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PostScript – Getting to Santiago de Compostela

As I wrote yesterday, we managed to walk into Santiago for the last stage of our Portuguese Camino.

We started the day early as we had decided to try to walk the whole way from Padron into Santiago in one go. We’d been uncertain right up to yesterday morning about that stage. It’s quite long, over 20kms, and gets increasingly hilly as you get closer to Santiago which makes it even more difficult. However, we decided to go for it. If we hadn’t, we would probably have lost contact with a number of people that we met, and got friendly with, who we knew were definitely aiming to walk in yesterday.

We’d both had a interrupted sleep at the hotel. It was an interesting building and looked impressive, but it was also noisy. It seemed that anytime anyone in the building moved it created creaks and bumps that echoed all around the house, very strange, but meaning that both of us had awakened several times during the night. We also awoke at about 6:30 to see that it was raining, and raining quite heavily. We’d had a little rain yesterday afternoon, but only slight, this morning it was serious looking. We left the hotel at 7:00am, creeping out as everyone else seemed to be still asleep, we’d paid our bill yesterday as we knew that we would be leaving early, out to a cafe we knew would be open. There we had a good breakfast and we hit the road at 7:30.

 It was raining enough to require ponchos from the start, this was the first rain ever that we’d had in Galicia. We have had none at all on our previous visits, and Galicia is renowned for its rain.

The rain continued for the rest of the day. Our walking was initially along the main road but then we turned off into more country areas with a mixture of small roads and tracks. At our first rest/snack stop a whole gang of familiar faces showed up, including Jean and Colette, Bernard and one of two others that we were familiar with by sight. As this was the last day out it was all very matey.

Onwards, a few slopes and small hills. Barbara’s lower back was beginning to ache somewhat, she’d had some foot trouble previously due to a twisted ankle but that was now fine. On to the next rest break where some people ordered sandwiches for lunch which, when they arrived, were enormous.

Onwards again, but this time the hills were getting steeper and more fiendish and seemed to be never ending, Barbara’s back was aching even more.

All along the way we’d been passing distance marker stones and these were steadily counting down the distance. We’d got down to one showing about 6.4 kms when, suddenly, the distance plates were no longer there.

We initially though that they may have been taken as “souvenirs” but later came to the conclusion that the route had been changed and the original distance scale didn’t apply now. Coinciding with this lack of distance markers came a total loss of any refreshment places. The signing had also become less reliable, in some places signs were missing, or were just plain confusing.

Which way now?

We went for many kms, more than the 5 or so that we were expecting, before we eventually found a rather scruffy looking cafe that provided us with the most delicious tasting cheese and bacon sandwich and some drinks. At that point we thought we must be near to the end but checking the map showed that there was still about another 5kms to go. By this time we were definitely in the city suburbs but the hills continued and the final drag into the centre was really hard work.

We met Daniel, the German guy that Barbara had “rescued” way back in Ponte de Lima. We couldn’t understand how he had passed us, as we’d passed him many kilometres back when he was having a break. He confessed to catching a bus part of the way. We all walked the final kilometre or so into Santiago centre. Just before we arrived at the cathedral we made a small diversion to check into a hotel for the night and then, finally, we arrived in front of the cathedral.

It was then 4:30pm, and it had taken nine hours, including breaks, to do the walk.  It had been a very hard, and wet. We’d never really taken off our ponchos all day, we folded them back from time to time but had needed them virtually the whole time.

As we arrived in front of the cathedral we were greeted by a hearty French couple who we had seen fairly often before but never got to know as such, but they gave us a great welcome.  It was still raining, and being so late in the day not many other pilgrims were arriving so we returned to the hotel to get showered changed and have a good rest. Later, we went out for something to eat and then returned for a long sleep.

No more walking tomorrow.

All of the above refers to Friday, it’s now Sunday and time to catch up. 

Since Friday we’ve had time to rest, catch up with friends; say goodbye to most of them as they’ve now left Santiago on their way home, and we’ve made our arrangements for our journey home. We’re heading out for a couple of nights at the coast in Baiona before flying back to Manchester on Wednesday. We’ve also been to the pilgrim office to claim or certificates.

This afternoon I went on a fascinating guided tour of the rooftop of the cathedral, in the rain of course, it’s still not stopped for very long.

It’s a real shame for the city as this weekend is a festival time in Santiago; for the Feast of the Ascension. There have been concerts, exhibitions and markets arranged for the whole weekend, all of which must have been affected by the constant rain and low temperatures. Currently, as I write this, there is the sound of a large firework display nearby, and it’s still raining hard. Shame.

