of 1952 and began their 71 year adventure as as a loving and devoted couple and soulmates in the truest sense of the word.
On the night before he went into the hospital mom and dad sat down at the kitchen table, bowed their heads and said grace. They then clinked their wine glasses and said “I love you” to each other and meant it in every sense of the word.
Dad went into the hospital on April 7 and he called me to tell me to come home and help him on his final journey. I was planning on leaving Denver on April 12 to do the Portuguese Camino. I cancelled my plans and drove through the night to get to dad’s bedside. He apologized for screwing up my trip and made me promise to do this Camino once the dust of his passing had settled. The dust has settled and now I am ready to start walking with dad.
I brought some of dad’s ashes. I plan on spreading them in the ocean tomorrow.
I feel so blessed that for 67 years I had the best father, mentor and friend in the whole wide world. My father always was and always will be my hero. Rest in peace dad.
I sacked in this morning trying to shake my jet lag. I finally rolled out of the sack at about 9:30 and went down to breakfast at the hostel. The breakfast spread was pretty unappetizing. Dry cereal, cheese and biscuits with jam. I ate a big bowl of rolled oats with soy milk. It was almost inedible until I sprinkled some sugar on it.
After breakfast I sauntered down to the riverfront and boarded a boat for a Douro river tour.
Tour boat on the Douro River.The tour was called the Seven Bridges Tour because we went under seven bridges.This is the church that you can see in the upper right hand corner of the previous photo.
After the river tour I decided to have lunch before my 3:30 Porto walking tour.
Franceshina is one of the national dishes of Portugal. It is kinda like the horseshoe sandwiches they make back in my hometown, Springfield, Illinois.
To make a horseshoe sandwich you lay two pieces of toast on a plate end to end, put a grilled hamburger patty on the toast, cover the hamburger patty with a mound of French fries and then cover the whole thing with cheese sauce. It is a real gut bomb.
My understanding is that a Franceshina is a sandwich stuffed with layers of spicy cold cuts covered with melted cheese and French fries. Did Springfield steal this sandwich from the Portuguese or did the Portuguese steal it from Springfield? Who knows?
I decided to skip the Franceshina and opted for lighter fare.
Since I was going on a walking tour after lunch I thought this place would be perfect.I doubt it was cooked with lighting but it was very good stir fry.Porto Walkers offers free walking tours. The tours aren’t really free as you generously tip the tour guide at the end of the tour.This is Isabella. She handles logistics for the tour.
We spent almost four hours walking all over the old city of Porto while our tour guide gave us an extensive history lesson.
At one time almost all of Porto was owned by the Catholic Church. This looks like one church but it is actually two churches with a tiny vertical apartment in between the two separate churches. The vertical space with the white window is the apartment.
The church on the left was the original church. Some of the wealthy parishioners got mad at the strict parish priest so they left that church and built a much more ornate church next door, the church on the right. They had to build the tiny vertical apartment in between the two churches because there was a rule that prohibited two Catholic Churches from sharing a wall.
On the left is Alejandro, our tour guide, and on the right is Seamus, a guy from Dublin.
One of the stops on the tour was a beautiful mansion that had been converted into a sushi place. While we were walking around this stunningly detailed mansion/sushi joint they gave us a complimentary glass of sparkling wine. Seamus told the bartender that the sparkling wine was great but he could really use a cold beer. The bartender gave Seamus a beer and after that Seamus turned the walking tour into an improvised public crawl, ducking into a bar every few blocks for a beer in a to go cup.
This is the Duruo River as the sun is setting at the end of our tour.
That’s it for today. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are. Good evening from Porto, Portugal.
Porto will be my home base for the next three days.
The flight from Denver to Newark was eventful. We departed forty five minutes late because we had to deice. At the end of April our plane had to deice before it could takeoff. What strange weather.
On the flight from Denver to Newark I had an aisle seat and the guy sitting next to me in the middle seat was so big that he spilled out over the shared armrest and into my seating area. I had to sit sideways facing out towards the aisle so that the two of us could have enough space to make the three hour flight tolerable.
After we took off my next seat neighbor rummaged around under the seat in front of him and pulled out a submarine sandwich the size of a football and spent the majority of the flight methodically devouring it. This sandwich was so big that if he had the foresight to bring a cutting board and a knife he could have fed the whole plane with it.
We landed in Porto at about 9:00 AM. After clearing customs and retrieving my checked bag I took the train into the city center with three other pilgrims. I wandered around for a half hour trying to find my hostel. I am staying at the Best Guest Hostel.
This is my private bedroom at the hostel. The bed is as hard as a rock. But I am not complaining.
I am dog tired and significantly jet lagged but I wanted to do a little bit of sightseeing before dinner.
