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    • Camino De Santiago - Portugues
      2
      11
      Day 23

      Day 15 - Final walk into Santiago

      Yesterday in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 52 °F

      Finishing a Camino totally embodies the sentiment “the thrill of victory and the agony of de-feet”

      It’s easy to be all hyped up when you finally enter the Cathedral Square in Santiago. You get caught up in the sound of bagpipes playing, people hugging, finishers trying to get their perfect picture and then running to the Compostela office to get their proof that they actually made it. And then once you’ve had your shower and a good meal (favorite Italian restaurant is in Santiago 😉) you hit a wall and feel like you could sleep for days. Plus you can’t even comprehend what it is you do tomorrow if you don’t have to set your alarm, pack a backpack and start walking for hours.

      Our route from the Cathedral in Porto to the Cathedral in Santiago on the Camino Portuguese Coastal route was roughly 300 kilometers since we added 2 more days doing the Spiritual Variant (and so glad we did).

      What an adventure it was! I always say “never again”, Tom and Miguel were already planning a guys Camino during our celebration meal. 🫤      Read more

    • Caminho Português
      11
      Day 16

      Cambados

      Yesterday in Spain ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

      14km day, all downhill and beautiful, with some light rain.

      The bar serving breakfast in Armenteira opens at 9:30am so we made a late start. With rain predicted we donned long pants and warmer gear.

      By 10am we had eaten and were walking again.

      The Camino route down from Armenteira is delightful. It is a steep dirt track following the babbling river Armenteira. It was 4km of waterfalls, rushing water and lush mossy green forest. We passed about 3 dozen old abandoned grain mills, all made of stone and beautifully dilapidated.

      Eventually the slope lessened and we continued beside the river through beautiful forest along a broad dirt track.

      The track crossed a highway so we stopped for lunch at the excellent Restobar Peneira.

      Rain started as we left there but did not get very heavy. We donned ponchos for about an hour.

      The route continued downstream along the river Armenteira until it joins the river Umia, which we followed upstream into Ponte Arnelas. We passed lots of lush farmland planted with various vegetable crops and the ubiquitous grapes.

      In Ponte Arnelas we stopped for a cold drink and phoned for a taxi to Cambados. It is off the Camino route. We were unable to find a room in Ponte Arnelas.

      We’d planned to taxi back tomorrow and rejoin the official route to our next stay at Vilanova de Arousa but the direct walk from Cambados to there looks pleasant, along the coast so we will probably do that.

      After gaining entry to our apartment the rain picked up quite a bit so tomorrow could be soggy.

      One priority here is to replenish our Euro supply. We just had enough to cover the taxi fare. His credit card device only accepted Spanish cards.      Read more

    • Caminho Português
      Day 15

      A Armenteira

      April 25 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      A 22km day with a very tough 450m elevation climb, but a great variety of quiet rural scenery.

      We left our digs at Acolá Rooms before 8 and found a bar within meters offering the perfect hiker’s breakfast: fresh OJ, caffe con leche and two slabs of toast with jam.

      Then it was off over the Ponte do Burgo, a broad pedestrian bridge coinciding with the Camino route. The city looks impressive from the bridge.

      We joined a stream of pilgrims heading out of town and were soon in quite rural areas.

      Just after 3km we took a left turn on the somewhat lesser travelled route, the so called Spiritual Variant. Most pilgrims keep going straight ahead to Padrón.

      We were pleased to see a few others taking our route, and to see it was a well marked route too.

      The walk to Combarro was quite beautiful through backroads and lanes past many small vineyards and gardens.

      We stopped just before Combarro for an excellent lunch, seafood salad and lamb moussaka, fuel for the climb. Then on into town and around the water front area.

      Eventually the route turned uphill away from the water. We climbed very steeply through the maze of streets in the town.

      What followed was a mix of beautiful rising paths through tall eucalyptus forest, dirt fire trails and sealed road. There were great views back to Pontevedra at a couple of points, and lots of forestry harvesting activity.

      We summited at about the 19km mark. The descent into A Armenteira was along fire trails at first and finally a narrow rocky goat track where the poles were necessary to avoid falling.

      We found our place (another climb) a fairly oddly laid out and furnished apartment, and performed the usual arrival rituals.

      Weather has turned cold and maybe wet, we’re breaking out new ensembles.