By the way, Barbara’s back is now much improved having had time to rest it.

Overall it’s been a very good Camino, and much different from our previous “Camino Frances” one. We’ve walked just about 600kms in 31days, from April 6th to May 6th, through two countries, Portugal and Spain.

This, the Camino Portuguese, was along, what felt like, a much less established route than the Camino Frances. The lack of suitable pilgrim accommodation, at reasonable distances, in many places was sometimes a problem. The constant cobbled roads and main road walking sections, particularly in Portugal were also very tiring, and sometimes rather scary.

But, the wonderful countryside and places, the cheerful and very friendly people, again particularly in Portugal, made it very enjoyable. Above all the fantastic pilgrims that you meet and get to know, if only for a very brief time, or in more depth, make the Camino a most memorable experience.

We’ve had a great, and most memorable, time.

Thanks for reading this blog and thanks for the comments either here on the blog or sent directly to me as emails.

Bye for now!

Tony and Barbara

Day 31 – To Santiago de Compostela

We did it!

After a long, hard and wet day, of 26kms, we finally arrived in Santiago at 4:30 this afternoon, having left Padron at 7:30 this morning.

We’re now relaxing in a small hotel before going out for something to eat.

More later..

Day 30 – To Padron

We think that we’ve solved the mystery that stopped us having a meal in the hotel last night. I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that while we were waiting for the restaurant to open the adjoining bar became full of football fans for the match between Manchester City and Real Madrid. Apparently, the chef for the restaurant decided that he wanted to watch the match too, so he didn’t turn up for the kitchens until the match finished. A Dutch couple that we know, and are staying in the hotel, were also booked into the restaurant for a meal.  They decided to wait until it opened, which it did, eventually, at 10pm rather than 8:30pm. Apparently the meal, when it finally arrived was very good. By that time we were already asleep, ready for an early day today.

When we looked out of the window this morning the sky was rather grey, very overcast, with hardly any sign of the strong sun that we’ve had for several days.  We had a very good, but simple, breakfast in the hotel bar, where we learned about last night’s fiasco from out Dutch friends. After breakfast we set out, in much cooler conditions than lately, through the town. We hadn’t seen much of the town yesterday when we arrived. Then we had been very hot and tired, just wanting to find somewhere to stay.

Today we were leaving from our hotel, which wasn’t directly on the Camino, and so we had, inadvertantly, bypassed most of the centre of the town.  We did, though, go over a nice bridge near the centre of town.

Just as we were looking at it we heard a call, it was Bernard who had stayed just nearby and had seen us going by and came out to wish us “Good Morning”. We saw, and walked with him several times later in the day.

Walking was much easier today for at least two reasons, firstly it was much cooler and, secondly the route was less hilly than we’ve had for a while. Also leaving early helped.

We were soon overtaken by our Dutch friends, but we saw them later. Similarly we saw and talked to Clare from Toronto a few times. It’s a feature of the Camino that you meet friends on and off as you progress, we didn’t see Colette and Jan today, but probably will tomorrow.

The route had several up and down sections, but nothing serious. It did have lots of shady sections through woodland, they would have been useful yesterday.

When we were about half way along the route, and passing through a small village, we heard a call from the open window of the local school. It was the teacher of what seems to be the first class, a man, asking us where we were from. We answered, rather surprised, that we were from England. “Is this your flag then” he asked, holding up Union Jack. It seems that the teacher, every time he sees likely pilgrims coming past, enquires where people are from and then uses the information within his lessons with the children. He invited us in to see the display of flags in the classroom, and also the large collection of postcards from all over the world that previous pilgrims have sent to the children. He asked us to send them one from Yorkshire when we get back home again.

Overall it was quite an easy walk, especially as we are now less than twenty five kilometres from Santiago.

We are still undecided whether we will break the “last” section in two, so as to have an easy last stage into Santiago, or to “go for it” and do the last 24 kms in one section. This last stage is rather hilly and rather longer than we normally do. We’ll see what happens.

We arrived in Padron reasonable early, not a terribly attractive town but reputed to be the place where St James’s body first arrived in Spain, so is significant on the Camino.

We didn’t see any obvious hotels and the albergues didn’t really really appeal, the ones we saw looked rather run-down. I enquired at the tourist office and was given a list, and map, of all accommodation in the town. We found  a Pension nearby, the “Hotel Jardin” and checked in.

