Camino Portugues Day 11 (The finish!)

Camino Portugues Day 11

Herbon to Santiago de Compostela

Starting km: 229.7

Finishing km: 256.2

Distance walked: 26.5

We hadn't planned for this to be our final day on the Camino.  Even when we left the monastery in the morning, we were planning to just walk 12 or 13km to the final municipal Albergue in Teo, then stop there leaving us with an easy cruise on in to Santiago on day 12.

But it rained most of the morning and, despite this and a few small muddy bits, the walking was actually quite nice.  When we arrived at the Teo Albergue, it was still over two hours until it would open. And it was only about 2.5 hours walk to the place we were considering staying.  So that was that. On we went through surprisingly few suburbs and yet more pleasant forest.

And just as we were arriving in Santiago proper the rain stopped.  On our way into town we saw quite a few other pilgrims, but also lots of Santiagans (doubtless familiar with the passing parade) going about regular life.

With less than 2km left we took a small diversion fr the route to pop into our hostel.  We dropped off our packs and took long hot showers before returning to the road to properly conclude our Camino.

Most of Santiago appeared pretty unremarkable, but as you approach the cathedral the old city begins, and all of the buildings turn into restaurants and shops selling Camino related souvenirs.  We were only about 400m away when we saw the towers of the cathedral for the first time. Minutes later we were in the square in front of it. The sun had come out to welcome us and dozens of other pilgrims, most still with their backpacks, walking clothes and boots still on (we had some of our walking clothes on, but Sarah had changed her shoes and we were both sans packs).  We joined the other pilgrims sitting in the square, basking in the glow of the sun and of having reached the ebd of our roads. Several of our friends from the trail were there, and we passed several more when we finally got up and made our way a few hundred metres further to the pilgrims’ reception office.

There we joined a short queue and received the final stamps in our credencials, closing out our journey.  I got my Compostela (certificate indicating completion of the pilgrimage) and eventually (after some confusion caused by her saying she didn't want the route-and-distance-specific certificate, Sarah got hers as well.

Not entirely surprisingly, they've already suffered a bit, as we went grocery shopping on our way home, but really it's the thoughts and memories that count anyway.

So here we are.  Warm and dry in our hostel sipping celebratory cava and enjoying the end of our Camino.  I'll probably write one final entry tomorrow with a few final Camino memories and reflections, but for now, we're finished!

Wine of the day:

As mentioned before (and implied by the photo below) Lots!

Camino Portugues Day 10

Camino Portugues Day 10

Caldas de Reis to Herbon

Starting km: 211.3

Finishing km: 229.7

Distance walked: 18.4

I think this was probably our nicest day's walking in Spain.  It was almost all just through nice trails on fairly new (seeming) forest reserve.

We stopped for our coffee around 10:30. We've done this every day we have a kitchen available to make coffee in the morning, pausing sometime in the final 10km of the day's walk.  Today's spot was under a little covered bridge (next to the older looking stone bridge).

When we left for the day we'd planned to head to the town of Padron.  Part way along I revisited the idea of staying at the monastery in the nearby town of Herbon (I keep wanting to say Hebron).  At first it seemed like it would be impossible, as apparently its opening was delayed until April 17 (4 days hence) this year, but a bit more research indicated that it opened the previous week.

So we took the fairly well signed turnoff from the main Camino and walked 2.5km up the Ulla River. It wasn't open yet, so we went for a wander around the town of Herbon.

One of our favourite tapas in Spain has been Pimentos de Padron.  I'd learned that Padron, where the Camino passes by, is the home of this dish of fried, mildly spicy small green peppers.  But in Herbon we learned that this village, and in fact the Convento Franciscano de Herbon were the exact source of the dish.  We tried our luck in the town pub, which advertised Pimentos on its awning, but all they were serving to the big Sunday afternoon crowd was small tapas of pork and chick pea stew (which was, despite my disappointment at missing out on the peppers) very yummy.

Back at the Monastery, we received a tremendously warm welcome.  The pilgrim beds are in former monastic cells, so each pair has there own tiny bedroom.

In the afternoon brother José gave us a tour of the monastery.  He spoke French and Spanish. Other than Sarah and I, every single person in the tour group was from Germany and spoke English and German.  So somehow I got given the job of traducteur, translating from French to English as we spent half an hour visiting the grounds. The place had functioned variously as convent, seminary, leper colony, monastery and pilgrim hostel.  It had a strong association with proselytism in the new world, and this showed up in the decoration of the church, the legends surrounding it, and even the plants out in the (very large) garden.

