Thursday morning and a fairly short run today, 16K. Sorry to leave our parador but we were waiting for the restaurant to open at 8 and were on the road by 8:30.

Have been keeping an eye open to see if I notice many significant differences between Portugal and Spain as we walk through both countries especially since one of the most rewarding things about walking is that you do have time to notice. . Have picked up a number of things; I know this may be treading on dangerous ground but I'm not ascribing national characteristics to my observations, simply noting what I see...

Yesterday, Tuesday, we started a little later than we would have liked but the host at our lodging was persistent in his attentions, barely left us alone and talked continually about himself. He determined that our day’s walk was not very long and so he wanted to sleep and serve breakfast at 9. After some clearly articulated resistance he relented and he, or rather his long-suffering wife, served us breakfast at 8:30 while he continued to regale us as we ate.

We finally started out about 9:15 in the rain, which while not as intense as on the previous day, continued with brief intermittent breaks for most of the day. Our terrain was easier today, not much in the way of climbs, but the trade-off was thatwhile we did not have mountain torrents in our path, we instead had ponds and lakes...

Easter day and our first real test, a 33K hike from Barcelos to Ponte de Lima. We left at 7:30 and arrived at our hotel in Ponte de Lima at about 5:30, a very long day of walking. I had decided that I was seriously over dressing for my walks so today I wore shorts and a shirt and my hiking runners, and as we left in the morning it was very foggy and cool and the sun had not yet risen. I was really worried that I had over-compensated and would regret not wearing more warm clothing but it was too late as all the rest of my clothes were in my luggage, waiting to be picked up at our hotel. Being chilly is certainly a motivator to pick up the pace and we came up out of the town as the sun rose, stunningly beautiful and the air began to warm and all was good again....

Today felt as if it was going to be a long day and since the ladies, my four traveling companions, were staying at a different hotel I resolved to start off early. After the first two days walking I felt quite creaky and I was sure that I'd be moving somewhat more slowly than the others. This decision was aided by the fact that my hotel was an old, rambling homestead on the outskirts of the very small hamlet where we stayed the night. It was raining intermittently, grey and overcast and my hotel was damp and quite dark, with original stone steps and landings throughout the rambling space that were misaligned and quite treacherous in the semi-darkness. The only merit of the place was that heat was provided by a couple of radiators which is now becoming a critical determinant of a high value lodging...

Arrived in Porto yesterday, Monday, afternoon after a long overnight flight and a 2 hour delayed flight from Frankfurt to Porto. I have been here before; when Diana did her Camino a couple of years ago, I rented a car and the two of us poked our way from Santiago down to Porto, where I left her to return home and she to continue on to Lisbon.

It was August then and extremely hot and since Porto's main centre is built on opposite sides of the very steep banks of the Duoro river, hot and tiring work to climb the steep streets...

I'm in the final stages of preparation for walking the Portugal route of the Camino de Santiago. I leave on Sunday evening for Porto, spend a couple of days getting myself organized and start the walk from Porto in Portugal to Santiago de Compestela in Spain on my 72'nd birthday, March 24.

Daughter Diana did the walk from St Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees to Santiago a couple of years ago, about 753 kilometres. As a surprise, I met her at the end of her walk on the outskirts of Santiago and walked the last kilometre with her to the Cathedral. It was a very moving experience and we had talked about the two of us doing a portion of the walk together. Unfortunately her teaching schedule only allows her to do it in summer and I've been concerned about tramping through the heat of a Spanish summer so we have not yet found a way to make it work...

Have been in NO since last Saturday. Have an assignment for some client headshots in the city and came a couple of days early to see and experience Mardi Gras. V who is with me and who will be assisting me and acting as makeup person on the shoot has never been to NO before but I have visited on a number of work-related occasions in the past, the last time about 6 years ago, shortly before my retirement.

I remember NO from my various visits going back to the early '80s, as living up to its reputation as a pretty wild place, a port city with all that implies, bars and clubs that never closed....

We arrived in Tobago a couple of days ago, Dec 29, after a few days in Port of Spain. We have spent lots of time and trips in Barbados over the years, as this is where my mother’s family live and where I grew up and went to school, boarding at Lodge School until we left for Canada. However I was born in Trinidad, the home of my father’s family, but left at a very early age when my parents, following the war (WW II), moved to Barbados my mother’s birthplace from Trinidad, my father’s birthplace.

While I always hear the siren call of Barbados, I felt that we were long overdue to rebuild the connections to my Trinidad family...