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Paul H

Paul H

Man. From England. Wants to be Português! Read more🇬🇧London
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    • Paul HTravelerCamiño Português (last 100km)

      Day 2: Redondela to Pontevedra

      May 5, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.

      Second day walking and we cracked out more than 20km today, passing the beautiful medieval town of ‘Arcade’ (no 80’s driving machines or pinball tables; sorry!) and on to Pontevedra.

      It’s a strange observation that the caminho way seems to bring you utterly horrible ways into towns with the industrial and medium density housing on the edge of the town being underwhelming. However, the centre of town is historic, beautiful and for my post arrival wander around town also … sunny! (We shan’t mention it too loudly, but it would be nice if it stayed!!).

      Michaela has booked us into a hostel tonight, and it’s a dorm with 22 people in it tonight for us! It’s kinda lovely sharing camaraderie with follow walkers, and we’ve met some really cool people.. but the queue for the machines is kinda annoying!

      So far I’m very impressed though, it’s clean, relatively quiet and very modern!

      A longer day tomorrow onwards to Caldas de Reis, which is a spa town, and we have various activities booked to keep spirits high!

      Ciao!      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués
      1

      Day 13 - Redondela to Pontevedra

      May 5, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

      I know the saying “only mad dogs and Englishmen” usually refers to being out in hot weather, but I’m sure it also applies to the inclement, pour down, soaked to the bone weather we had today. When we looked out the window this morning, it looked like a drizzle, and then it came down harder. And harder. And harder. So, ponchos on, caps on to save ourselves from the waterboarding ahead, we took to the road.

      Ok, let’s be honest - it was a difficult day. But in a good way, in that, yes there were hills, and paths that became rivers, and not enough cafes to stop at, but none of it was insurmountable. It was what it was. And we did a grand job of it. We laughed, talked, sometimes said nothing, kissed on bridges, held hands, chatted to other walkers (why do they insist on talking politics???), and we made it to Pontevedra. Tonight we are staying in a hostel (Paul’s first), and we had a lovely dinner, even if the waiter forgot to put half our order through, and we had ice cream on the way back, and now I’m tucked up in my top bunk bed with Paul below, and I feel “good tired”.

      We met one cat.      Read more

    • Paul HTravelerCamiño Português (last 100km)

      Day 1: Vigo to Redondela

      May 4, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      Made it through Day 1 of walking! The rain was utterly relentless today.. but we were prepared .. a visit to Decathlon yesterday meant we had ponchos to make our day very much protected from the rain, and we were so thankful for them!

      It turns out rain in Spain doesn’t always fall on the plain!

      The walk itself was fabulous, a real mix of town, road and wilderness - always something to look at!

      We covered around 20k total distance through woods and up some very steep hills, but the kilometres and miles just fell away.

      An amazingly well timed coffee stop saved any ‘wildflower surveys’ and served some well needed empanadas!      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués
      1

      Day 12 - Vigo to Redondela

      May 4, 2024 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

      Aaaaaaaand we’re off!

      Paul’s first walking day and it rained aaaaaaall day - so glad we were able to pick up a couple of ponchos at decathlon yesterday. Even if Paul’s was too short, so it barely covered him below mid thigh 😂

      We took the official route out of Vigo, as we really wanted to take a picture by the 100km marker, but couldn’t find it. We went from 102km in Vigo, and the next marker we saw was 96km 🤷🏻‍♀️ still, a fantastic, if tiring, walk through residential areas (bakeries every 200m it seemed), then uphills and amazing, flat forest walking until we reached Redondela. Descents are sometimes harder than ascents!

      I outdid myself by booking a lovely two bed apartment on the river, just outside of town so for tonight we have our own little home. Very different from tomorrow’s hostel, which will be Paul’s first.

      A massive dinner (yes, octopus again!) and amazing wine at €2.50 a glass has made me very happy and sleepy. Amazing to have Paul’s company for today’s walk- I’d really missed laughing like that.

      Tomorrow, Pontevedra!      Read more

    • Paul HTravelerCamiño Português (last 100km)

      The night before: Vigo

      May 3, 2024 in Spain ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

      Well, I’m finally here! The Vueling flight was brilliant (well done IAG!) and La Coruña airport tiny by LGW or LHR standards, but means you can speed through and get to see your loved ones quicker!

      We are now ready to start the last 100km of the Camino Português! Michaela confidently tells me that as long as you do the last 100km, it counts (and you get a certificate), and I’ll take that!

      Vigo itself has turned out to be an absolutely delightful ‘small’ city in Spain, with lots amazing sights and food.

      No so many photos as we slept a lot today, but tomorrow will see the back of the rain (we hope!), and the start of the walk!      Read more

    • Paul HTravelerCamiño Português (last 100km)

      LGW

      May 3, 2024 in England ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

      Off to a crazy early start @ 2:30am (was it worth sleeping?) and off I go to Spain to meet Michaela to start the week long walk!

      Weird to think that I’ll be walking for a week straight, and I’m not sure how it’ll go, but I know I’ll be with cool and awesome company and beautiful scenery (and companion!).

