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  • Porto to Vilarinho, 26 km

    11 de abril, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    First day of the short Camino. I had (amazingly) a great sleep. Started walking around 8:00. The weather app on my phone had said it would start raining early this afternoon. It was off by a few hours. Already raining when I left my room. Light rain and drizzle all morning. The temperature was great - jacket weather. But lots of offing and oning of the rain coat. And the fancy cobbles in the centre of the city are treacherous when wet!!!!

    It was a sort of long but not hard day. It was a long flat exit to the city. I’d read people’s complaints about cobblestones on this Camino before. How hard can they be??? I have new shoes that still have some cushion. Ha! It was about 3;30 when I finally stepped on some dirt.

    I don’t mind the big long ex-urban walks. It is kind of cool to see the edges of cities. But I’m hoping for a bit of unpaved ground tomorrow, which will be a little bit longer.

    It feels like early summer. Wisteria in full bloom. Trees covered in oranges and lemons, some of them as big as a softball (a squished softball). Huge. Twice as big as any lemon we could buy at home.

    My new tiny and waterproof (!) and light pack feels pretty good so far!

    I stopped twice for coffee and once for lunch. Things are inexpensive. And there are so many pastries and so much bread. I have a Portuguese repertoire of about ten words. I did no homework before I came - one of the less important effects of the strike on at work! I saw a few peregrinos in the morning and then some more this afternoon. There are definitely people around but it doesn’t feel crowded. For a tiny bit I walked near a young English couple who were singing tragic old English folk tunes.

    I’m staying in a private albergue tonight. Room of six people. Windows wide open (for which I am grateful). Everyone now is on their phone. Including me. But 5 of us had dinner at a bakery. And then came back to tour the two separate parts of the albergue. Their side comes with an open bottle of port and a stack of wee glasses.

    So great to be walking!!!!
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  • Day 2 Vilarinho to Barcelos 30.5 km

    12 de abril, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Long day on cobblestones! This was a mixed day of walking. Some boring roads, some great views, every so often a little bit of dirt, lots of cafés, and many many cobblestones. It was supposed to rain, but it didn’t. I think the highest the temperature got was about 18 or 19, but to someone who was walking in snow a few days ago, that felt very hot.

    Saw lots of people today. Probably a dozen people walked by while I was having coffee in Vilarinho. Leap-frogged with Niko from Holland. And then a few others - Joe and Joan from Ireland, Florence from Hong Kong and her friend Yuning from Taiwan. There were lots of breaks - one for coffee, one for a pesto sandwich, one for some kind of fizzy juice and a salty snack. Beer before coming up to the room.

    Part of today felt very rural but even in the small places there were still a lot of cars. When they drive fast on the cobblestones (which is often), it sounds like a jet. I am up for a bit more quiet tomorrow.

    Cool little park with found object art display and poems and a rooster, which is a thing for Barcelos.

    Lots of draped crosses, which I assume is an Easter thing??? At one church they were putting out palm fronds, and they had not just draped the crosses, but they had also wrapped purple cloth around the outdoor lights too. What’s that about?

    Walking into Barcelinos you go under a highway, alongside a big cloverleaf. Something was very wrong. Cars were backed up in every direction not moving. Motorcycle police. People getting out of their cars to look. There must’ve been an accident. The car chaos was something! Hard not to think that walking was the better choice.

    I have my annual not terrible blister. I’ll wear sandals tomorrow.

    I’m staying in a private room in a house owned by a hotel. It’s almost like an albergue. There is a big shared kitchen. A few people cooked. I went out for excellent tapas and a very good glass of wine instead. Hung out with them for a little while when I got back.

    Longer day tomorrow. I’m hoping for a bit of dirt!
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  • Day 3 Barcelos to Ponte de Lima, 34 km

    13 de abril, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    It was a long day but it didn’t feel as hard as yesterday. Weather was fantastic. Sunny, temperature below 20, and sometimes a good breeze. There were fewer cobblestones and and there was more shade. And it finally felt like we had made it to the countryside.

