Day 12-13-14: There are more pilgrims now - on to Esposende, Vila Praia de Ancora, and Baiona

 I expected that leaving Porto would be anxiety producing beyond most of the previous departures from urban areas.  Porto is a busy city.  Lots of tourists both in Porto itself, but also because it is the gateway into the wine region of the Duoro valley.  The roads are often tied up with traffic as drivers compete with pedestrians for space on narrow roadways built before the world was created (it seems).  To top it off our hotel was built above the bus station taking passengers to the rest of Portugal - hourly buses to Lisbon; buses going north, east, west, south and all directions in between.  We've generally found that the buses in Portugal are more reliable than the trains and that is saying quite a bit in Europe.  Anyway, after breakfast we decided to head on our way at around 9:30 am - hoping to catch a break after rush hour and before the majority of businesses opened later in the morning.  We had a fair distance to travel.  It would be flatter, easier riding but one of the longest days of cycling - close to 60 kilometers to Esposende, a place we knew nothing about.  As it turned out we had nothing to worry about.  Somehow I'd managed to get the route selection right.  A couple of smaller one way streets with little traffic led us to a wide, three lane boulevard across the city.  There was relatively little traffic, and a separated bikelane down the middle of the boulevard separating eastbound and westbound traffic.  The bikelane had a wide sideway beside it for pedestrians and joggers, mothers with baby carriages, fathers walking with toddlers.  We found ourselves wondering if we'd landed on a vacation day.  Above us planes approached the international airport at Porto every few minutes.  The ten kilometers, or so, across town took us to a large city park and our route turned through the edge of the park to the ocean.  We had, finally, reached the Atlantic coast.  Riding to Esponsende was some of the easiest riding we've had.  The sidewalks along the road were wide and designed for pedestrians, cyclists, runners, families and just about any non-motorized form of transportation you could imagine.  It was, relatively, flat the only slopes we needed to contend with were around sand dunes and rivers where the sidewalks and bike paths joined roads to traverse the waterways.  It seemed as if everyone was out enjoying the day.  We really have experienced great weather throughout the trip and it has cooled somewhat north of Porto.

Along the Atlantic coast of Portugal, north of Porto, there seems to run and endless wooden walkway.  Closer to Porto it is restricted to pedestrians only but as we moved away from the city the signs shifted and we could ride the bikes along the boardwalk.  There were a few spots where we reached small villages and we rode through narrow cobbled streets.  There were also a few moments when we needed, for one reason or another to travel on the regional highway going north.  Such was the case as we came to Esposende where our hotel took us off the highway to a georgeous beach front hotel/resort for our first night.  The hotel was a busy place.  The World Sea Kayaking Championships were being hosted by the hotel.  Australians, Canadians, Europeans from Norway to Spain, South Africans and others were arriving to compete over the next couple of days in 20 kilometer races along the coast.  We spent the afternoon watching them prepare and practice.  The kayaks that are used are open designed for the races to recover quickly if they are overturned during the race.  They are sleek, long machines and the racers are impressive to watch as the glide over the water.  The would be racing, I think, from a city north of Esposende with the finish line of the race at the hotel.  Unfortunately, our itinerary meant that we couldn't stay and watch but we did enjoy the expertise that we saw from the beach.

One of the most notable experiences occurred on this leg of the journey.  We'd come across one of the rivers along the route just north of Porto.  We were following the bike path where we would in most instances greet cyclists riding in the other direction - a wave, a shout of Bom Dia, and acknowledgement.  We were seeing more pilgrims along the way.  It was obvious, to us, that most of the pilgrims on the Portuguese Camino began their route in Porto simply by the significant rise in the number that we encountered.  People carrying backpacks with scallop shells hanging off them.  Singles, pairs, small groups of people walking with purpose northwards.  As we came around a bend in the bikepath another cyclist came flying towards us - coming from the same direction as we were travelling.  I was approximately 50 yards behind Sandy when I realized he was shouting for her attention.  It turned out that he'd mistaken us for another couple he'd seen that day looking for the interior route of the pilgrimage.  They, like us, were cycling.  The interior route moves inland north of Porto.  We'd made the decision early on to follow the coastal route and were on the right path.  The gentleman who stopped us was worried it was the earlier couple he'd encountered and he was anxious to help point us in the right direction.  He had been a pilgrim 20 years earlier and once we'd completed clarifying our intentions had a delightful conversation about our travels, about our love of Portugal, and about the Camino.

