We headed out of Viana around 8:40 AM walking past the shipyard.

Viana appeared to be a lovely place to visit; however , yesterday I was too tired to venture much past our hotel. I included a couple photos above from there.

Today, we completed our longest walk yet on this trek- 17.5 miles.

We had 2 routes to choose to go from Viana to Âncora. We chose the one closest to the ocean which was next to perfect. Not only was the view spectacular; but also, we enjoyed a flat path on boardwalks, sidewalks, & packed sand. My feet were saying “thank you” the whole way. (Not a big fan of the cobblestones. 😜)

Along the way you often find small give aways that work on the honor system. It is also common for all Camino Pilgrims to have a scallop shell on their pack.

Odds & ends

Pretty mosaics on apartment buildings

Saw this sign 5 miles before the end of the day.

Tomorrow we leave Portugal & enter Spain.

Another beautiful day in Portugal. We left around 8 AM with a cool chill in the air; but, by 10 AM, it warmed up enough for me to remove my jacket.

Sadly, no boardwalks today & we finally reached those hills we saw looming in the distance on our first day.

Today we covered 16 miles up & over hills with varied terrain. We needed to pull out our trekking poles to maneuver the rocky paths with their many tree roots.

One of my favorite things about the Camino are the people who offer drinks & food for free or for a small donation along the route. This was our first such place on this trip.

Our route also took us past many churches both small & large. Many have pilgrim statues since they are on the path to Santiago.

Our final stretch took us over the Bridge Eiffel. It was designed & built by Gustave Eiffel in 1878. He is the same man who designed & completed building the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1889.

Legend has it that when the Romans reached Viana in the 1st Century BC , they were so impressed with its beauty that they thought they had reached paradise.

We found a small bakery near our hotel offering this very unique pastry. They taste like apple strudel.

A beautiful day for a walk. Today was a nice 14 mile walk in near perfect weather.

After leaving our hotel a little after 8:00 AM, the sun was just rising over the buildings in Povoa de Varzim.

The route kept the ocean within view almost the entire time. It’s very refreshing to walk with the ocean scent in the air.

One thing we found very interesting was seaweed being harvested along the coast. Seems this process has been going on for centuries here.

Today’s path traversed boardwalks, sand, & cobblestones.

More fun sights along the route:

You know who is celebrating his birthday on the trail.

We enjoyed hiking the Camino de Santiago so much in Autumn 2023 that we decided to return & try a new route.

This time we started in Porto, Portugal. Porto is Portugal’s second largest city & is where Port wine originated. We arrived from Lisbon by train. After picking up our Camino passport at the Porto Cathedral, we visited what is claimed to be the most beautiful bookstore in the world.

It’s called Livraria Lello. It’s so popular that you have to get tickets in advance to be admitted. Once inside, you realize why many people believe the author J.K. Rowling who wrote the Harry Potter series was inspired by this bookstore to create the library at Hogwarts. She denies she did; but, she did live in Porto when she was writing her first Harry Potter book.

It is very small store & it is decorated beautifully with a very unique staircase.

Today we started our 260 km walk to Santiago. Before we left I thought our first day was going to be 13 miles; I then learned it would be 15 miles; but, it was actually 17 miles! So glad I didn’t know that before we left. 😜

After taking a metro ride to the coast we crossed a bridge & started the walk that took 8 hours to complete.

On most of the route we enjoyed beautiful views right along the Atlantic Ocean. Remarkably, most of the trail was on a wooden boardwalk. What a luxury for the locals to have such a marvelous walkway.

Here are a few sights we saw along the way.

Happy to be finished on a long first day!

After 40 years, we finally made it back to Lisbon. We first came here over Thanksgiving 1985 when we were living in Germany.

When we returned home, we told our friends we went to San Francisco. To fool them we showed them the following picture with us standing by what looks like the Golden Gate Bridge.

But, then admitted to going to Lisbon which we enjoyed.

We returned visited a few places from that time; but, we also saw many new places here.

Then & Now.

With help from the Internet, I think we are better travelers than we were in the 1980s because it is much easier to research places to visit.

We also enjoy the Netflix show “Somebody Feed Phil” & get tips on places to eat all over the world.