The place began its life in the fourteenth century, but the most significant remaining parts are from the 17th (the church and a lot of the monastery) and the early 19th (most of the modern pilgrims’ hostel).

After the tour we had a bit of a break, and then joined the villagers for Palm Sunday Mass.  This was for just about all of the “pilgrims” a case of just watching what everyone else was doing and copying them (including grabbing olive branches on the way in The Mass concluded with a special blessing for all of the peregrinos.  While I'm not a devout Catholic (indeed, I'm not at all religious), it was both affecting and touching to see how seriously the brothers and the local residents took the pilgrimage, and I felt like it gave me a closer connection to its history and heritage.

That night we had a collective dinner, prepared by our hosts at the Albergue.  It was lots of fun to spend the remains of the evening talking with them and the fellow walkers for the third and final time on our Camino.

The generosity and affection of everyone involved in running this Albergue was very infectious, and it was probably my favourite place we stayed on the Camino.  It's interesting to observe that (at least with me and the couple others I talked to about this) that the Albergues which are operated most out of passion and love for the Camino, and request donations (donativos) probably end up (for a variety of reasons) doing better financially than those that simply charge a fixed fee.

We had a wonderful sleep in our cell, thoroughly enjoying our final night on the Camino.

Wine of the day:

House (or should that be Abbey?) Red with dinner.  It actually wasn't the best wine we've had in Spain, but the company and atmosphere made it.

Camino Portugues Day 9

Camino Portugues Day 9

Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis

Starting km: 188.4

Finishing km: 211.3

Distance walked: 22.9

The sunrise this morning was gorgeous.  We left the Albergue at 07:52, eight minutes prior to the mandatory departure time.  I kind of wanted to wait and see what happened to the fifteen or twenty people who were still getting ready when we left!

Aside from the lovely start passing through the bits of Pontevedra we'd seen the day before, the day's walking was pretty unremarkable.  Mostly rural, but fairly new buildings everywhere. And lots of it alongside the major N550 roadway (though thankfully this was on a quite recently constructed pathway alongside the road).

We had a fun moment not too far from the end when we stopped into a little farmhouse winery around 11:30, and split a half litre of their white (which came with a bowl of chips and olives).  We were the first customers of the day, but by the time we left, marching happily along for our final hour's walk into Caldas de Reis.

The town was pretty, but very grey and very empty when we arrived.  This was our first private accommodation on the camino, but it’s a atypical jn that instead of acting as a fancier alternative to the municipal albergues, it acts in place of them on a stretch of trail that really doesn't have any.  It was hit and miss. It wasn't quite as clean or modern as the “munis”, but had a proper kitchen, less stringent in and out times, and bedrooms with four single beds for the first sixteen to arrive (a welcome relief for Sarah who'd been kept up by snoring in the previous night's 28 bed dorm).

The big attraction of Caldas de Reis is its hot springs.  There are actually public pools that you can soak in. Unfortunately these were closed for renovation.  But we could still go to the ancient hot fountains and sit on the edge of the larger one and soak our feet while drinking a bottle of Gallican cider.

I made a fabulous (if I do say so myself) baked eggplant dish for dinner.  We had a nice time eating it, drinking our day's bottle of wine and chatting with the Korean group who shared part of the sixteen bed apartment with us.  I'm feeling much more cheerful now than when we arrived, and well ready to tackle the final 45km to Santiago de Compostela.

Today's wine:

Robalino Albariño

White made in Pontaverda (where we started the day) from Galicia's signature grape.  Very fragrant. Reminds me of a nice dry gewürztraminer.

Camino Portugues Day 8

Camino Portugues Day 8

Redondela to Pontevedra

Starting km: 169.4

Finishing km: 188.4

Distance walked: 19.0

I was just getting ready to say something unflattering about the Spanish sections of the Camino Portugues, and then we went and had a really lovely day.  Almost all of the walk was through forest, and much of it on old Roman Road XIX. You could tell which bits were still original by the smooth but deep ruts in the huge thick paving stones.  And there were some lovely views out over the inlets and bays along the coast as we approached our destination.

