Lisbon was lovely and we will return for a longer stay sometime but we were here to begin an epic journey and so on Friday morning early we put our backpacks on our back and with walking poles we hand we made our way out of town following the Camino arrows. The route for the first few days (until the town of Santarém) parallels the Camino to the pilgrim city of Fatima.

Most of the next few days we will make our way along the same path as the Rio Tejo (River Tagus) to the North. From the outskirts of Lisbon we left the cobbled streets and headed through the countryside to our first stop at the small village of Alpriate.

The numbers of pilgrims making the journey from Lisbon to Porto before traveling on to Santiago are fewer, so I was delighted we encountered a couple of other pilgrims during the day. At the albergue in Alpriate we were reunited along with two others. In the only little cafe in town we sat and ate our evening meal and got to hear the stories of our new Camino family. A true Camino experience.

Our Albergue in Alpriate