One place we learned about from the show is the Pastes de Belem. This is where Lisbon’s famous custard tarts were first created.

You can find this pastry in any bakery or pastry shop in Portugal; but, from our culinary experience, they make the best.

Legend has it that the sweet which consists of pastry cups filled with an egg & cream custard was probably first baked at the neighboring Jerónimos Monastery.

When Portugal’s monasteries were closed in 1834, a former monk-slash-baker moved his shop to a sugar refinery a few doors down and in 1837, the confection known today from Portugal to Hong Kong was born. 

After getting stuffed with these delights, we enjoyed touring the Jerónimos Monastery.

In the 14th Century, the small Lisbon chapel, Santa Maria de Belém, was presided over by monks of the military-religious Order of Christ. 

Originally built by Prince Henry the Navigator, the monks’ duty was to assist Portuguese sailors & ships leaving port for long journeys. 

Seamen & crew would spend their last night in Portugal within the church, often praying for safe travel and confessing their sins to the monks in case they did not return to land.

The most famous Portuguese sailor was the great explorer Vasco de Gama. He was the first European to reach the Far East by sea around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope who credited his night of prayer in the church with his success. 

Upon de Gama’s triumphant return with new found riches, King Manuel I began constructing a new monastery on the location to showcase the glorious wealth that the Age of Exploration brought to the Portuguese empire.

Today 100s of people stand in line to see the magnificently carved cloisters.

The main thing I remember from our 1985 visit were the beautifully tiled buildings. All over the old city you will see homes, subway stops, churches, & buildings covered in decorative tiles.

The technique to make tiles & to decorate with them was brought to Portugal by the Moors.

The Portuguese word for tile “azulejo” comes from the Arabic word الزليج (al-zellij), which means “polished stones” used for mosaics. 

On our second day, we enjoyed visiting the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (National Tile Museum).

The entire building was filled with amazing murals made from painted tiles.

If we ever have the chance to return to Lisbon, we hope to do a tile painting class which are done in several different workshops in the city.

We feel like there are many places we missed & could easily enjoy more days in this lovely capital.

Other fun stops & sights in Lisbon.

Bucharest was once referred to as “Little Paris.”

When we arrived in Bucharest in the evening, all we saw on the way to our hotel were old, gray, square, Soviet-style buildings. Even the train station looked old & needing repair. But, the next day when we started touring the city, “Little Paris” began emerging.

As you get closer to Old Town, beautiful, old, baroque buildings seem to be everywhere. Most of these gems were built at the end of the 19th century up until WWI. With a little imagination you can see women in their fancy dresses with stylish hats & men in suits with bowler hats walking in the streets much like in Paris at the end of the 19th century.

One highlight was visiting the Roman Athenaeum which is grand concert hall. It is built in the Neo-Classical style & was finished in 1889.

The most iconic structure fitting with the “Little Paris” theme is the monument that looks almost identical to the Arc of Triumph in Paris.

In Old Town, we visited the Cărturești Carousel which is considered among the world’s most beautiful bookstores

It was built in 1903 by a family of wealthy Greek bankers & they used it as their bank headquarters.

In the 1950s, the building was confiscated by the Communist regime & used as a general store ending up being forgotten over the years. 

After legal battles lasting many years, in 2007, the building was returned to the original owners & fully restored.

Bucharest has a very nice Village Museum where old homes & churches from around the country have been moved & displayed to show how life was once lived by people in Romania’s different regions.

Nicolae Ceausescu was Romania’s communist dictator from 1967 until revolutionaries captured & executed him on 25 December 1989. His Communist government was considered to be the most repressive in the Eastern Bloc countries.

Revolution Square Today

Ceausescu was a highly paranoid man with only a 4th grade education. He began building the Palace of the Parliament in June 1980 after forcing 40,000 people to relocate.

The structure was only 70% complete when Ceausescu was killed. For 9 straight years its construction consumed one third of Romania’s national budget & almost bankrupted the country. Without a doubt, this massive spending to erect a building to satisfy his vanity along with his abusive government lead to Ceausescu’s demise.