Likewise, while Tui had been amazing, the other Spanish cities and towns had been a little underwhelming.  But then Pontevedra came to the rescue. This was partly due to it being a lovely town, with tons of pilgrimage history (e.g. the sanctuary of pilgrims, right in the city's heart).  

But it also had a fait bit to do with the fact that we walked a scant 19km today, arriving on the southern outskirts of Pontrvedra around 11:40, an hour and twenty minutes before the Albergue even opened for the day.  So we sat and drank coffees, then a wine and a beer, before checking in.

With all this done so early, and with our bodies still in such good shape, we had the time and motivation to walk into the city for a look around.  We even stopped for a cider at a sideria. As with the Spanish Cervecerias, which are places that serve beer not make beer, I was a bit disappointed to realize that it was “merely” a cider bar.  But it made up for this by having Galician sidra natural (bottle conditioned cider) served from 750ml bottles in this crazy contraption that pumped (not pressure forced) the cider out from just above the bottom of the bottle through a dip tube when you pressed a button, thus allowing you to share a bottle without stirring up the lees.

We, and many of the other walkers, also had time to enjoy the big Albergue lawn and the sunny afternoon. Many of them sat playing cards, talking, drinking beer or coffee, or just resting in the sun.

The Albergue itself was a good one too, as unlike all of the others we'd visited in Galicia, it had pots and pans and dishes in the kitchen, and it didn't ban alcohol.  So Sarah and I cooked a roasted garlic and red pepper stew and concluded it by enjoying it with a bottle of Galicia's finest out on the lawn with Luisa, a young German woman who we'd walked with earlier and who had rejoined us again this evening.

Today's wine:

Casal do Rio

A Galician white that tasted like an off-dry Pinot Gris or maybe a soft Riesling.  Nothing special, but nice and did a good job cutting through the stew that I accidentally massively oversalted.

Camino Portugues Day 7

Camino Portugues Day 7

Tui to Redondela

Starting km: 136.7

Finishing km: 169.4

Distance walked: 32.7

Today was a large amount of mostly pretty mediocre walking bookended by some lovely stuff.

We left the hostel at Tui just after 07:30, in acknowledgement of the many kilometres ahead of us.  It was bloody cold out, especially on my uncovered toes. Walking through the medieval city, then through the forest on the outskirts as the sun came up was very nice.  We had a morning coffee (along with every other pilgrim, it seemed) around 09:30 at a lovely, bright little trailside cafe.

A bit more nice forest, including a few km along a narrow slice in between the industrial suburbs of O Porriño and the motorway.  And then it was into the city of O Porriño itself.

This may be a bit unfair, as we only walked one path through O Porriño, but the Camino trail does seem to make an effort to take you through the nicest parts of each town, so I suspect it may be true and will thus say it anyway: O Porriño is a bit of a dump compared to the other towns and cities we've been walking through.  All gritty not-quite-modern-anymore housing and industrial facilities. At least it had a Lidl. As you may know, I've become bizarrely obsessed with the Lidl supermarket chain as making the most reliably good and cheap bread at their in store bakeries.

Eventually we left the northern suburbs of O Porriño and climbed up a modest 200m hill.  We were rewarded with a truly lovely view of our destination for the day, Redondela, along with its surrounding hills and the estuary of the Miño River.  It's here that the Portuguese Coastal Camino runs into an obstacle it can't get across and joins up with our more traditional central route.

Final comments of the day are on dogs:

The Portuguese and Spanish love to keep very large, very barky dogs.  We were constantly being startled by them as we walked past houses. In fact on day one of the Camino I was so surprised by one I jumped and sort of kicked a nearby signpost, which stripped the skin off the top of the fourth toe on my left foot.  It's not been infected or anything, but is only just starting to heal. Spending so long on the feet every day has been a bit hard on it.

Anyhow, my other dog comment was about our walking companion.  We first saw the little beagle cross guy in O Porriño. A few km later we saw him again walking beside a Czech lady we'd met earlier.  And finally we saw him again outside the restaurant where she was having lunch. He started following us, sometimes barking at, but generally mostly ignoring the dogs behind fences that we passed.  At one point though we passed a driveway with two feline guardians and he spent several minutes growling fiercely at two stone lions before running along to catch us up. He would not be shaken or dissuaded (we certainly didn't give him food or water) so he ended up accompanying us 10km to Redondela we left him outside the Albergue, but haven't seen him since.  Hopefully he's found his way home if he has one, or at least has come across some more friendly companions.