It is a very interesting building, in a not terribly interesting town, and we’ve got a very nice room for the night.

We soon showered and changed and went out for a drink and snack, only to find that there was a little drizzle in the air. This had been forecast, but was a first for us. We’ve been in Galicia fit the last five days, since we left Valença, and also spent about three weeks here on our previous Camino, and this is the first rain we’ve had in Galicia, Spain’s rainiest district.

Day 29 – To Caldas De Reis

Pontevedra was just about beginning to come alive with people going to work when we set out this morning. A few “normal”  people were around but as we walked through the old part of the city it was mainly Pilgrims setting out in small groups, all heading for the bridge over the river.

At the bridge we met Bernard. He had spent last night at one of the hotels. We chatted generally as we crossed the bridge, through the last of the suburbs and out into the countryside. 

Getting out of Pontevedra was much quicker than getting into the city and we were soon walking through farming areas, after some struggles in passing an area where the whole road was under reconstruction.

As it is often the case the first half of the day was spent climbing a long hillside and the second half descending again. That was the pattern today. The actual hill climbing wasn’t really a problem but the sun and heat that accompanied it were. Today was yet another cloudless sunny day with the temperature this afternoon when we arrived at Caldas De Reis being 30°C again.

  A lot of the time we were walking through wooded areas, such usually offer good shelter from the sun, but today all of the tracks seemed to be on the edges of the forest so that we didn’t benefit from much shade most of the time. At the very top of the climb there was a very good cafe where we had fresh squeezed orange juice whilst chatting to  Colette and Jan. From there into Caldas was totally open countryside and fully exposed to the sun.

A few odd items we passed today.

Today we passed the 50kms marker, not much left to go!

The weather forecast for the next few days is to be cooler with some rain. That could be good news as long as the rain isn’t too heavy.

We were very glad to reach Calda De Reis and fairly quickly found a place to stay, another small hotel, similar to last night. A very helpful man soon had us checked in and we then went straight to the bar to get something chilled to drink, even before changing and unpacking. A Dutch couple, who seemed to recognise us invited us over to their table to chat as we drank our beers and snacked on the complimentary tapas. Then it was back to our room for a very welcome shower and a rest.

This evening we planned to eat in the hotel’s restaurant.  We went down to the bar at about 7:30pm expecting the restaurant to be open. There was no sign of activity, so we asked the barman if it was in use. “It opens at 8:30” we were told. Rather than going anywhere else we decided to wait, and ordered some beers to drink outside, as we waited.

At 8:30 we went back into the bar, which is next to the restaurant, and waited, having told the barman that we would like to eat. 8:45 came and went without any sign that the restaurant would be opening. At 9:00 we started discussing finding somewhere else but couldn’t be bothered now with trying to find an alternative nearby. At 9:15 we paid for the soft drinks that we’d had whilst waiting and left.

So, instead of having a nice meal that were been looking forward to we’ve had nothing. It’s too late now to go anywhere else. Particularly as we wanted to get the bed early, ready for a reasonably early start tomorrow. We could possibly have had something in the bar, but by 8:45 that was already packed with very loud football “fans”, not my chosen environment at all.

Perhaps we’ll find somewhere that does a good breakfast in the morning.

Day 28 – To Pontevedra

We both slept well last night although the bed wasn’t the most comfortable we’d every slept in. Up and packed reasonably early and along to the restaurant for our breakfast. This consisted of a simple menu of toast, jam and coffee. Then we set off, or at least tried to. Our first problem of the day was crossing the main road to continue the Camino trail up the road opposite. The crossing point was at the cross-roads of the main road and and a busy minor road. The main road has nearly endless, fast, traffic into which drivers from the minor road were trying to join by suddenly slipping out of the side road into any sort
of gap in the main traffic. We, the poor pilgrims, were expected to somehow cross amongst all this chaos. There were no crossings or traffic lights. Just take a deep breath and go for it.

We did manage a safe crossing eventually, only to read in one of the guides later that they considered that this is the most dangerous crossing on the Camino. Nice!

Once onto a more sensible track we started up the hill we had partly completed yesterday. It was a steep drag for some distance more before partly levelling out. At this point we came across a Camino art “installation” consisting of a wooden frame covered in a large number of cockleshells.

Apparently if you had a marker with you it was suggested that you would write your name, make a comment or whatever else you wanted. We didn’t have any form of suitable marker so made do with just looking.

Eventually, after several kilometres of climbing through nicely wooded country we reached the top of the hill started yesterday, only to then descend of course.

