El Camino Portuguesa Lisbon to Santa Iria de Azoia

El Camino Portuguesa

Lisbon to Santa Iria de Azoia

In addition to Boris Bikes, Lisbon has electric scooters. They are left all over the city against lamp posts,walls, benches etc. Those with a red light are out of power but i never saw anyone using one and neither did I ever see one having a charge.

The monument to the fallen in the Great War near Avienda Metro station. Portugal was late joining the war. Portugal and Germany were officially at peace although Portuguese colonial troops were fighting German troops on what is now the Angolan Namibia border.Portugal was frustrated at German U boats sinking its vessels as part of the blockade of UK and confiscated several German jatos held on Portuguese harbours. Germany deck=lared war on Portugal in March 1916. Portugal lost about 12,000 soldiers including colonial troops.

I felt very at home in Lisbon especially after my recent pillar box post (and not intended as a pun). Same style but 'Post Office' has been replaced with 'Correos'.

Up in the hills where my hotel was, it was a glorious sun rise, temperatures always in the 20C's with clear blue skies. Down by the water front it was half that and foggy. The Parca de Commercio and few photo opportunities.

The Portal de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao Velha which all the remains of the Igeja de Nossa Senhora de Misericordia, the rest was destroyed by the 1755 earthquake.

Lisbon Cathedral where I would have got my Credential but it wasn't open to the public (other than for a service) for another two hours.

El Camino passes the Museum of Fado which knowing that it would be shut early in Sunday morning, I had visited the day before. Opened in 1998 and housed in a former water pumping station, it is devoted to guitar and fado, a form of local musical style.

                                         

Continuing my theme of pillar boxes, and just like UK, a small one set in a wall.

El Camino twists through back streets and I took several wrong turnings until it has passed the docks and drops down to run parallel to the beach.  Actually there are better sandy beaches nearer the city centre than these muddy shores. Torre Vasco da Gama, a posh hotel and lookout opportunity surrounded by restaurants and cafes. 

Also looking out to sea is the bronze statue of Catarina de Braganza who left Lisbon in 1662 to marry Charles II. Her dowry included Bombay and tea and it is claimed that her court introduced Indian tea to England.

And this is what both the Torre Vasco da Gama and Catarina de Braganza look out upon, the Ponte Vasco da Gama, which used to be Europe's longest bridge at over 12.3kms until Vladimir Putin forcibly annexed the Crimea from Ukraine in January 2015 and built the Kerch Strait Bridge to connect Crimea to the Russian mainland whose multiple road and rail connections span 19kms which I had made a point of crossing as soon as it was opened.

El Camino turns inland to follow Rio Trancao and later a subsidiary. It was a bright, hot sunny day with clear blue skies and the sun was fierce. All the way along the river banks there was no shade and there was a fierce reflection from the sun off the white limestone gravel that covered the trail. It was underneath the final approach and take from Lisbon airport and there were aircraft taking off every few minutes. But even the sound of the aircraft was at times muffled by the sounds of the cicades. I found a omfitable looking rock in the shade to sit on to have lunch. 

My accommodation for the evening was not on El Camino but was a four kilometres walk off the route, adding to the distance. It was also over a very steep hill and I regretted not doing more research to avoid a steep climb. It would have been easier to continue on el Camino and where it meets a main road to walk back down the road to get to the hotel. It was only a few extra kilometres and would save time in the morning. 

I hesitated as maybe the guide suggests this route as there is no pavement so it is considered too dangerous. I gave in and started up the very steep hill as suggested. There was a pair of tractor tyre tracks that hair pinned across the slope of the hill, There was also a steep track that linked the left hand side of every hairpin. Judging from some of the distinctive footmarks on it, the shortcut was favoured by some of the locals so I followed up and over the hill to reach my hotel.