On the 14th May we flew to Dubai, a city and an Emirate in the United Arab Emirates known for luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and serious traffic jams. Dubai has two seasons: hot and very hot. We were lucky to have 38 – 42 deg C temperatures. But, made the mistake to walk around the city to see all the amazing architecture, covering 15 km in the process – knackered!
Burj Khalifa, an 828 m-tall tower, dominates the skyscraper-filled skyline. At its foot lies the massive Dubai Fountain, with water jets choreographed to music, every hour. Fifty years ago, this was a desert, but oil riches has changed all this. On artificial islands just offshore, “The Palm” and “Atlantis”, are resorts with beaches, water and marine parks.
Dubai and surrounds has a population of 10 million people. Two million of these are Emirati citizens, descended from the first Emir and his 800 people who settled here to fish and eke out a living. The other eight million people are indentured labourers from India, Pakistan and the rest of the world, who have come here for a better life. They have no hope of becoming citizens of Dubai. We spent three days exploring Dubai before flying to Lisbon.
Lisbon, the second oldest city in Europe after Athens, was the home of the first navigators like Vasco da Gama, Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus) and Bartholomew Diaz, who ventured out in their small caravel sailing ships, to explore the world. They discovered the Americas, rounded the southern tip of Africa and reached as far as present day Australia. They colonised countries like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and many others.
In the process, by getting there first, Portugal became a powerful and wealthy county, exploiting the minerals and wealth of their colonies. Many years later, these colonies demanded independence, (often after prolonged wars against their masters in Portugal). Today, Portugal, like many former colonising nations, are reaping the fruits of the past.
Vast areas around Lisbon have now become borderline ghettos. The people are mostly from the former Portuguese colonies, Mozambique and Angola in Africa; São Tomé and Principe around the coast of Africa; Goa, and Colombo on the Indian subcontinent; Macao in East Asia; and a few from Brazil. The older parts of Lisbon on the Tagus River are colourful and charming with 100 year old trams running down impossibly steep and narrow streets.
With our Lisbon travel cards, we used all the public transport options to cover the city. With the steep hills and cobbled streets this is a necessity and it’s worth navigating the trams, buses, trains and metro rail services. Our first and fourth days covered the city, whilst on the second day, we took a train to Cascais on the coast. A picturesque town with constant winds and a large sailing community. The dinghy sailing worlds will take place here later this year.
On our third day, we took a train to Sintra in the West, where the erstwhile royalty built their castles. These are in beautiful and verdant forest settings in the mountains, which requires bus transport, stopping of at these spots and in small villages. Already, long entry queues were forming at these attractions, which made buying tickets online before arriving, the sensible thing to do. On our last day, it was time to do our washing.
After four days in Lisbon, we boarded a train for a three and a half hour trip to Porto in the North. An ancient city with well preserved historic architecture, surrounded by a region which produces arguably, some of the best port wine. We spent two days exploring the sights of Porto. The city is more compact and is situated on the banks of the Douro river. The historic centre of the city rises steeply from the river with churches and cathedrals around every corner.
The historic centre can be explored on foot in a day, albeit with lots of up and down streets and stairs. We also bought our “passports” for the Portuguese Camino at the cathedral, which is one of the many starting points for this walk. The beautiful steel Luiz bridge connects the city to the Gaia area to the south of the river, where all the Port wine cellars like Ferreira, Cockburn’s, Taylor, and others are located.
On Friday the 24th May we caught a bus in Porto to Vigo, just north of the border in Spain. Arriving in Vigo, the local bus to Baiona was ready to depart, which was 30 minutes away. Baiona is a pretty little seaside town, which we explored in the afternoon, before dinner at 8:30pm. The Spanish dine late!
After breakfast on Saturday morning we hit the Camino trail north along the coast, for a pleasant walk to Nigran. The weather was cool, with clear skies – ideal for walking. We arrived at our hotel by lunchtime after a short 10 km walk, leaving the afternoon free for a nana nap and exploring.
This was to be our settling in day and our last easy day, as from here on the walks would average between 17 and 20 km a day for the next seven days. To add to the fun, we both started sneezing and coughing, having contracted colds in Lisbon.
This slowed us down a bit, to the extent that we were constantly passed by other hikers. It is however not a race, but a spiritual experience, we were told. By day five, we started a course of amoxicillin to try and sort out the colds.
The demographics of the “Pilgrims” (me, I’m just a hiker) was interesting. Most people were between the ages of 50 to 70, while women, either hiking alone or in pairs, outnumbered men by at least two to one, during our time on the trail.
The bigger cities that we passed through, like Vigo, Redondella and Pontevedra, had quaint historical centres, but their outskirts and resultant traffic was boring. In the countryside however, the scenery was outstanding with numerous streams and rivers running through forests and vineyards.
We arrived in Santiago de Compostela on day eight, sore of feet and weak of limb, having walked 142 km. Not much, compared to some of the serious “Pilgrims”. We can now tick this one off Annie’s bucket list – although I still think she was trying to kill me!
Berlin is our next stop and we will keep you posted on our progress.
Cheers for now,
Annie and Dirk
As always, an informative and entertaining photo-essay – thank you! Recognise some of the sights from the quick swing we made through NW Iberia after the conference in Seville last March. Travel safely.
Well done Dirk and Annie! Love the write up and great pictures, Marty and Sue SV Windjana.
Amazing, you 2. Thank you for sharing! Well done!
Thank you for sharing your amazing experience. What fun! See you in Sydney in September.
Well done! ????????
Fantastic journey and a great experience. Loved the pix and descriptions of your journey so far. Trust the “sit bones” survived..?
Suggest you check our Potsdam too… super amazing castles… short train ride from Berlin.