From Esponsende we moved north the next day towards Vila Praia de Ancora.  This ride, like the day prior, was relatively easy - flat, following the coast which seems to be an endless line of fine, beautiful Sandy beaches.  We could follow the boardwalk when it was there - although that created challenges in one spot where the sand had blown over the board and covered them to a depth of about 3 feet.  Pushing the e-bike through the sand was good exercise, but I would have prefered to been pushing the pedals rather than walking beside it my feet slipping in the sand.  The scenery continued to be awesome and with most of the local pedestrians behind us we encountered more pilgrims along the way.  The highway was quieter when we had to follow it which meant that the riding was also less stressful.  We came to the small town where we would be spending the night after passing through several towns along the way.  Vila Praia de Ancora is at the mouth of a river.  Across the mouth of the river is a long, wide sandy beach.  Once settled in the hotel we found our way to the waterfront and enjoyed a driink watching the surfers and others enjoying the water.  The Atlantic is not warm water in this part of the world but some of the best surfing is to be found along the Portuguese coast.  In towns north of Lisbon can be found some of the largest waves in the world and there is a well developed culture of surfers moving up and down the coast "chasing the waves."  We removed our shoes and walked along the beach - yes, I did actually put my feet into the water. Dinner was in a beach front restaurant where we shared a platter of fresh seafood with Potatoes and vegetables.  Grilled Bass, Squid, Shrimp, Salmon, Halibut and Cod - before and after pictures are below.

Before

After - it was too much...

OK, someone forgot to mention the Roman road...

but the bulk of the road was like this

The hotel we stayed in was a beautiful older building in the historic part of town a couple of blocks off the beach.  Unfortunately our room was on the first floor above the main entrance.  The narrow roadway in front was busy with a steady stream of traffic.  Our preference to keep the windows open was foiled by the stream of noise coming into them.  Through the night we were kept awake as drivers seemed to race along the cobbled road in front.  A German bus tour staying at the hotel returned from a late dinner and their voices echoed off the buildings into our room.  Closing the windows resulted in becoming too warm, and the air conditioner clicked at us when running - it was not a good nights sleep.

Day three from Porto would be our final day of riding before another rest day.  We were moving out of Portugal and into Spain by way of a ferry crossing over the Tui River.  It was about 10 kilometers north of Vila Praia de Ancora.  Again the riding was good.  The pathways of the previous couple of days continued and wide sidewalks along the highway provided shared lanes for a decent part of the way.  The busy traffic continued and proved a reminder that Portugal has it's own way of transportation.  When we came to the ferry terminal we realized that the ferry was not operating.  The gentleman inside the building informed us that we could cross on the water taxi - a considerably smaller boat.  We wondered how the bikes would be managed - only nine passengers could cross in one go.  A group had left just as we arrived, and others were waiting - we settled in to have coffee and enjoy the wait.  Before long we were being summoned.  The boat was arriving, so we moved to the "dock" - a slab of concrete beside the inoperable ferry with two levels and a larger drop between them.  Our bikes were lifted, with the assistance of other pilgrims down the drop, and then loaded onto the boat leaning against the engine with the front wheel balanced on the top edge of the gunnels, and the back wheels settled into the bottom of the boat.  A large edge along the gunnels provided our seats for those of us brave enough to sit up - several of the pilgrims sank to sit on the bottom of the boat while we crossed the channel.  On the other side, a concrete pier with several large steps up to the ground became our landing spot in Spain.  The driver of the boat carried our bikes for us to the top of the steps and we loaded our panniers onto them.  We had a choice to make.  The Camino route traveled south from our location around a point of land before turning north.  Our alternative, the route that we took, climbed over the point to a city on the other side of the peninsula.  We climbed up the hill which turned out to be considerably smaller than we expected and rode down into the small city that was before us.  Our route through the city, once again, proved perplexing.  Our Garmin wanted us to turn right but showed our path lying straight ahead.  The problem was the intersection where right or left turns were the only option.  The Garmin, I suppose, wanted the immediate right turn to be followed with a left up what looked on the ground to be a street that came to a dead end.  We consulted the maps and turned to the left following a narrow city road around a large bend through the city.  As the bend came to an end the road turned to the left and we were following the highway north.

That's Spain - the mountain

We could tell we had moved from Portugal to Spain  The road was much quieter and although there was some traffic there were constant signs reminding drivers to give a meter and a half when passing cyclists.  Along the left hand side of the road a large lane painted yellow marked a bike path and shared use lane.  The Camino rose and fell from that path to the ocean front west of the highway.  The maps had indicated a difference of some 500 meters of climbing between the road that we were taking and the Camino route proper.  The difference was the result of the regular climbs and drops in the Camino path as it would climb up to the road before dropping to the ocean through a number of small villages.  We were happy following the road, and the shared use path.  The traffic less intimidating and the road undulated gently as it followed the contours of the land.  After another 30 kilometers or so we approached our destination for the next couple of nights.  This would be one of the highlights of the journey.  We are staying in a hotel built in an old fort on a point of land guarding the harbour at Baiona.  Baiona's claim to fame is that it is the location that news arrived in Europe of Columbus' discovery of the Americas.  The Pinta returned to Europe landing at Baiona to share the news.  The fort where we are staying would have been the location where the news was brought.  The fort has a history that predates the Christian Era.  Records of habitation begin as early as 160 BC when the son of a king in nearby Tui built a villa on this point.  It's a beautiful spot with open ocean to the west and views of the coast stretching both south and north beyond the bay.