    Today’s featured pilgrims: Louise from South Africa, who is a kinesiologist (I teach in a kinesiology department and I can’t say I know any actual kinesiologists!); Miriam from Germany, with her carved and decorated walking stick; the two Polish sisters and their friend, all of whom walk very fast; the Canadian woman from Alberta, who walks while her husband follows by bike. There was a brief cameo by Niko from Holland, and a quick check via what’s app by Yuning and Florence, whom I will see again tomorrow. Lots of people passing by anytime you stop. But it doesn’t feel overwhelming ( she writes in her quiet private room). And there were two good long stops. One in a crowded bakery where the staff were very nice despite being run off their feet. Every second person came in to buy a fancy cake for Easter, the kind with shiny tops. One of the polish sisters found a €50 note on the floor! Stop #2 was in a kind of depressing taberna around 2:00. The place picked up when the men who’d been playing soccer across the road came in for post game drinks. They were super friendly.

    The day also featured chapels and churches decorated for Easter, a gazillion cats, 2 men riding horses, one of them ( the men) dressed in some kind of nineteenth century outfit, a huge walking group, a pond full of frogs, and a dog who got itself tangled in a vine - on its own driveway- and then could not get out. I asked a woman to stop and then she rang the doorbell of the house several times ( this was before 8 am on a Sunday) until a woman put her head out the window. There were also many scruffy brown sheep and at least 100 male cyclists, most in groups, out for their Sunday morning rides. Do women not ride bicycles ? It’s too weird. The two women cyclist that I did see were travelling with a man who was pulling a baby carrier that was a holding big golden retriever. He, the dog, was wearing a vest with his (boy) name on it, but I can’t remember what it was. Those 4 were on their way to Santiago.

    It was a good day for wildflowers and also for the ubiquitous calla lily. They have been everywhere since Porto but today you really got the sense of how invasive they are. Same deal with the big huge yellow angel trumpet flowers ( I think).

    I am staying in a room 1.3 km past the medieval bridge. It seemed like a good idea when I booked it. I knew it was not right on the Camino, but I clearly did not register how far away it was. It’s fine and my feet made it here. It’s very simple. Some kind of old residence. Things laid out for breakfast. $35 for the single room. It was a day to eat the food I’ve been carrying around.

    All the next days are short. Tomorrow I’ve booked in at a place that has communal dinners, O Ninho. I have not done that camino thing in ages!
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  • Day 4 Ponte de Lima to Rubiães, 18 km

    14 de abril, Portugal ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Short, wet day but finally in full countryside. And so many pilgrims! On their own, in groups, parents with their young adult children, another group of sisters, several groups of women, and probably more young walkers than I have ever seen before. There were not many chances for coffee today, and so everyone funnelled into the same places. A chair opens up, a new person sits down.

    The morning started with drizzle, but I lolled about in my room long enough that the rain had stopped by the time I got started. The exit from Ponte de Lima goes through a semi-natural park where I would want to walk the dog. Then it followed, on an elevated stone pathway, a small stream to the first real mud of the trip! From the weather report, which is predicting rain every day until I leave, I expect it won’t be the last. Towards the end of the day there were two places where the Camino is the best place for water to run. At this point it was mostly possible to keep from getting a soaker, but after even another day or two I would think not.

    One big hill with a trail full of rocks felt like hiking at home. Very thankful,as always, for my poles!

    It rained off and on all day. Hood on, hood off. Eventually it poured. Then it stopped. Then it drizzled. Etc. It’s so great to know the day will not end with me in a wet tent!

    Tonight I am staying at a very communal private albergue. When I arrived, I opened the door to a table of about ten people drinking wine. Marlene, the woman who owns it, was not here, so a Portuguese man( who is also staying here) showed me where the free beds were and I ended up with a private room. Big bonus! I guess there were supposed to be more people staying, but they did not all show up. I’m happy with that! It sounds like there is a lot of conviviality going on in the part of the house where the other beds are!