Today's wine:

Cider!  Three bottles in the park with a picnic dinner.  One of the favourite Maeloc and two Sidras Naturals from Asturias.  These came in 700ml corked bottles with no lips (pirate rum bottles I called them).  These were dried and bottle conditioned with sediment in them. One was a bit sulfurous, but really good once this blew off.  The other was cleaner, unfortunately to the point of maybe being a bit boring. Still lots of fun though!

Camino Portugues Day 6

Camino Portugues Day 6

Rubiaes to Tui

Starting km: 116.7

Finishing km: 136.7

Distance walked: 20.0

Was raining when I woke up and I really didn't want to get out of bed.  But we waited til 08:15 to leave and while we were waiting the rain stopped.  That'll teach those suckers to get up so early! Or so I thought. It started again pretty much the moment we stepped out the door.  Rained solidly for almost an hour, but then the sun came out and lasted pretty much the rest of the day.

Walking was a mix of nice forest, small country roads and, near the end some really cracking good old architecture.  In the town of Valencia, Portugal (not to be confused with or mispronounced as Valencia, Spain, as a number of fellow walkers kept doing) the Camino went straight through the old fortress.  The current fort dates from the 17th anf 17th centuries. Its a good spot for a fort, as it occupies a strategic spot astride and high above the Minho River, which also happens to be the border with Spain in this part of the world.

After the fort we headed straight across said river, returning to Spain after an absence of one week.  Tui, Spain is on the far side, and has an amazing Gothic cathedral that looks more like a fortress itself!

The Albergue in Tui is a lovely restored stone building, but is a bit more officious and institutional than the ones in Portugal were.  No pots, pans or dishes in the kitchen. Earlier curfew and earlier mandatory departure time in the morning. And no alcoholic beverages in the Albergue.  All the same, we went down to the riverside for a picnic and for:

Wine of the day:

Our last Vinho Verde of the Camino, purchased in Valença before crossing the border.  This was drunk with a picnic in a park down by the river because of the aforementioned albergue alcohol ban!

Camino Portugues Day 5

Camino Portugues Day 5

Ponte de Lima to Rubiaes

Starting km: 99.1

Finishing km: 116.7

Distance walked: 17.6

Today was the first day that you could properly call “tramping”.  We'd very clearly left even the exurbs of Porto behind. Everything was truly rural now.

Most of the walking was actually in forest, with several unavoidable puddles to get your feet wet.  And there was a hill! Admittedly, neither very high nor steep (350m vertical at around a 5% grade). But it was probably the biggest one on the Camino Portugues north of Porto, so it looks as though I'll probably be able to manage the whole thing in jandals.

Despite leaving the Albergue at 08:56 and being slightly hungover from the previous nights dinner party, we were somehow the fifth and sixth arrivals at the next one in Rubiaes.  This one was a lovely old building just outside of a small village and above a small Roman bridge.

We're getting to know our walking companions fairly well now.  There are heaps of young German women. After Germans, Portuguese are probably the number two nationality, but I reckon walking the Camino Portugues must feel, for them, like doing one of the Great Walks does to a Kiwi.

Memorable fellow walkers include:

Karina, a white-blonde German who has huge blisters and am injured knee, but is carrying on doing the Camino by public transport one stage at a time so that she can continue the journey with the new friends she made over the first few days.

Anastasia and her other (quiter, less comfortable in English) Russian friend.  They're from St. Petersburg. Anastasia has crazy steampunk looking lilac hair and gave me some tea brewed with foraged herbs and some Russian chocolate to say thanks for the previous night's dinner.

The bedroom has about twenty bunk beds in it, which kind of makes it feel like you're in a whole little other world while up there.  As every night there were a few snorers in the room, but after about fifteen minutes of reading I couldn't keep my eyes open and had a nice, long sleep.

Wine of the day:

Wasn't super in the mood for wine when I went shopping to be honest, but felt like I should get a bottle to keep the streak alive.  Ended up sharing with the Albergue host (first one we've met who didn't really speak any language other than Portuguese).

Adagas Murça Tinto

Nice simple young red.  Not sure if it even had any oak in it, but it went very well with the pasta and sauce I made (lots of garlic and onion, tomato puree, a little hot smoked paprika, salt, red wine and a ton of fennel I picked from along the Camino and chopped up).

