Lisbon to Porto March 27 2026

 Lisbon to Porto

Albergaria-a-Velha

March 27, 2026

This morning our breakfast was not served in the hotel but was at a small cafe at the end of the block.  It was not as elaborate as most of the breakfasts we have enjoyed so far.  You got a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, a coffee, and a heated ham and cheese pastry.  It filled the bill.  

The route I had followed for my Garmin routes was from the Camino Ways web site and they are not exactly the same as what is on the ground. Today the Camino Ways route was up the highway where as the course lead us along the river before heading up the escarpment. A long steep escarpment it was I might add.  Best guess was it hit 25% or more in sections.  My guess was the highway was not as steep.

As today we were being transported back to our hotel in Aduega and I had to pre-arrange the taxi time and meeting place there was no time to waste. It was only 16.5 kms and I had given us what I thought was plenty of time to get down to the next stop but every time we hit a hill and the pace dropped I was looking at my watch. It seemed like there was one hill after another.

The route took us down a lot of secondary roads and through a lot of newer subdivisions.  Newer in that they were less than 200 years old.  Although a lot of it was probably less than 50 years old.  There  was only one section of less than one kms which was on a trail and probably only 3 kms which was a gravel road which serviced some sort of logging operations.  

We arrived in the village of  Albergaria-a-Velha and at the designated café at 11:30 which was 90 minutes before the designated time so we were plenty early.   The web page for the café made it look pretty deluxe but it was pretty tiny.  Although they did have cold beer for 1.3 euros.  I phoned the taxi company to see if they could come early but they couldn't so we had lots of time to have a couple of beers.  The taxi which  showed up was a huge 9 passenger van so we had lots of room and he was  exactly on time.  The taxi whisked us back to the hotel. 

 

The weather has continued to hold and looks absolutely fabulous for the rest of the way into Porto. 

Turned out to be an excellent day hiking.

Terry