    Very nice communal meal. I can’t imagine cooking for 15 or 20 people every night. Lots of food, lots of vinho verde and port. Married Ukrainian couple, 2 friends from Czech Republic, a Dutch man, a guy from Montreal, a woman from Quebec who lives in BC, 3 German men, two together, one alone, a woman from Japan, who is married to a Swiss-Canadian, travels on a Swiss passport but now has citizenship in Spain, a Portuguese man and his son (who is studying sport science and will be taking sport history and sport sociology next year), a young Portuguese woman, one man at the far end of the table whom I did not meet, and me. And a cute little scruffy dog.

    I still have small blisters - I think they would’ve gone away today if I had worn my sandals, but that did not seem like a good idea in the rain. But they’re not too bad.

    Tomorrow a short day to Valença.
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  • Day 5 Rubiães to Valença, 18 km

    15 de abril, Portugal ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Short, easy, often pretty day with terrifically inaccurate weather reports! I was the last one out of the albergue this morning. Despite their late hours and the many empty wine bottles in the kitchen - everyone else was out by 8:00. Almost all of us were doing short days so I’m not sure what the rush was!

    My weather app promised clouds but no rain. Excellent! But I walked out the door into light rain that quickly turned into a downpour. Squelching shoes, ridiculously soaked gloves, damp everything. After 45 minutes or so the sun came out. I spent most of the next sunny hour warming up in a cafe. By the time I left it was spitting again. I tried not to think too much about my good waterproof gloves at home.

    Not much to report from the walk. It was pleasant - in and out of forests, small hamlets, fields, tiny hills. There were some raging streams and serious puddles. The sky was capricious all day. When the sun was out even the unexciting bits of the Camino felt spectacular.

    Best part of the walk was running into Florence and Yuning while I was stopped for second coffee in a kind of obscure bar. A tiny camino miracle. We had not seen each other yesterday or the day before. The terrace of the bar was not visible from the path and it didn’t really look like a normal place to stop. But I went in and they came along about 20 minutes later. They’ve gone on ahead and so I probably won’t see them again. There were lots of other peregrinos today, but no one I had met before.

    I’m staying in Valença in a new private albergue inside the walled part of the town. I’m writing this from inside a kind of plywood bunk pod! Each bunk has curtains. The mattresses are a bit wider than normal and quite decent. The place is nice but it is also full and very loud right now. One woman in the lounge upstairs has been holding forth (on religion, philosophy, camino etiquette and hygiene, wartime gender politics and I’m not sure what else.
    I had a great dinner at a restaurant about ten minutes walk south of the town walls. Fish, potatoes, salad. It’s the first salad I’ve found! Then ice cream in a very warm cafe!. And then it started to rain on my dry nighttime clothes so I just came back here!

    Tomorrow I’m going to Porriño to another private albergue with curtains. Spain!
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  • Day 6 Valença to O Porriño, 20 km

    16 de abril, Portugal ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    Woke up to more serious rain. No one at the albergue was running out the door. Yoghurt and muesli and fruit for the albergue breakfast. Deluxe!

    I left about 8:00. It was cool walking out of the fortress town, under arches, through a tunnel, across what could have been a moat. As soon as you leave, the arrows direct you to the bridge that crosses over to Spain. Did it take 5 minutes to walk across? The rain was magnificent. My shoes were filling with water from the top down. I think that is a new one for me! On the Tui side I walked past a building with a covered stone porch - there were about ten pilgrims trying to wait out the weather. I walked another block and did my waiting in a cafe. Had a long coffee break with a cyclist from Suffolk in the UK who told me about volunteering for an organization that is building a replica of a Viking (?) long ship that was found in the UK. They are making it with the methods used to build the original They have a hard time getting wood because there are so few big trees left.

