Allyson Johnson

Day One on the Caminho Portuguese- Porto to Barcelos

At Porto, the Caminho starts in front of the cathedral, looking out over the city. Here is where you pick up your empty Camino passport – filled with stamps from businesses along the way it might earn you a certification as a true peregrina. The symbol on the pylon is the official stylized scallop shell logo of the Pilgrimage. The arrow, of course, points the route, and within the small oval is the number of kilometers you have between you and your goal in Santiago. From one of many vendors about the place, you can purchase an actual scallop shell to hang on your backpack to let everyone know you are on the Way.

Following the advice of a Caminho Whisperer whom Michele consulted, we are taking the train through the industrial outskirts of Porto, and beginning our walk in Barcelos, a charming town about fifty kilometers along the way.

We are staying just across the river from the medieval walls and chapel of Barcelos, at the Top ‘Otel. This is a modern, sleek, brightly colored inn, whose only defect is a lack of elevators to carry us to our rooms on the top floor.

Barcelos is famous for its roosters, based on a legendary appearance of Saint James in support of a pilgrim falsely accused of theft and sentenced to hang. A medieval cross within the castle grounds illustrates the miracle.

The condemned man cries out to his judge who is eating a dinner of roasted chicken “As sure as I am innocent, that cock will rise and crow if I am hanged!” To everyone’s shock, the roasted cockerel did rise and crow, the judge rushed to the gallows and found that the pilgrim, though hanging, was not strangled: Saint James had appeared and supported his feet.

The man was cut down, the judge apologized, and the rooster became the symbol not only of Barcelos, but also of Portugal.