Day: April 6, 2025

We both recently got smart watches Apple and Pixel. We use them to keep track of distances walked. We each have phones, of course, “i” and Pixel.

We are using the “Wise Pilgrim” app which is really nice. Mainly we use the map which shows the Camino path with all the variations. This makes it easy to stay on course. There are not as many yellow arrows on the Portuguese. There are two main paths, the central and the coastal. We walked the central in 2016 and now we are on the coastal. But there is a variant of the coastal called the litoral which consists of alternative routes to the coastal closer to the ocean. It can get complex.

I have the iOS version which shows where you are with a yellow arrow, as you see in the middle of the photo. Camino appropriate I guess. The Android version uses the Google blue dot. And I take my 11” iPad. For me, it is worth carrying the extra pound. And we take a lightweight Bluetooth keyboard that Wynette uses to type on her phone.

Luckily, just about everything charges with USB-C, except for my air buds and the keyboard. We purchased power blocks for European plugs which is nicer than using converters.

• Walked on Camino: Labruge to Póvoa de Varzim, 9.8 miles in 6:03 hours
• Total walked: 11.5 miles, per Wynette’s watch.
• Elevations: still flat, we are walking by the ocean for Pete’s sake
• Hotel street: Avenida Mouzinho de Albuquerque
• Indian food lunches: 1, somehow we came to Portugal and are eating Indian food.
• On boardwalks: ~70%
• Boardwalk detours for maintenance: 1
• Laundry loads: 1

• Walked on Camino: Porto to Labruge, 9.0 miles in 5:09 hours
• Total walked: 9.92 miles per Wynette’s watch
• Elevation: +164, -148, between -36 feet and 39 feet, okay, there might have been some GPS glitches but it was way flat.
• Boardwalk detours due to maintenance: 1
• Number of people sharing a bathroom in our hotel: 8
• Wild calla lilies seen: hundreds, it’s the season apparently. Easter in a couple of weeks
• Waiting time at drawbridges: 10 minutes, while a tiny container ship passed, maybe 30-40 containers, there was a big lineup of pilgrims
• Pilgrims seen: hard to say, maybe about 100-200. We usually take lesser used Caminos so this was a lot for us.
• Women from New Zealand on their first Camino that we chatted with: 2

• Travel: Vigo to Porto, bus, 3 hours
• Fancy fresh fish dinner, recommended by our taxi driver, that we might have overpaid for at 60€, but it was fun to see the waiter expertly debone the fish.
• Vodafone SIMs purchased: Wynette got a physical SIM, I said “make mine e-“

• Oceans crossed: 1
• Airport walking: 2.4 miles, Madrid is a big airport, and we kind of messed up the transfer
• Indian dinners: 1, it was very good.

I really liked this photo and am trying to think of a reason to post it. So, I’ll talk about the weather. Note that we had a really sunny day today. Weather forecast is for warm and quite a bit of sun the next few days. We might have to get some early starts to stay comfortable.

Tonight there wasn’t a desk or table in our hotel room or anywhere else in the hotel that we thought to look. So we are now sitting in a coffee bar. Charlie ordered a decaf. I ordered a little pastry. They are open till midnight. A quiet place. Not even any music, but there is fútbol on the tv (soccer).

Last night we blogged in the breakfast room. Our “hotel” was a large house that someone had converted into a B&B with six guest rooms of various sizes.