We left Porto to head up the coast to Povoa de Varzim. Helena is with us for the first couple of days walking. Everyone knows about Port Wine and Porto but the city has a very rich and long history. An example is that unrest by Republicans led to the 31/01/1891 revolt in Porto, the first uprising against the Portuguese monarchy. This resulted ultimately in the overthrow of the monarchy and proclamation of the republic by the 05/10/1910 revolution. On 19/01/1919, forces favourable to the restoration of the monarchy launched a counter-revolution in Porto known as the Monarchy of the North. During this time, Porto was the capital of the restored kingdom, as the movement was contained to the north. The monarchy was deposed less than a month later, which marked the final end to monarchy in Portugal.
We took the metro (as recommended by the guidebook), to avoid a long walk through the city suburbs, to Matoshinos. At the end of the 19th century, the Port of Leixões was constructed to provide a sheltered port to service the city of Porto, which supported Matosinhos’s fishing industry and led to the development of a local fish canning industry. Production and exports of canned fish in Matosinhos rose during the world wars and peaked between 1940 and 1960, when there were a total of 54 factories. The Port of Leixões and the fishing industry contributed to economic development and a growth in resident population and in 1984 Matosinhos became a city.
Today’s route would be entirely alongside the coast with mainly sandy beaches interspersed with rocky patches and a very nice looking salt water swimming pool. This enviromnent as led to many shipwrecks on this coast over the years.
Our walk then moved from the pavement beside the beach to a boardwalk that would take us nearly the rest of the days journey. Some areas of the boardwalk has weathered slightly worse than others leading to a nice bouncy walking experience.
As we continued up the coast the cloud cover slowly lifted but the (fairly) gentle breeze from the sea meant we didn’t get too overheated. Plenty of suncream was needed though. We passed a few pretty fishing villages and this prompted a wish to have local sardines for lunch. Alas this was not to be as most of the bars / restaurants on the sea front has fairly standard “snack” food. Not to be deterred we promised ourselves sardines for dinner.
Coming close to the end of our day we stopped at a small church to get on of our required stamps (in our pilgrims passport) for the day and wandered through the town of Vila Chã. The whole town was being decorated for a festival of some sort but I couldnt find any further information.
Finally we reached our destination of Povoa de Varzim which was a much larger than we initially thought. After a needed freshen up in the hotel we found a beachside bar (it wasnt difficult as there are plenty) for a well earned cold beer. Dinner, unfortunately didnt provide any sardines to the search continues. Tomorrow we walk to Esposende.