After his death, the Romanian people had the choices to destroy the building, sell it, or finish it. Funny note: the only 2 possible buyers were Rupert Murdoch & Donald Trump who who wanted turn it into a hotel & casino.

Since it was cheaper to finish it rather than to tear it down, the Romanians chose to complete what they could & use it as Romania’s Parliament. Smart choice. However, there are still many areas such as the indoor swimming pool that will never be completed.

Today, it is the world’s 3rd largest building & at 4.1 million pounds, it is the heaviest building because it is completely made from marble. It’s so heavy that it sinks half a centimeter a year. It was much more impressive than I was expecting.

Every country has something that I fall in love with. In Romania, it is the lemonade. Every restaurant & even small convenience stores sell a wide variety of lemonade drinks. The most common varieties are mint, strawberry, & plain. I also saw mango & lavender flavors. All are made with fresh ingredients.

I have always had a weakness for anything with embroidery or looks like it has hand stitching. Maybe this is because when I was a teenager, I embroidered my own clothes, Regardless the reason, a few of these lovely peasant blouses are going home in my suitcase.

One day while sitting in the park enjoying the lovely weather I thought about how different Romania would be today had it not been for two world wars & being placed under communism for almost 45 years.

When you compare Bucharest to places like Vienna which greatly benefited from the American Marshall Plan to rebuild war-torn Europe, you can easily see how events can drastically change a country’s future.

Our trip has now taken us to Ranthambore National Park which known for tigers. We were told that if you see a tiger picture taken in India, it is probably from this park. At one time, it was the royal hunting grounds for the Jaipur maharajas. It is located next to Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan.

On our first afternoon, we arrived at our hotel Khem Villas. Unlike our other hotels, this is an eco lodge with only 12 rooms that was started by the son of the man who started Ranthambhore National Park.

The next day we started our game drives into the national park. The only disadvantage to our hotel is the 30 minute drive to catch the arranged jeep for the wildlife safari drive.

We had 3-4 hour drives in the morning & again in the afternoon.

The park is divided into 10 ea. different zones. The park service assigns the zone you see each day. We visited zones 10, 7, 8 & 6 (in that order.)

Each zone starts at a different gate into the park & has its own territory through which your assigned driver & guide take you.

Sometimes we drove through the town of Sawai Madhopur. Walls are decorated with tigers & the people are always interesting to watch in their daily life.

Once in the park, you share the trail with other tourist vehicles all hoping to see a tiger.

Seeing big cats is not easy in any national park regardless if you are in the Americas, Africa, or India. Just like going to Yellowstone National Park in America, you are more likely to see antelopes & birds.

We spotted tigers on 3 out of 4 game drives; but only once was a tiger close enough to get a good picture. The other times it was too far away. One time it was laying down sleeping about 50 meters away & the other time it was walking through the woods about 80 meters away with the dense bushes & trees causing the tiger to disappear & reappear in our line of sight.

To find the tigers in the late afternoon, the guides listen for the sambar deer to make a loud barking sound they use to warn each other that a tiger was spotted. Each time we were heard this warning call, we saw a tiger.

A few weeks ago, these articles were in the Times of India newspaper paper about tigers in Rathambore.

Last Posting for this Trip

Tomorrow we start our journey home. We drive back to Jaipur in the morning with an afternoon flight to Delhi before flying home. So this will be the final posting for India.

India always surpasses my expectations. It never disappoints. It is among the most colorful countries both literally & figuratively. It is one of the few places left where things have not become Westernized. Women still wear saris out of choice & traditional Indian food is still the main diet.

Mixed in with dirt & grime, you hear music playing from temples & can smell the incense burning in them. The people are extremely kind & warm. I have no idea how many times we were asked to pose in pictures. Some people even asked us into their homes.

Here is a quote I recently read that sums up my own thinking about India:

“Nothing is tucked under the carpet. The well-to-do and the poor are living side by side. It’s all in the open, and you can’t run away from it.” Artist Veena Bhargava

Some things need to be improved in India such as a better education for all, especially for girls. Trash is still a huge unsightly & unhealthy problem. But, if you can accept that this is India, it is impossible not to love the country. I’m sure we will come back here.