The route passed through very nice countryside but very few villages, but the increased number of pilgrims from previous days was noticeable. At times it felt as if we were back on the Camino conveyor belt again, delivering a steady stream of pilgrims towards Santiago.

Eventually after another hill we arrived at Arcade, a small town set on a mouth of a small river flowing into the sea. It was a lovely little town with a steep descent into it and a rather steeper ascent out again.

Where a narrow and old bridge crossed the river it formed an ideal place for a break. At a small cafe I went in to order some orange drinks and was also given two free portions of empanada. They were very nice and very welcome. As we sat outside drinking our orange juice and eating empanada we were joined by our friends from France, Colette and Jan.

We have managed to see them once or twice a day for many days now, and it is always a pleasure. Before we had finished our break they moved on, but we were then entertained by a crocodile of about twenty very young children, escorted by several adults setting out to cross the very narrow old bridge. Quite a complicated process as the bridge was fairly busy with traffic. One of the adults stopped the traffic at our end, to let the children start the crossing, with ( I think) another one at the other end of the bridge stopping traffic at that end.

It was quite fascinating to watch.

After our break, and entertainment, we started off again. This section was almost a replay of earlier in that we had yet another large hill to climb and descent before a fairly level stretch into Pontevedra, our destination for tonight.

This was a hot but otherwise uneventful walk but, as I mentioned earlier, enlivened by the additional numbers of pilgrims on the trail.  Earlier in the day we passed the 80ks marker and later the 70kms marker, so we are now getting very close to Santiago.

Tonight we are staying in quite a nice hotel just outside the centre of Pontevedra. We managed to find a special deal, in a three star hotel for only a few euros more than we paid last night in a very mediocre place.

We arrived earlier than usual and had time this afternoon to find a laundry nearby and managed to get all the clothes we weren’t wearing thoroughly washed and dried. We still had time to have a look around the town itself.

We’ll see more in the morning as we walk out through the old part of the city, on our way to Caldas de Reis.

Day 27 – To Cesantes

After our good evening socialising with Clare from Toronto we both slept very soundly, resulting in a rather later than planned departure from Porriño. We had a coffee and grotty croissants in the hotel’s cafe, everyone in the cafe looked miserable, possibly us as well. We also needed some cash from the bank machines and one or two other odds and ends, otherwise known as nibbles from Lidl, before we got under way. We were again surprised at the size of the town just like our entry into the town we passed through seemingly endless industrial areas before eventually getting into the countryside.

One area on the stage of town featured a number of extremely large, house size, rounded rocks. Essentially they were king-sized pebbles.

Not having enjoyed the hotel’s coffee we were looking for an alternative. We had to walk to Mos before finding one, a distance of about 7 kms. Here we found a very nice place in the village square. It was well attended by other pilgrims, including Bernard. He had stayed at the albergue last night but found it noisy from the road, and also many people were up very early making lots of noise before they left on the Camino. Overall he wasn’t too pleased with his stay there.

It had been a longish, steady, climb to Mos, followed by some more climbing and then a slight drop that really was there only to tease you before yet more climbing.  Most of the walk, after we finally got out of Porriño, was through the usual nice countryside of Galicia with yet another hot sunny day.

Having said before that there was always a shortage of good stopping places for pilgrims we came across another one, a dedicated stopping place for pilgrims, the second in a few days.

Someone must be listening to me somewhere.

We stopped later for lunch, having the now fairly common bocadillãs. Nearby we reached the 80km marker stone along with a collection of other stone carvings.

Around here the land was fairly level until, in some woods, we turned a corner and were suddenly confronted with a stunning view of the area around Redondela in the semi distance, but also a view of a very steep descent just in front of us.

The height that had taken us a half day, or more, of steady climbing to achieve, was about to be negated in a very short distance and time. The road downhill was exceedingly steep and very hard work to negotiate but we managed. Now back on the lowlands it was still about 2-3 kms into Redondela, part of it along a very busy road, not very pleasant in the heat.

Redondela is characterised, in some ways, by its two very high viaducts that pass over the centre part of the town.

They are very spectacular pieces of, I think, Victorian era vintage (Update: Built by Eiffel). We saw many pilgrims there, many were staying in the town, but we had decided to go a little further to Cesantes. We had already booked a place at a Pension there.

We had thought that Cesantes would be on the same level as Redondela, having no evidence to support our thought, but found to our discomfort that another longish climb had to be negotiated before we arrived at our place for tonight. At lead, we kept telling ourselves, it was a climb that we now wouldn’t have to do first thing in the morning.

