Today is dedicated to Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We visited the Castle of the Moors and the Pena National Palace.

Getting there was extremely easy!  Our trusty Lisbon Pass includes a free train ride to Sintra.  We got up early, took the Metro to the train station and the train to Sintra.  I used Google Maps to get around the park.  I recommend taking a power bank.  I needed to recharge twice.  The history was amazing!

To prepare us for the Camino, we didn’t take the bus, but actually walked up the mountain.  It was a 574 ft. climb, but the stretching out was critical for me.  I’m still sore from the muscle pull I suffered from on the first day.  The joke between Jill and I was that Google Fit only registered 3 Heart Points even though we walked all the way up to the top of the Moorish Castle!  I was huffing and puffing the whole way! Evidently, we didn’t storm the castle fast enough! 

We had lunch at the nice restaurant on the Pena National Palace.  It is authentic, delicious, and not expensive.

There are many more pictures in the Photo gallery.

One trick I learned as a naval aviator is that the best way to adjust to a new time zone is stay up as long as you can, go to sleep at correct local time, and get up the next day and get some sun.  Your body adjusts much faster if there is sun.

We discovered that one of the reasons the hostel is so inexpensive is that the free breakfast is not free for us.  Jill tried to get a cup of coffee for me, but that required spending 12 euros.  I told her that a cup of coffee sound terrible.  She looked at me in shock.  It seems that my body needs coffee to get through the routine day-to-day, but once I’m in “Adventure Mode”, I don’t need coffee.

I did wake up to a pulled muscle in my leg.  I pulled it hiking up the hills yesterday in the heat.  I doubled my electrolytes, took some Vitamin-I, and will muscle through it.  No time to rest!

Our goal today was to beat the heat and visit much of the things that we could before it became too hot.  We took the Metro to a stop close to the water and visit a museum or two.  In Lisbon, Mondays are a day off for many restaurants, museums and other sites.  Still, there is more than enough to see without going in.

and the Jerónimos Monastery.

We landed an hour early in Lisbon which was great!  We couldn’t check into our hotel until 2:00 p.m., but they are letting us keep our packs here while we sightsee.

The first task was purchasing the Lisboa Card right at the airport.  If you are going to spend any time in Lisbon, you will want this.  For a very reasonable price you get the following benefits:

• Free use of the Metro, buses and the tram.
• A guidebook and map of all the places you can see.
• Free or heavily discounted entry into museums and other attractions.
• Free train rides to Sintra and Cascais.

Now fed and happy, time for some sleep!

The day is finally here.  A grand vacation to celebrate my wife and my 25th Anniversary!  This trip has been planned to have something for both of us.  The first part will be sightseeing in Lisbon and Porto.  We’ll stay in proper hotels.  The second part is thru-hiking the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, specifically the Central Route.

With that, my venerable ULA Catalyst is taken out of my backpacking closet.  Despite all the years, I can still smell the PCT on her.  Jill calls it a stink that won’t go away.  I call it the smell of victory.  She is total overkill for this hike.  I really thought of purchasing a new pack just for this journey, but then again, this pack has gone a long way with me.  She deserves this trip as well.

From a gear point of view, I’m only carrying clothes.  With the total weight about 15 pounds, I took the aluminum struts out.  I tried walking with it that way, but it really felt awkward, so I put them back in.  I am a bit concerned that airport security might have issues with them.  I guess I’ll take my chances.

I scheduled our flight out of Mitchell Field for a 6 p.m. flight.  That gives us plenty of time.  We’ll take the County Bus for the first time.  It is straight ride from our house.

While my wife has been very supportive of my backpacking trips, most of my hiking is with her at my side.  She has a ULA Circuit, but the thought of hiking five days without bathing in more than a muddy river or going to the bathroom outside is completely and totally unappealing.  She is happy to go camping and sleeping in a tent, as long as it is at a campground with a shower.  Better yet for her is to hike all day and return to a hotel room or an AirBnB.

This is the year of our 25th Anniversary.  We want to celebrate it with a big trip.  How can we compromise when our definitions of “big trip” our obviously different?  We hike a trail with a hostel at the end of every day!  Fortunately, there is the perfect trail, the Way of St. James the Camino de Santiago.  It is the oldest thru-hike in the world.

 Unlike a trail like the PCT, the AT, or the CDT, there isn’t a single Camino de Santiago.  In fact, there are trails throughout Europe that eventually take you there.  That allows you to customize how one enjoys the hike.  They all end at Santiago de Compostela.  The question is where to start.

The most common is the Camino Frances which starts in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and spans 422.5 miles.  Normally, that takes roughly thirty-two days.  Unfortunately, we cannot take off that long from work.  However, there are other ways to go.  We have selected the Camino Portugues starting in Tui.  It should take roughly ten days.  However, as a backup plan, we can also do the Camino Portugues Costal starting in Vigo.  That thru-hike meets the 100 km requirement to be considered a thru-hike and will only take five days.

The best part of this hike is that every night we will walk to a town and stay at either a hotel or an Albergues, a hostel for pilgrims, so it meets my wife’s requirements for a thru-hike.

Obviously, the gear situation is quite different.  I don’t need a sleeping pad, tent, stove, or water treatment.  My water carries are from water fountain to water fountain.  My food carries are snacks to get me through the day as will stop at a café for lunch.  On the other hand, I’ll have to carry some town clothes and put on deodorant of all things.  Still, it is a small price to pay to thru-hike with my wife.