    Good to be back in Spain. Clocks change at the border. New e-sim installed. I managed to find a few Spanish words.

    The big rain eventually stopped and the rest of the day was like yesterday - with alternating rain, sun, drizzle in the morning and more or less sun and cloud in the afternoon. Today’s new development was the water levels of the creeks and streams. At one point the stepping stones that are meant to help you during high water were totally covered. My feet were still wet from the rain, and so I just rolled up my pants and walked over. Standing on the stones, the water came well up my shins. Cyclists with heavy e-bikes were behind me, what did they do?

    Big wide, engineered Galician paths through gorgeous woods. I saw a deer! About 5 km before O Porriño the path splits. Original version goes along the road through industrial area. The alternate spends a good while in the woods where
    I crossed paths with someone who works for? with? the Camino Association. He took credit for getting the alternate route built. He also carried a sello in his bag!

    I’m staying at another private albergue. More curtains. This one is almost but not quite full. There is heat! And my clothes finally got washed! After the shower and chores I walked across the small square where the albergue sits to a bar/cafe/tapas place where they were serving food after 4 pm! It was full of pilgrims. With lots more passing by.

    I walked around the town a bit. Bought kefir for breakfast (which I later ate and then had to go buy more!) and then came back to fuss with the drying clothes and the damp things from the pack. The albergue was super quiet.

    I’m writing this at 10:45 pm. The park outside in the square is still full of kids!

    I had thought tomorrow was 22 km but it is only 15!!! That’s a long lazy afternoon! I’m going to Redondela. I booked my room on Easter Monday in Santiago and then sorted the rest of the days after that. Let’s just say the stages are not that even! Maybe tomorrow I’ll get to have a decent afternoon meal!
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  • Day 7 O Porriño to Redondela, 15 km

    17 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    It was a day of three good coffees! A very short walk and mostly not wet! Probably 85% on pavement of some kind. Tiny ups and a huge down.

    Today I learned that the 100-kilometres-from-Santiago crowds are real! For some people an important part of a Camino walk is getting a compostela, a certificate to accredit (is that a verb?) their pilgrimage, when they arrive in Santiago. To get the certificate, you have to walk at least 100 km. For years I’ve been hearing people talk about the huge crowds on the more popular routes when you get to the 100 km mark. But I have not seen them before.

    I have only walked into Santiago three times, once in the year 2000 when there weren’t big crowds, and twice coming from the southeast side, and routes that are more quiet, the Invierno and the Sanabres/Via de la Plata. On those routes the numbers increased at 100 km, but you wouldn’t say there were crowds. Today there were crowds!

    It felt like a walk-a-thon or charity walk of some sort. Always someone in sight and often someone close enough that I could hear their conversation or (ugh) their metal pole tips on the pavement. At one point, just after O Porriño the Camino crosses a busy road to head down a quiet lane. At the top of the lane was a big group of people obviously gathered together for a photo. I assumed it was a school group going to a sports event or something like that (they had been cheering). But, just as I got to the lane, I could see they were not kids but adults, with day packs with scallop shells. And they were turning down the lane too. There were 103 of them, come from Ireland to walk to Santiago over Easter.

    I spent the next hour trying to adjust my attitude! I can walk in quiet woods every day at home! Oddly it seems the more people, the less interaction there is. Or, that was my observation today.

    What can it be like to live along this route and have hundreds of people walking by over a day? The owner of the hostal where I am staying in Redondela said that the town is totally booked out from Easter to November. Later this afternoon I was having post-lunch coffee, around 3:30 or 4:00, and there was a steady stream of pilgrims walking past the window. That stream probably starts well before noon.

    The man at the hostal said that there would be a Semana Santa procession this evening but I could not find it. He had said it would maybe be cancelled because of the weather. Maybe it was?There will be another chance to see one somewhere tomorrow, I guess.