Camino Portugues Day 4

Camino Portugues Day 4

Tamel to Ponte de Lima

Starting km: 74.4

Finishing km: 99.1

Distance walked: 24.7

When I woke up this morning I was already composing another paragraph about inconsiderate hostel mates.  But a day like this makes you say “let it go, life's too otherwise wonderful and too short”.

We're now fully out of Porto's exurbs.  Walking today was 100% in countryside with goats, pigs and grape vines abounding.

The trail was mostly over cobbled laneways, which are tough when you're in jandals, especially when walking downhill.

Speaking of feet and so on, both of ours are pretty much fine.  My soles are taking a pounding walking in jandals, and I surely wouldn't want to do more than about 30km a day in them, but it's starting to become one of those silly things where once I've come this far in them, I don't want to stop. Plus I love being known by all the other walkers as Flip Flop Guy.

Got to Ponte de Lima and my isn't it pretty!  Huge avenue of trees leading to a medieval town and a Roman bridge.

Got there before one and the Albergue didn't open til four, so we had some time to pass.

We had a craft beer each in a cafe (came with free cake), and then bought a bottle of wine (half the price of a single fancy beer at the cafe.  I must learn more about the economics of all this) and sat in the park by a very high river.

Made about 14 litres of soup for dinner.  A German brought bread. A Spaniard brought wine.  An Italian cigars. Czechs, Koreans, Brazilians, Germans, Poles and Spaniards brought their company.  Ended up struggling to give the last few bowls away, but the lady at the Albergue front desk was happy to have one.

Twenty bed dormitory with all single beds!  It's on the top floor, so the rain that the forecast predicted only slightly early is lulling us to sleep.

Today's wine: Maezinha Verde Branco.  We ended up drinking the local mini market out of this bright, fruity, cheap, petillant white.  When the first bottle was €1.30 and very yummy, why go elsewhere?

Bonus wines: light (in tannins) fruity reds that Massimo brought for dinner.  And still more Verde Branco (this stuff without a label, which usually is either a bad sign or a good sign, in this case it was good) that Domingo brought.

Camino Portugues Day 3

Camino Portugues Day 3

Rates to Tamel

Starting km: 48.4

Finishing km: 74.4

Distance walked: 26.0

We had an alarm set for 07:15.  Some people were up and moving around (and even out the door) by 06:15, but no problem, they were quiet and considerate.  Then at 06:40, when four people were still laying in bed, an older German lady who had gone out to the bathroom burst back into the room and turned on the lights.  When some of us sat up looking less than entirely pleased she said, in a concerned sounding tone, “you don't want the lights on? It's seven o'clock!” As though anyone still in bed must have been unwell or morally unsound or perhaps both.

Sarah and I, lazy reprobates that we are, made a nice breakfast and were on the road by 07:45.  The day was almost all on quiet country and/or village roads. A few bits went through gorgeous smelling eucalyptus plantations.  It was a grey morning, but pleasantly cool and actually very nice for walking.

About 18km in, the largest settlement we'd seen since Porto, the lovely small city of Barcelos.  Clearly the Camino is a big part of its economy, as there were three official pilgrims’ hostels there, plus loads of other hotels, restaurants and shops advertising themselves to Camino walkers.  However being Sunday, there wasn't a heck of a lot actually open.

We stopped in at one place that was, a supermarket on the far side of town.  As we left it started raining in earnest, but there was little enough left that we didn't really mind, only about 9km to go.  Got to the town of Tamel (interesting that it shares a name with the big tourist district in Nepal). At 13:15 the hostel hadn't even opened yet, so we popped into the only other business in the village, a restaurant, and sat with eight or ten other pilgrims and had a couple of exceptionally cheap (€0.80) drinks.  

The hostel is a modern building, under ten years old.  The guy who checked in after us was guest number forty thousand.  It’s got quite a bit of both mortared rough stone and floor to ceiling glass in its construction.  We're sitting in the comfy lounge drinking coffee, eating cheese toasties, strawberries and chocolate as I write.  It's always much nicer doing this kind of thing when you can look at the wretched weather as you do it (and greet the other drowned-cat looking walkers, many of whom we spent the afternoon and evening with yesterday) as they arrive.

Today's wine:

Campelo Branco (white) Vinho Verde.  Local stuff, DOC Barcelos!

Bonus wine:

Very yummy fizzy stuff on tap at the restaurant where we waited for the hostel to open for the afternoon.