The days start lovely; the days end with me shaking my head! Such are the first few days beyond Lisbon.

The Portuguese Camino begins at the Church of Santiago, or the Igreja de Santiago. Like everybody else, I initially assumed that the Camino begins at the Cathedral. Not so.

My first morning is ideal, blue sky with a slight chill. Since my lodging is only a couple of blocks from the Church of Santiago, I begin walking through the city. The route is downhill as it passes through old and narrow streets until I reach the Tagus River. Originating in Spain, this longest river in the Iberian Peninsula.

Unfortunately, after a short distance my walk changes. On one side, I walk alongside train tracks, underneath a highway. On the other side, I can peak through the warehouses and wharfs and docks to see the river. It isn’t pretty. It doesn’t smell nice. I sigh. I wonder: “How long is this going to last?” Maybe I should have listened to those forum posters who wrote “skip the section out of Lisbon.” Finally, after several miles, I am able to enjoy a stretch of the walk. Maybe a cylcist knows that this section is tough, he shouts to me “Be strong. You can do it!”

The third day follows the pattern of the first day. A nice crisp morning. Walking through Vila France-de-Xira, I meet five other walkers who are walking to Fatima. One of the men has wanted to walk to Fatima for years. When his sister caught Covid-19 and survived, he decided that this is the year to walk!

After they veer a different direction, I find myself walking alongside the highway. Not fun! I crisscross the road several times because either there is no shoulder to the road, or because thee is some obstacle alongside the road such as a railing or gulley, bamboo, or uncut weeds. When I arrive at the DP Hostel, I talk to two young California women. Nicki says “I don’t think that I can take another day like today.”

My fourth day follows the same pattern. Leaving the hostel on my way to Azambuja, I’m able to walk along the riverfront. Beautiful! And another cool beginning. But…. following the Camino signs, I eventually turn away from the river and walk on a gravel road. When the gravel road looks as though it turns into a private lane with a gate, I turn and follow the gravel road. I begin to see and am passed by several trucks loaded with tomatoes. I begin to see dozens of smashed tomatoes lying on the gravel road. “Interesting” I tell myself. In a couple of hundred yards, I pass a tomato processing plant! The gravel road turns away from the plant and returns to a small village not far from where I started. Somehow I had lost the Camino signs. “Nice two-mile detour” speaking to myself again. Unfortunately, the gravel road detour was the nice part of the walk.

On the far side of the village, I see a highway. What I didn’t see was that this was a very busy highway! As I start walking along the highway, I repeat yesterday’s distress. No shoulder. Uncut weeds and shrubs forcing me close to the cars and trucks traveling 50-60 miles per hour. Eventually, I stop at a gas station and convenience store. Appearing tired and rather pathetic, I bought some water and ask the woman at the counter, “Taxi?” She looked at me; she must have decided “this fellow won’t make it into town”; and called a taxi.

Out of Lisbon, the walking starts out wonderful; however, before long, the walking part of the day turns dreary. Walking through an industrial wharf district. Getting lost. Dodging speeding cars and trucks. Not my idea of fun. And, when I got to my lodging on the third day, I couldn’t find a single restaurant open. Sigh…