Camino Day 2 - Santa Iria de Azoia to Vila Franco de Xira

On the second day of our Camino journey, Friday, August 26th, we continued our trek through the industrial areas outside Lisbon. To get back onto the Camino we had to walk @ 2.5 miles north on a busy highway (thankfully, rush hour traffic was flowing in the other direction). We encountered our first Camino "angel" this morning as we were navigating our way off the busy highway and onto the Camino. We were about to stay straight until a cyclist across the street gestured that we should turn right. We turned toward the river and had a delightful walk on the Camino along the boardwalk by the river Tejo.

A view of the boardwalk along the river Tejo

Me, Becky, Theresa and Dave

We had to cross over a couple of railway tracks and the busy N-10 highway before coming to the Alhandra Marina where we picked up a riverside path that took us all the way into Vila Franca. It was along this path that we met our first Camino pilgrim. (We had seen one pilgrim in Lisbon but hadn't been able to strike up a conversation.) The lack of other pilgrims on the trail is one of the most striking differences between the French and Portuguese Caminos (at least this section between Lisbon and Porto). The other striking difference is the lack of bars/cafes where the weary pilgrim can stop and rest one's feet and have a bite to eat.

          Five of our six pilgrims "love" Alhandra

Our first pilgrim friend Nena from Atlanta

All in all, it was a very pleasant day of walking. Total distance was @ 14 miles.