    A very fun thing today: I ran into a young woman from Toronto, whom I had met a couple of nights ago and whom I had assumed I would not see again. Her name is Jordan. We stayed at the same albergue in Valença. I first saw her today coming from a café about 100 m ahead of me and it was clear I was not going to catch up to her. So I thought that was that, but then walking into town here I saw her and two other young women (botanists!) just getting ready to leave a little restaurant. We chatted for a while, they all tried on my new fancy pack. And then it turned out that both Jordan and I had walked the East Coast Trail last year, and that she had written a trip report for a Facebook group, which I had read. And I had written to her to ask her some questions before I went to Newfoundland - and she had written back. Very small world moment.

    Quiet afternoon in my very sweet little room after a great lunch - a huge salad - in a very busy, noisy ‘gastrobar’. Walked around a bit. But did not make it far enough to see where the river that flows through town opens out to the bay that opens out to the sea.

    Good Friday tomorrow. I am promised that cafe/bars will be open!
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  • Day 8 Redondela to Pontevedra, 20 km

    18 de abril, Espanha ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    Oh my goodness - what to say besides “it rained. A lot.” Yellow rain warnings today for this part of Galicia. This morning it was the kind of rain that bounces off the ground, turns paths into streams and streams into torrents. I spent half the morning thinking about fancier rain gear or the kind of yellow rubber coats that people wear on boats. Needless to say my jacket, bought as much for weight and price as for function, did not perform well. Similar story with the rain pants. But my kitchen dishwashing gloves were great until I had to take them off, my hands got wet, and I could not get them back on. Ponchos of all shapes and sizes seem to be the rain gear of choice. Some with sleeves. Some that go right down to a person’s shins.

    Everyone walking with their hoods up. One of today’s games was trying to guess what the person would be like when I could actually see them. Harder than it sounds!

    There were some big sweaty hills today that, I imagine, would bring impressive views over the water on a clear day. There were also a couple of roadside trucks selling food and drinks, and tables with shells or other small Camino souvenirs for sale. About 70 or 80% of the route was on roads, but that actually seemed like the best option given the circumstances.

    Feet were more or less good despite being soaked!

    It’s Good Friday and the pastelerias had amazing things in their windows. I can’t believe there were any processions outdoors. But, who knows? I saw no evidence of Easter beyond the cakes and breads.

    Two coffee stops - and an inordinate amount of time thinking about coffee stops. The first just before Arcade, after 8 km, in a cafe with shiny floors on which wet pilgrims and their things were leaving puddles. The second just before Pontevedra. It looked just like a regular bar from the street. A few tables out front and then five or six tables in a front room. But there was also a covered terrace off the back. At any given time there were 20 to 30 people back there - along with the 8 or 10 in the front room and the 8 or so on the front terrace. It was huge and hopping. It was the first bar on the Camino after about 8 very wet kilometres. The owners were run off their feet.

    I had my coffee and a little chocolate palmier cookie with two older Norwegian men walking their first Camino. They had good rain gear! The shirts under their jackets were dry!

    After that it was only about 3 km to the fancy private albergue where I am staying. It’s expensive for a hostel - about $50, same as I paid last night for a single room. But the rooms are small, the beds are super comfortable, and towels, bed linen, washer and dryer, and (apparently very good) breakfast included.

    There are 3 other women in my room. One I had met a few days ago. The beds have lights, plugs, charging ports, a small table that pulls out of the wall, curtains, and a decorative throw pillow (!). There are two labeled hooks for everyone. A drawer under the bed and two big bureaus that have two more drawers for each bed. And a hairdryer. The place seems new-ish and super clean. I’m writing this in the style-y breakfast room.

    I was the first one here. And got the first shower, which is always a nice thing. And I got to dry my clothes right away and sort the damp things in my pack. But that meant I missed lunchtime. At 4 pm the options were burgers or pizza. I took burgers.