      Now off to the only eatery in town for some grub.      Read more

    • TravelerCamino de Santiago
      1
      21
      Day 33

      Sarria to Portomarin - part one

      April 24 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C

      Martina is going to be absolutely fine, and could actually host a training session I'd push to be mandatory for half the people I've been with for a month. Her alarm was silent, she took everything into the kitchen to pack up with no fuss, and she has a small backpack. A+ my darling.

      She's nestled sliiiiiightly under my wing, she checked I was going to have breakfast at the hostel before she committed to it ("ok I will too", with a nervous smile), and I could see she was a bit hesitant about setting off so I pushed her out of the nest with a firm Buen Camino (BC) and assurances we'd see each other later. This only *might* be true but it's what she needed to hear at the time.

      Harbouring a slight sense of foreboding about this turning into a theme park, some sort of conveyor belt Camino, I headed out of Sarria. There are so many people compared to what I'm used to. None of these new fucks are saying BC which really irks me but in the spirit of it all I'm being VERY laid back about them breaking the rules I've invented.

      Other ways in which I am right and they are wrong include (all of them but specifically) walking on the LEFT side on the road and the RIGHT on the trail, letting people pass, stopping at the second or later bar in a town not always the first, taking your pack off before going in, looking for a sign inside that says aesos not baño (it's never baño) talking at normal human volumes, and greeting the locals.

      I've been thinking about what parts of this experience I can carry forward into day to day life, where I might not have a spare five to eight hours a day to go walking. A big source of enjoyment here - and one I knew I'd appreciate before I even started - is the simplicity, the reduced number of decisions I need to make each day. For example in the morning I put on my one outfit, use the bare minimum toiletries, pack up my small bag, walk outside and look for an arrow.

      I reckon if I start picking my outfits the night before and set up a better drop zone, I can achieve this efficiently at home, and maybe get a few kilometres walk in before work, go the long way? My body clock would currently give me tons of time, let's see if it resets once I'm out of bunk beds before we get ahead of ourselves though.      Read more

    • Portugal/Spain Camino
      2
      11
      Day 12–13

      Day 8 walking

      April 24 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

      Walked 14.6 miles today. My knee is hurting, but I’m stretching and doing my exercises before I walk and at night. We walked from Pontevedra to Caldas de Reiss. Nice hotel. Exhausted. Dinner was not great. Basically ate bread and French fries and gelato on the way home. Cold tonight. Turned on the heat in my room. I’m happy to be sleeping in a queen bed tonight. My room has a nice skylight. Luggage service picked up our bags today and no issues. We put extra poundage in the van. Three more days of walking. Night. We continue to pray for so many prayers. Loving the new Anne Lamott book on audio and also started Remarkably Bright Creatures on audio. Also listened to NPC sermon from Sunday and Chelsea Handler’s podcast with Monica Lewinsky. Both great listens. Thanks for following along.Read more

    • Camino De Santiago - Portugues
      1212
      Day 21

      Day 13 - Armenteira - Vilanova de Arousa

      April 24 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 66 °F

      After a great dinner at the Casa Rural B&B last night of garbanzo bean stew and fried artichokes followed by homemade coffee and herb liqueurs, we got 10 hours of sleep and woke up today to a light breakfast from our hosts. Today was our second day along the spiritual variant. I have to say if you’re a; nature lover, person of faith, enjoy architecture, crave fine foods and local wines, like a physical challenge or seek solitude, the spiritual route delivers. It is well worth the additional mileage and a couple extra days.

      For most of the day we walked along some form of water. It started with a series of cascading waterfalls then turned into a quiet stream, a larger river and finally along a beautiful bay into the town of Vilanova de Arousa. It was a wonderful day of hiking that totaled 15.5 miles. Tomorrow we take a boat upriver to start a shorter walk before our final day into Santiago!

      Don’t miss the video at the end. We were invited into a little chapel along the way where a trio sang us a song to bless our day 👏      Read more

    • Caminho Português
      11111
      Day 14

      Pontevedra

      April 24 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

      22km with two tough climbs away from and back to sea level, in cooler shadier conditions.

      We were up early today to leave Redondela at sunrise which was about 7:40am.

      We deferred breakfast to the town of Arcade at about the 7km mark to get a jump on the longish walk.

