Porriño!

It’s Saturday, apparantly. The residents of Tui have many fine attributes, but early-rising is not one of them. I and a handful of other peregrinos pounded the streets at 0730 in search of coffee without success. On returning to collect my bag El patron had surfaced in an unexpectedly flamboyant pair of pyjamas and got a brew on.

I did notice that all the café tables and chairs are left out, clean and tidy, overnight. In the UK if they weren’t chained down securely they wouldn’t survive the first night. Says something nice about the youth of Tui.

Despite being glorious in the sunshine it’s absolutely baltic in the shade. Nonetheless; I’m setting off in shorts to O Porriño. My second-best knee (currently the right one) is grumbling a little, so I’ll take it nice and slow. I’ve already filled two pages of a credencial basically standing still.

I’ve enjoyed Tui. It would be a shame to regard it as somewhere to simply start from. Also my limited time in Portugal. I would like to have communicated better in Portuguese; but since attaining some competence in Spanish, my French has deteriorated and I don’t think I’ve got the right brain for more than two languages simultaneously.

So; let’s see what we can find.

The first half of the walk’s nice and rural. Three tiny arched bridges paved with huge granite blocks; the first is Roman and the second (being refurbished) (photo) the Ponte de Fiebre where San Telmo came to grief, returning to Tui to die where he is buried and is the town’s patron saint.

Casa Alternativo (should be -a; perhaps that’s a Belgian joke) is to be found just after the ‘decision point’ between the old and new routes. Even if you’re taking the new scenic route it’s still worth a visit. There’s a short-cut through the woods to the new route; so it doesn’t add any distance. Operated by Dries from Belgium, accompanied by Otto the dog. 10 beds, nice guy, good food. Best bread I’ve had in a while. I think the upcoming area has a reputation for flour milling?

I generally don’t mind the industrial outskirts of towns; in fact I find them quite interesting, but taking the direct route into Porriño on a Saturday was not the best choice. It goes on forever. There is an unmarked cafe next to the fire-station on the long drag, but only Monday to Friday. I got a coffee out of the fire brigade though.

There are plans to further expand the already massive industrial estate, which the locals are rightly up in arms about. (Not particularly interesting photo)

On the last stretch into town - a strange mixture of housing and commerce - the ‘100km to Santiago’ plot is vacant and advertised as such

I’m not overwhelmed by Porriño. I’m in the Hotel Parque, largely because the attached café is open early tomorrow and as it’s a Sunday I’m not taking any chances with breakfast.

The receptionists an imbecile; a sure sign of a family business. ‘What are we going to do with the youngest; he’s too thick to get a job anywhere else?’ ‘Oh, just put him on reception, he’ll not do any harm there’. Well .. (not on the Camino Forum now folks - even though most moderators past and present are along for the ride; it’s a free press here)

According to the security software I run the miserably slow wifi was put in by North Korean intelligence and there’s a children’s ride outside my balcony playing ‘never do a tango with an Eskimo’ at full volume, out of tune, on a loop.

On the upside, the room’s clean and there’s a bath.

Sun’s out. It’s unseasonably warm which is lovely, although there’s rain forecast in a few days.

Mustn’t grumble, all in all it’s going rather well.

(Clarification re: receptionist. Having been here a few hours, many of the middle-aged blokes look very (really very) similar; speak gallego as a first language, and have a severe nasal impairment. They also shout a lot. They clearly understand each other. My Spanish is functionally fluent and I’m back to hand-signals)

I’ve added a photo of the view from my balcony of the musically-enhanced entertainment. Whilst I’m usually even-tempered, and I do see the need for children (someone’s going to have to pay the pension one day); I’m rapidly siding with Herod on the matter of innocents.Read more