Gathering in Porto - Day 1 - Sept 17, 2018

Ola - Having taking various routes and bumps in the road (including the requirement of an overnight stay in Montreal- plane broken), delayed flight,etc.) we all made it to Porto Portugal by Sept 17. We have 3 newcomers to the pilgrimage and 3 more experienced (some might say veterans, others may say still just "not quite new") to the Camino experience. We have Gerry, Lise, Ben, Dave, Marilyn and Sandy on this journey. We had an exciting day touring Porto (and managed 26,500 steps today - tomorrow we will be in kms). It was a very foggy and rather chilly morning, the fog cleared and the bright sun brought warmer temperatures in the afternoon. We got our first stamp in our passbook at the cathedral, toured along the river - both sides, walked the high and low bridge, and saw the Portugal's history incredibly depicted on mosaic tiles at the railway station. One would not expect to see such art on the walls of train station. Who does that? Simply stunning...you walk around viewing this with your mouth wide open as your eyes fixate on the story in front of you. The old world architecture is really stunning - it is a beautiful city along the banks of Douro River. The churches, old stone buildings and cobblestone streets along with friendly people greet you as you venture out. Thankfully they are happy to help us out - none of us are good with selfie sticks! We had several highlights today - we stumbled upon a tart factory with fresh, out-of-the oven Portuguese tarts. The crust, incredibly flaky, and the warm custard-type filling - mouth watering. Yup we will stop there first thing tomorrow on our way out of the city - wonder if a six pack will travel well in my backpack? Secondly, we tasted our first Franceshina sandwhich - it is made on a thin pizza dough folded over, filled with ham, cheese, roast beef/pork - served warm with a unique gravey made with tomato and beer - really, really good. Definetly worth the trip to Porto. One thing - the tea comes in large tea cups and the coffee comes in very small cups - you can get a double Americano (coffee with steamed milk) - double does not mean twice the size - it means twice the coffee strength - think I am switching to tea! It is an early evening as we are trying to adjust for long flights, time spent in the airports and the loss of 7 hours, we head out at 8 am tomorrow. Boa noite (good evening)