      The walk to Arcade took us on mostly dirt tracks up over a hill of about 150m. At times the track was very steep. Lots of the route was through beautiful shady eucalyptus forest.

      We had a most welcome breakfast at the first place we saw in Arcade: juice, cafe con leche, avocado, egg and almonds on toast.

      Resuming the walk we did a similar climb again to about 150m, followed by a much more gentle descent into greater Pontevedra. We passed through some very picturesque farms on the hillsides on the way down.

      Then it was 6km or so along a lovely shaded path following the River Gafo well into the city of Pontevedra.

      We stopped at a bar for a late lunch of bocadillos and Cokes Zero before covering the final 2km to our room at Acolá Rooms in the city center. It’s a big city of 80,000 people. Lots going on as we walked through on a work day.

      After a rest and a shower, bodies remain functional and have found their way to a neighbourhood square with amber muscle relaxant.      Read more

    • Camino De Santiago - Portugues
      3
      2112111131
      Day 20

      Day 12 - Pontevedra to Armenteira

      April 23 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

      The morning started very busy with pilgrims again all jockeying for position on the road out of Pontevedra. We were happy when we got to veer off on the Spiritual Variant route. It was a beautiful walk with very few pilgrims. Maybe that is because there was a huge climb on this route today. In fact Tom had me so nervous about it that we decided it was best to pay a transfer service to move our heavy packs for the day. He told me it was going to be the equivalent of climbing Mt. Lassen in the middle of the day. Climbing Mt. Lassen is one of my least favorite things to do. So we readied ourselves with just the essentials; hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, windbreaker, water, phone, poles, our walking credentials and headed out. We made it to an early lunch stop to fuel up for what promised to be a tough afternoon climb. But once we were out of the steep village streets and onto a wide, mostly dirt, mostly shaded road, it was awesome. About 72 degrees today with a cool light breeze. Yes it was a hill, but it was either such an easy grade or we are in amazing shape. Either way, it was a lovely climb (rough downhill) and it dumped us off right into a bar for drinks and a stroll around the Monastery grounds.

      14.5 miles today, on a not so terrifying climb. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Only 3 days left of this adventure. 🇪🇸      Read more

    • Camino Spring 2024
      1
      113
      Day 15

      Less than 100km left

      April 23 in Spain ⋅ 🌙 36 °F

      Our stay in Sarria was bitter sweet. This city is a transition point between those that have been on the trail and those that walk only the last 100km. The "new" people are out for a week, look fresh, and are missing the layer of dust and faded clothing that give the rest of us our "trail cred." After our two hour walk and breakfast break, we passed a group of newly started Americans who said, "Look at those two go!" 😀 Each of us is on the Camino for a reason, and each of our journeys are unique. Today we booked our final accommodations for the rest of the trip. The energy of the trail has changed but our Camino journey will continue.Read more

    • TravelerCamino de Santiago- April 2024
      1
      Day 16

      Leaving Santiago

      April 23 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      After doing some laundry and having a wonderful shower, my sister Renee and I did the rooftop tour of Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. We took the narrow staircase up to the rooftop. The stairs were a breeze after walking the Camino. The views were spectacular and I enjoyed seeing the other Pilgrims who completed their Camino basking in the sun and laying against their backpack in the courtyard. We literally walked on the shingles and tried not to get blown off the roof. It was so beautiful to look out over Santiago. We rented a car and are heading to Fatima. The adventures continue…..Read more

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Galicia, Galicien, منطقة غاليسيا, جاليسيا, Qalisiya, Галісія, Галисия, গালিথিয়া, Galiza, Galicija, Galícia, Galizia, Galicie, Galisia, Γαλικία, Galegio, گالیسیا, Galice, Galysje, Comunidade Autónoma de Galicia, Yn Ghaleesh, גליסיה, गलिशिया, Galisiya, Գալիսիա, Gallecia, Galisía, ガリシア, გალისია, Галисиэ, 갈리시아 지방, Galîsya, Galisi, Gallaecia, Galissia, Galisija, Галиција, गालिसिया, Galicië, Galicia i Spania, Галиси, Galicja, گالیکیا, A Galiza, Galisya, Галиция, Galizzia, கலீசியா, แคว้นกาลิเซีย, Galiçya, 加利西亚

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