    By the time I was done it was pouring again. When it calmed down a bit, I just came back here to read and nap. A low key but dry evening.

    More rain promised for tomorrow, but it should be less emphatic.
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  • Day 9 Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis, 22 k

    19 de abril, Espanha ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Last night was the first night I did not wake up! That only took 10 days. Sometimes it never happens.

    Fantastic breakfast in the hostel with fresh orange juice at will. And eggs and homemade cake and yoghurt. I left there around 8:30. It is the Camino of late starts! I am often one of the last to leave.

    I turned off the street where the hostel was and walked right into the Irish group. I confess to not loving being trapped (it feels) in the midst of so many people. It probably took about half an hour until their group stretched out and I had some space in front and behind, but then I stopped to help somebody with her map and ended up back in the middle of them and the whole repositioning thing started again. And, of course, apart from the big group there are many many other people walking. Eventually I started noticing it less — the passing and being passed, the waiting to cross over tricky bits (though there are hardly any of those), the spectacularly crowded bars. But I did cave in and put in earbuds to block out other people’s conversations.

    The day was, again, defined by rain. It was the topic of all conversations. Was it less than yesterday? Hard to say. At times, it was light and at times it was torrential but it did not really stop all day. There was also a brief period of thunder and lightning, which made me think about carrying metal poles. Incredibly, despite all the water, the path was mostly fine, with almost no mud. The Galician path engineers have done an excellent job. Just one spot where there was no way around ankle-deep water.

    All bars were packed. I made two coffee stops. At the second I also had a fabulous bowl of caldo gallego. Today’s coffee companions were a British couple who live in Cyprus.

    Highlights today: people wearing grocery bags over their shoes: turning to say hello to someone whose hood was up and coming face-to-face with a tiny wet poodle sticking out of her coat; the wood fire at second coffee stop; wet roses.

    I’m staying at a hotel in Caldas de Reis. Nice room where I spent time managing puddles, wet clothes, very wet shoes. An outing for hot chocolate led to more puddles. But by 6:30 or 7:00 the sun was out and it was possible to go for a walk around the town without getting soaked!

    I was invited to join two American women and a Dutch woman for dinner at a restaurant down the street. It started serving at 7:30 and by 7:40 a huge dining room was completely full. The pilgrims like to eat early! Very good meal, but enough food for a family of four.

    Tomorrow there is only supposed to be a little bit of rain, 3 mm. Today there was 20. It would be nice to spend the day with dry socks!

    Not many photos because of the rain.
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  • Day 10 Caldas de Reis to Angueira, 27 km

    20 de abril, Espanha ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    It was a good day. Started off with a couple of hours of light rain, of course, but by the time I was done, my rain pants and raincoat and jacket were all in my pack. So much nicer to walk without the hood and the layers of waterproofing.

    Proper Galician countryside today. Hills, forests, small villages full of lanes and vegetable gardens and chickens and so many cats. Lots of ferns and vines and moss. Green, green, green. More swollen streams and water running everywhere. The sound of it is always in the background.

    Two okay coffees. A small lunch of caldo and flan just after Padrón. Leftovers for dinner.

    Padrón was packed. Walking into the town you started to see tons of cars parked alongside the road. There was a street market and fair , with food and rides. And wall to wall people and loud music and smoke from huge barbecues covered with grilling meats. Long lines of people waited outside tents where they were cooking octopus. I didn’t have the stamina to get through the whole fair. It stretched along the river, the whole length of the town.

    I’m staying at a private albergue that is 17 km from Santiago. One of the consequences of the rain and cooler weather is not getting to take advantage of all the incredible gardens and terraces. And this place has a pool. Two people actually went in.

    The house is kind of in the middle of nowhere. They have food you buy for supper, including a freezer that is completely filled with frozen pizzas.

    Nice vibe with everyone staying in for the evening. I was surprised that people weren’t talking more about getting to Santiago. Maybe it feels less like a big deal after a short Camino?
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