Just outside the front door of the hostel there is a Camino marker. I will have no excuse if I get lost when I start my Camino on Wednesday.Interesting building facade on the Douro riverfront.Porto Cathedral.The altar of the Porto Cathedral. Spectacular!Hola means hello in Spanish and the “h” is silent. In Portuguese they dispense with the silent “h.” That makes sense to me.
Dinner was at Casa Guede. I had cod cooked with veggies in a tomato sauce and a couple of glasses of green wine.
This cod dish was delicious.The green wine was the perfect wine pairing for the fish.
One glass of wine was enough. The second glass was one too many. Google maps got frustrated with me and shut down as I tried to stumble back to the hostel. Two big glasses of wine and severe jet lag made navigation a challenge.
Steps – 13,495
Kilometers – 9.91
Stairs – 14 flights of stairs
I hope you are having a wonderful day. Good evening from Porto, Portugal.
I am flying to Porto, Portugal today. My plan is to walk the Camino Portuguese Coastal and the Camino Portuguese Central. I am going to walk slow and take my time. My return flight is scheduled for June 15.
It was snowing in Denver when I left for the airport.At Eddie Merlot’s for a bon voyage dinner. Yum!
I couldn’t sleep last night so I got up early and went to the gym. As I was walking out of the locker room on my way home I ran into Father Paul, a priest at Risen Christ, my neighborhood Catholic Church. In the past, before I depart to walk a Camino I always get a blessing from one of the parish priests. This time I forgot to get my blessing. I stopped Father Paul and explained my unblessed dilemma and asked him to give me a blessing. He obliged so I am now fully blessed and ready to tackle the Camino.
Father Paul gives me a blessing at the gym.
After I left the gym I decided I needed to put the belt and suspenders on so I stopped by the church and attended the 8:30 Mass and prayed for God to help me along the Way.
Father Scott saying Mass this morning.
It looks like we are starting to board our flight to Newark where we will take a connecting flight to Porto.
For those of you who followed my previous blogs you know that when I use the word “we”in this blog I am referring to the three Musketeers, Abe Lincoln, St. Christopher and yours truly.
I have a carryon bag that Lufthansa wanted me to check free of charge. This was the line to check bags at the Paris airport. I got to the airport three hours early and I had to stand in line for two hours to check my carryon bag.
By the time I checked my bag I had about 15 minutes to get through security and get to my plane. After clearing security I ran to my gate only to find out that the flight from Paris to Frankfort was going to be delayed. Thirty minutes after our scheduled departure we finally took off.
I originally had a 60 minute layover in Frankfort before boarding commenced for my connecting flight to Denver. I had to run through to the Frankfort airport to get to passport control and I had to cut to the front of the line that checks your boarding pass before they let you into your concourse. I thought I had plenty of time to get this done but the delay in Paris caused this to be a mad scramble. I wanted to pick up some snacks in the Frankfort airport but I had no time to do this. So now I am on the plane with no snacks, looking forward to a ten and a half hour flight, and I am already hungry. I hope Lufthansa plans on serving a hearty lunch.
We are getting ready to takeoff. Thank you so much for following this Paris and Beaune adventure. I highly recommend you visit France. Wonderful people, delicious food and world class wine.
That’s it from Frankfort. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
Our train from Beaune to Dijon and then on to Paris didn’t depart until 1:30 PM so we sacked in and spent some time packing and checking in for our flights back to the States befor checking out of our apartment. After checking out we found a cafe that was open and had a leisurely lunch.
This is a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. It is a classic French lunch. Who knew? I thought a toasted cheese sandwich was a classic American lunch. Rest assured that they don’t use American cheese on this sandwich. This sandwich is made with conté cheese which is a delicious regional specialty. The French call this sandwich a croque monsieur. We are at the train station or gare in Beaune waiting for our train to Dijon where we have a 60 minute layover. At Dijon we take a high speed train to Paris.
We made it to Paris and arrived at the Gare de Lyon at about 4:00. We took a cab to our hotel and checked in at 5:00.
We are staying at the Dream Hotel Opera. I assume we are near the opera house, as in Phantom of the Opera.The room is small but clean and cozy. The elevator is tiny. It would be difficult for two people to fit into this lilliputian elevator. We walked up the stairs to our first floor rooms as both Sara and I have a touch of claustrophobia. You notice that I said we walked up to our first floor rooms. In Europe the ground floor is the 0 floor and the floor above the ground floor is the first floor. It is not too hard once you get the hang of it.This is the Paris Opera House. What a magnificent building.
