Day 2, but really day 1, except..

Except tomorrow is really day 3 or day 1 - of walking!
Yesterday was 12 hours of travel, from Hampshire to Porto, via Basingstoke, Clapham Junction and Gatwick Airport. It didn't help the usual travel anxiety (like, have I packed everything, forgotten anything, booked accommodation accurately) when the trains were on strike or having overtime bans. It also didn't help that I'd already left the house and was merrily on my way to the station when I realised I'd forgotten my bumbag (with passport, money, cards and phone!) so had to rush back to collect it 🙄😂. Then it didn't help that I couldn't remember if I'd locked the front door after myself! Dear me! (I had, happily confirmed by my neighbour 😄).
Anyway, trains were running and I managed to get to Basingstoke, where I was meeting Julie, who was having her own problems with packed trains - she wasn't sure she'd be able to get on one at Winchester. But she did, and I joined her for a standing room only journey to Clapham Junction, where we took the Gatwick train and cracked open the Fizz and the Freddos. We know how to live!
We lunched at Gatwick (a very nice healthy salad and a not so healthy glass of white each) and tipped our waiter generously as he'd called us beautiful and lovely 😀. Doesn't take much!
Time flew, and, eventually, so did we. It was a good flight and our bags arrived shortly after we did, thank goodness!
There followed a trip on the metro and a bus to our accommodation, 6km outside of Porto centre. It's just one room with a small shower room and a fish tank! Seems we're responsible for keeping loads of little neons or some such alive. We have to feed them tonight 😱😂. So after a late evening meal of a WHSmith pasta dish, it was time for bed.
Portugal is on UK time so we woke up at our usual times and spent a leisurely couple of hours or so playing with our packs, taping our toes and/or feet, and eating yesterday's WHSmith dessert of yoghurt. A good start to the day.
We left our room at 0900 and headed for the river, just a couple of hundred metres away. Keeping the Duoro to our right, we headed into Porto, and not even I could get lost! It's all flat and was a lovely walk - we're used to a mighty wind and rain in this area (last couple of caminos here) but it was wonderful. A bit of an uphill helped us make the decision to stop at a cafe for cake/coke/coffee (our second breakfast) and we headed off to the cathedral. Well, okay, if we'd have taken my route, we'd have got lost but, fortunately, I had Julie to turn me 180 degrees whereupon I found the cathedral!😂
We had our credentials stamped with our first sello and wandered around the cathedral, inside and out and up a tower, took some photos, and decided to find lunch. We couldn't find a sandwich shop with actual sandwiches so the Spar it was🙄. But - we found delicious sandwiches there and lovely juicy tomatoes, so were very happy sitting at the waterfront munching away.
A lovely bimble back along the waterfront, this time keeping the Duoro to our left (see, I know where I'm going 😂) and we arrived at a very convenient small bar selling beer - our first camino beer, but not our last! Even Sid joined in.
It just remains for us to find somewhere or something for supper and repack our backpacks ready for tomorrow, our first proper day of walking. We've already knocked 6km off, so it should just be 18km. It should... I'll let you know!
(Other posts won't be 2 days long, don't worry!)Read more