      Very much looking forward to the adventure!      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués

      Day 11 - Vigo - A Coruña - Vigo

      May 3, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

      He’s here!! 😊
      Paul arrived this morning to join me for the last 100km of the walk, so I took the train up to A Coruña to get him. The train system in Spain is seriously impressive! Not only is it clean and efficient and fast, it’s also bloody cheap in comparison to the UK.

      We were back in Vigo for 1pm, so after a quick bite we did like the Spanish do and took a nap 😂 we were both so tired, so slept until 6pm!

      Dinner and a walk around town, and now we’re ready to get started tomorrow. Paul has also brought me my onclouds, so I no longer have to wear my scarpas - hurrah! As lovely as they are, they turned out to be too heavy and rigid for the Camino. So now have I have lovely cushiony trainers to see me to Santiago - and Paul 🥰      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués

      Day 10 - Vigo / Islas Cies

      May 2, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

      Rest day! Whooohooooo!

      Does 8am count as a lie in? Because it certainly felt like it 😂
      No walking today. Instead, I visited Islas Cies - a 45 minute boat ride from Vigo. As we left the port, I could see the dark clouds looming over Vigo and towards Santiago, and felt sorry for all the walkers who were going to have to deal with the deluge. This included Nicola who left this morning, and who has since arrived in Pontevedra and is again rooming with Sasha.

      The islands were.. well, you have a look at the photos and be the judge. And, even better, it was sunny allllllllll day!

      Paul is arriving tomorrow and I’m so excited! Going to pick him up from La Coruña, and we come back to Vigo so we can start our joint walk on Saturday. Alas, this also means it’s “the beginning of the end”, and I’m already feeling a little sad about to it. However, we have exciting days ahead and I’m determined to live in the moment.

      No cats today. However, everyone in Vigo seems to have a dog 🤷🏻‍♀️      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués

      Day 9 - Baiona to Vigo

      May 1, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

      Rain, rain, go away…

      …and eventually it does.

      Left Vigo under torrential rain. Ok, maybe not “torrential”, but it certainly feels like it after you’ve been walking for 30 minutes and all your clothes are sticking to you. Yes, I should have bought a poncho, like all the Camino FB groups warned me, but I guess I like living dangerously!

      Left the hostel (20 people in bunk beds in a room, yet surprisingly quiet) at around 8am with Sasha, and along the way picked up two others - Rita (UK), who I had actually shared a room with a few days ago, and Nicola (Czech Republic) who I’d walked with from Caminha to Oia. And we had such a laugh! Maybe it was the rain forcing us to keep our spirits up, but we chatted and shared jokes about sexy surfers and “alpha” males, Rita’s new van, Nicola’s dinner of undercooked potatoes, and came together and then slowly said goodbye as we neared Vigo and went off to our respective accommodation for tonight. Apart from Nicola, who I invited to sleep in the spare room of the apartment I have for the next three nights, as she could find no accommodation for this evening. And in case you are wondering how you can invite a complete stranger to share an apartment with you, please note this woman is not a stranger to me. Also, I knew she was one of my “people” when I saw her random act of kindness a few days ago, when she kindly bought hiking poles for someone who was stuck in an albergue with a broken toe, and who had no way of getting out and buying some themselves.

      It was a long walk today, the longest so far at 31km exactly, but we walked through towns, beaches, woods, horrible roads and industrial areas, stopping at coffee shops and restaurants when we felt like it. And we made it to Vigo, smiling but tired.

      Tomorrow, Nicola will leave, and I will have a rest day, when I will visit https://lasislascies.com. Hopefully the rain ease off and the sun will shine again, like it did today.

      No cats were met, but plenty of dogs!      Read more

    • Camiño Portugués

      Day 8 - Oia to Baiona

      April 30, 2024 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      The kindness of strangers.

      I completely forgot to get some cash out at my last big town, so have been using whatever little change I had left. This morning, I managed to buy a croissant, but couldn’t afford a coffee to go with. So the guy behind the bar “bought” it for me. Later on, as I was about an hour from my destination, I came across a little cafe. Soaked to skin (it rained all morning) and hoping against hope, I asked the owner if he’d accept card payment. “Te invito”, he said. I was so grateful but managed to scrape together my last 50 cents and a googly eye - he tried to wave it away and gave a coffee and two madeleines. That coffee was possibly the best coffee I’ve had this whole trip.

      As I entered Baiona, my first job was to find a cash point.

      Later, as I was looking at somewhere for lunch, I bumped into Sasha from yesterday. She joined me for lunch and we chatted, eyeing up what everyone else was eating. Our neighbouring table had something neither of us recognised - it’s empanada, said the guy at the table. He had the waiter give us some, and it was utterly delicious! Despite his ridiculous designer sunglasses and insistence on mainsplaning religion to us, he still shared what he had. We had a laugh because he told us about his many, annual pilgrimages. He’s done so many, I said he should be in the running for Pope!

      The hostel for tonight is as basic as they come, but it has everything you need- including lovely hot showers and a washing machine/dryer. Hurrah, for I am all out of clean, dry clothes! Esther in reception took pity of us (turns out Sasha is also staying here tonight) and moved bookings around so we could have bottom bunks. Showered and with clothes now in the dryer, I have settled down for a nap and a rest.
      It’s been a good day 😊      Read more

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