After we strolled around the Olera House neighborhood for a little while we decided to have an early dinner. Most places don’t start serving dinner until 7:00 PM and a lot of places are closed on Sundays. We found a cafe and sat outside and a huge steak dinner.
We each got a big bowl of fries and a salad.Then they brought out this two pound platter of steak. It was very good.
That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we travel back home. I want to take this opportunity to admit that I was a little concerned about visiting France. I tried very hard to learn some French before I left but I have a very hard time properly pronouncing French words. I thought the French people would be upset with my feeble attempt to speak their language. I was blown away by the hospitality and open warmth that characterized every encounter we had with the people in Paris and Beaune. Last night we were at a bar in Beaune and I apologized to the waitress for my atrocious French. She laughed and said that she loves America and Americans. The Parisinas were friendly and helpful and spoke at least some English. Paris is a beautiful city and France is a beautiful country and the French people are the best. I highly recommend that you pack your bags and visit France. I guarantee that you will have a wonderful experience.
That’s it. I hope you had a wonderful day. Good night from Paris
The Saturday market in Beaune.These are truffle hunting dogs.After we met the other six people in our group cooking class we shopped in the market and then went back to the chefs house. Until a couple of years ago this was her garage. Now it is the classroom where she does her cooking classes. The chef, Adeline, assigned two person teams to different parts of the menu. Sara and I were given this assignment and the fish course.Adeline gave us the pre measured ingredients for these savory biscuit. We picked the herbs from her herb garden.These light and airy cheese biscuits were phenomenal!This is the fish dish that Sara and I prepared.Sara preparing the savory biscuits.This is the group busy preparing their assigned dishes. They are all from Chicago.This is the first course. A poached egg with a red wine sauce. Absolutely delicious.This is the second course. Our pan seared fish with mushrooms and heirloom carrots and a carrot purée. Fantastic fish!Dessert was an apple cobbler with homemade chocolate and salted caramel ice cream.The wine we had while we were preparing our courses and at our feast. The cooking class was a real hoot. I had such a good time and the lunch at the end was marvelous.
After the cooking class we toured the Hotel Dieu Hospices. This is a hospital that was built almost 800 years ago and was a working hospital until recently. Rhe hospital owns about 100 acres of vineyards in and around Beaune and auctions their wine to raise money for the hospital in Beaune.
This is the original building.This is the newer building.This is the great hall where they tended the patients in beds against the walls. They ate their meals at tables running down the center of the hall.This is a memorial to the soldiers from Beaune who died in World War I. Each side of this memorial is dedicated to one of the major battles in World War I and the solders from Beaune who died in that battle. After the war ended there were very few soldiers who were alive to return to Beaune.We had a charcuterie plate and a glass of wine for dinner.
That’s it for this evening. I hope you had a good day wherever you are. Goodnight from Beaune, France.
We got up early this morning and walked to a local bakery for breakfast before Our wine tour.
I had a very nice quiche for breakfast.
Joy, the wine tour guide picked us up at 9:00 and then we picked up Joan and Nancy who joined us on the tour.
From left to right, Joan, Nancy, Sara and Mark.On the right is Joy, the wine tour operator.
After we all got in Joy’s van we went for a short ride around the area surrounding Beaune and Sidney of the grand cru vineyards. It started raining so hard that we couldn’t se anything so we went straight to the first tasting at the Grand Cave.
This is the barrel aging room at the Grand Cave.This is a Jean the wine expert at the Grand Cave who conducted our wine tasting. As you can see we tasted six wines, three white wines and three red wines. Tasting wine is very complicated but at the end of an hour and after finishing the sixth glass of wine I finally got the hang of it.This is the second winery or domain that we visited.What a beautiful domain. This is the drive that leads from the house and tasting room to the back of the property. Just on the other side of the stone wall is the Camino path that goes from Paris to Santiago. This is Jean Luc. He walked us through another six bottle tasting. Jean Luc was so proud of his domain and the wines he produces. About ten years ago Jean Luc spent a month in Denver visiting wine distributors and large retailers educating them on the wines from his domain and the wines from Burgundy in general. This is Jean Luc’s barrel aging room.This is where we are lunch.The front of the restaurant.I started with a warm goat cheese salad.Coq au vin for the main course.Delicious roasted potatoes.Memorial to this town’s soldiers who died in World War One.Third and final stop on our wine tour. Oldest wine barrel in Burgundy. Almost 400 years old.We tasted all these wines and then had a taste of their port and a whiskey.These are the bottles of the really good wine that the family puts away for special occasions.For dinner we had hummus and a charcuterie plate and a basket of bread and a bottle of wine. I was so busy eating that I didn’t take a picture until we were done.
That’s it for tonight. I hope you had a great day. Good night from Beaune, France 🇫🇷.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 