We found the bar very quickly, but we were then surprised to learn that the actual accommodation was in a separate, very nice, building a short distance away. We were soon installed and glad to have a rest. Later we went back to the bar and had the “Pilgrim Menu” meal. We both chose the the same item, very large portions of a tasty chicken dish for the main course, with starter and puddings as well. Very good value.

Day 26 – To Porrinõ, in Spain

When I finished catching up with this blog last night in the lounge I returned to the dormitory at about 9pm to find it all in darkness. Of course it was 10pm Spanish time, but still rather early for lights out. Not wanting to disturb those who had already settled in their bunks I decided to get into my bed as quietly and inconspicuously as possible. Unfortunately this meant that I couldn’t root through my rucksack to find the charger for our phones etc. That meant that today my devices had flat batteries. Both my phone and tablet were dead. The same applies to my camera, but that has exchangeable batteries and the spares were fully charged.  I had hoped to awake early and put them on charge this morning, but that didn’t really happen. I managed about half an hour’s charging before we left but that’s all.  So today we travelled without benefit of GPS and mapping. Not a great loss but they have proved to be useful in the past.

We left the albergue at about 7:45 Portuguese or 8:45 Spanish time. We walked through the citadel part of the city, it was a ghost town. We saw nobody as all, it was totally deserted. Yesterday it was thronged with crowds of people, this morning – nothing!

 

We soon found, and crossed the bridge between Valença, Portugal and Tui, Spain, and adjusted to the one hour time difference.

 

We stopped off at the cathedral in Tui to get out credentials stamped, walked a little further to a cafe and had out first breakfasts in Spain on this walk.

The rest of the day was simply a case of walking to Porriño. This route was through totally rural Galician scenery.  Along the way we kept meeting up with Colette and Jan, from France and occasionally other pilgrims. It was a very hot day with long distances between cafés, quite tiring.

 

We were following a “new” route through this part of the country. It avoids, apparently, a very long stretch off dead straight road totally through industrial areas. The photographs shown on the various leaflets, and the little bit we did see and pass through, were a good reason for the change. It would have been extremely tedious to have walked through the bypassed area. The section we did walk through, on the outskirts of Porriño were enough.

There is a lot of stone quarrying activity around here and all the other industry that supports it.

As we entered the town we passed a Camino marker stone showing the distance to Santiago to be less than 100km.

We’re now in the last stages of our trek, we estimate that we’ll reach Santiago by next weekend all going well. As if to confirm that we have now completely filled one credential each. Any more stamps will have to go into the new credentials that we bought in Porto.

We had decided that we would not start in an albergue tonight but somewhere where we had more control of bedtimes and lights. Initially we couldn’t find anywhere in what was a rather dismal area. Eventually, with the help of a local lady, we managed to find a hotel on the centre of what turned out to be quite a pleasant town. We soon settled in, showered changed etc.

Later we went down to the bar for a drink and snacks. There we met yet another solo lady traveller from Canada – Clare. She had travelled the various Caminos previously, all solo as her husband doesn’t like walking, and also worked as a Hospitallero in Ponferradda a year or so ago. We had a very good evening, with good conversations and a few glasses of wine.

Day 25 – To Valença, our last town in Portugal

We ask had a very good time at the restaurant last night. One of the topics that was discussed at the meal was the question of snoring as the frenchman confessed to being a snorer and was just warning us. At that virtually everyone also confessed. “It will be very interesting tonight then” was the general consensus.

As it happens it was quite a good night, several people said, this morning at breakfast, that they’d woken during the night but not really heard much noise. That changed early-on as a group of school children, teen-agers, that were also at the albergue, woke early and departed with a lot of noise. We had a very civilised breakfast provided by Marlene before leaving.

Today’s walk was pretty uneventful compared with yesterday, and some of the previous day’s that we’ve had. We had a climb over lowish hills, nothing like yesterday’s scramble, but some areas were rather tricky, especially as we were overtaken several times by groups of cyclists on their mountain bikes. This usually happened just at the rockiest part of the walk.

Overall we passed through some really nice country on our last day’s walking in Portugal.

Today we walked alongside running water for a lot of the time. Running water, and lots of it, have been a great feature of a lot of our trail for many days past. Has have the many cuckoos we’ve heard

When we reached Valença we soon found the municipal albergue, located just outside the walls of the city. The old part of the city is contained within a very large and impressive citadel.

