We’re currently sitting on the train from Porto to Valença awaiting its 06:05 departure.  Last night’s hostel was what you might expect from a cheap city establishment. It was ok – at least we had a room to ourselves to experience the frustration on both sides of me trying to get Mikey up and going so early In the morning. Oh well, we won’t have such time constraints again on this camino. In the event we walked out the door exactly when planned giving us plenty of time at the station to find our platform.   

It’s warm here – 18c even at this unearthly hour. 

Yesterday was a day of possible disasters. Starting at the point when I was just about to leave home and I knocked my treasured mug to the floor whereby it smashed to pieces. Not normally much of a disaster to lose a cup but this was very special, purchased many years ago from the shop in the cathedral at Santiago, depicting the botafumeiro. But I was only really cross with myself momentarily because I realised I can buy a new one very soon.

I dropped Lily with my lovely dog swap couple and drove on to my daughter‘s, just in time for her to take us to the airport. And so our adventure begins. 

The flight was ok but we needed to make an autopilot landing as there was thick fog in Porto and the pilot couldn’t see to land. 

Problem number two occurred at passport control. When the officer saw Mikey’s age and that I wasn’t his mother he asked for written permission from his parents to travel with me. It hadn’t occurred to any of us that this would be required. He wouldn’t let us through until he had an email from Rosie stating that all was in order and enclosing a copy of her passport. Apparently in Portugal a youngster has to be eighteen before they can freely travel without a parent. This kerfuffle delayed us by more than half an hour but he kindly printed a copy of the email for me to use on our return journey. 

Then there was much confusion about transport from the airport. My research told me there was a bus that we could take but apparently it had to be the metro. I hate using ticket machines at stations but there was no option and I think we got the correct tickets, but in any case we didn’t need to present them on arrival so all was well. 

There was a bit of a roundabout route to our accommodation but we finally arrived at Hostel Brazuca. We have a room to ourselves but have to share a bathroom. Good practice for the rest of our trip.