Pinch me!

Well the wedding was absolutely perfect and I’m thrilled that James and Chelsea are so happy. I am really lucky that my kids have partners that I love as much as my own. It was an emotional time and although in true fashion, I livened up the wedding with a series of blunders and perhaps inappropriate humour, it was such a great day and it was wonderful to have the family all together in one place.

I grabbed my luggage and headed to the Brisbane airport the next day for my next adventure…a Spiritual Camino along the Portuguese coast. You may or may not know that somehow I am taking a group of 7 with me this time. How the hell I have myself in this position fascinates me. I’m late wherever I go, I’m a bit of an airhead and don’t even know where I’m going because I haven’t done this walk before. Watch this space…anything can happen.

We are a mixture of personalities but I have a feeling it is going to be a wild ride I met Leslie and Sue briefly in the Brisbane airport. They went on to Amsterdam and I headed to Dubai where I met up with Moira and we travelled together to Porto where Phyllis was waiting. The three of us booked into an albergue and spent yesterday walking and exploring. Phyllis is a comedian so we have spent the whole time laughing and trying to control our aging bladders. Moira is the calm and gentle one and I suspect she will be the mother of the group and the voice of reason.

I cut my adventures short and left the other two because I had a surprise visit from a friend. Who knows what they got up to but I’m told it involved a lot of walking, an Uber ride… and feeling left out, they put themselves on tinder and got nearly 300 likes and a few offers( which they didn’t take up-it was just for a laugh). I think I need to supervise these two!

I was the lucky one as I had a magnificent meal, a few glasses of red, and lovely long chat with my friend Simon, a fellow Aussie I met earlier in the year whilst walking the Camino. He was on the way to walk a Camino too but took a bit of a detour so we could catch up. Awesome!

During that afternoon, we did the obligatory visit to The now famous bookshop that apparently inspired J. K. Rowling to write Harry Potter.

We wandered the town doing touristy stuff and visited the Sao Bento station to see the tiled walls depicting the history of Portugal.

We stayed for two nights at the Yes Porto Hostel and the girls loved it. Nervous about sharing space and experiencing hostel life, it was a wonderful introduction and they were pleasantly surprised what 25 euros can get in the way of accommodation. It is a fantastic albergue! (2 euro breakfast as well)

We also walked over the bridge and went on the gondola ride which gave spectacular views, and had lunch alongside the river.

Great day and I must have pinched myself a hundred times to appreciate the moment and savour it all.

This is not a funny post because I don’t really feel like writing just now, but I want to keep a bit of a diary. Watch this space. Our adventure begins tomorrow at sparrows. (Aussie word for early)