This was a key defence position in years past as it is situated at the main river crossing point of the River Minho between Portugal and Spain.

The arrival at the albergue was rather strange as it was locked with a message on the door to ring a particular number for access. We did this and we’re given a code for the door lock. We were greeted, inside, by a French couple that we’d meet a few days ago, who were it’s only customers up to that point. Many people had been in front of us on the walk today, but must have decided to walk further.

We were soon showered and dressed in fresh clothes and set out to explore the old town, within the citadel. It was very touristy, with lots of tourist shops, bars etc but still very interesting.

We finished off the day by investigating a large marquee exhibiting, and selling, lots of local produce and food dishes. While we were eating we were entertained in turn by a group doing a, seemingly impromptu, “Flamenco” set of singing and dancing. Just afterwards a group were setting up the stage, and doing some rehearsals.

They seemed to be a retro music group as the pieces that were rehearsing were from the 1940s an 50s.

Later we went back to the albergue as it had a great advantage over several places we’ve been to lately, good internet access.

Day 24 – To Rubiaes

Our washing did dry last night and our stay in the apartment in Ponte de Lima had been very comfortable and enjoyable. We really think that this was a place we could return to some day.

Today we had an early breakfast, just at the cafe adjoining the apartment, we’d tried to make an early start today as the middle part of the walk is over probably the highest post of this whole route. We have been told by several guide books, and people that have done the walk, that the top part of the climb is hard. We’ll see, but just in case we want to get there before the hottest part of the day

We left by crossing over the bridge to that part of town on the other side of the river. We hadn’t done so yesterday as we’d found plenty of interest on the initial side. The town over there continued to be very interesting as we left on yet another day with sun from the start. Bernard caught up with us as we left town, but soon moved on as he walks faster than us.

Again we walked steadily through wonderful countryside, stopping off for an early coffee, where we meet a chatty French couple.  This was a change from meeting new German people. It’s amazing that almost everyone we have met lately have been from Germany.

Eventually we started “The Climb”. Initially it didn’t seem too bad, some steep sections interspersed with more level ones.

But the steep sections started to be much more common and the track surface deteriorated from being very good to being very tricky with lots of loose stones. In some places it could only be called a scramble.

Fortunately the trees provided some shade, as the sun was very hot, as we expected. This part of the route must be virtually impossible on heavy rain as most of the pathways you walk along are obvious water runoff channels.

We did, of course, eventually reach the top at Alto da Portela Grande. This is the viewing area at the top where everyone recovered and enjoyed the view.

It was made extra special as just nearby one of the German women we’d met before was playing a tune on a flute, or perhaps a recorder. Very relaxing.

It was a long, but much easier, walk downhill. On the way down we meet up with Bernard again at a small cafe. Time for sandwiches and beer.  We’d rung ahead to book beds in an albergue run by a lady called Marlene, who provided us with a great welcome. We were the first there, I don’t know how as lots of people had passed us earlier, but turned up later.

We were amused somewhat by Marlene’s puppy who took great delight in trying to steal people’s boots as they removed them prior to going into the albergue.

In the evening we, the French couple from early in the day, and a Dutch couple we met at the albergue, all went down to the village for a meal together. Very appropriate as we’ll all be sharing a room tonight.

Day 23 – To Ponte de Lima

We had a really comfortable bed last night, so much so that it was difficult to get up, but we did so, at 7:15. We saw Heinz and Claudia, from last night, before setting off. It was a beautiful day again, clear blue sky all around as we walked through lovely countryside. We had our breakfast at a bar after a few kilometres of walking and met two more Germans. We kept meeting then for the rest of the day in different places. Today started with a climb but it was so, relatively, gentle that we suddenly realised that we were on the downslope. Some while later, stopping for an early lunch, as there didn’t look to be any places further on, who did we meet?  Bernard our, by now, good friend from before Porto.

The weather by now was getting hotter, spring is really advanced here.  

We did discover something that we’ve never seen before, but commented that it would be very helpful, that is a rest station for weary pilgrims. We found one just outside a private house, there were several benches to sit on, fresh water on tap and even a jar of fruit sweets of you fancied one.

Sheer luxury, there should be lots more.

It was a long way to Ponte de Lima through very pleasant countryside, with the last kilometre or so being alongside the river.

As we entered the town we started to look for somewhere to stay. We hadn’t bothered too much before as we knew that the town had plenty of accommodation. As we reached the centre Barbara was walking a little in front of me when a man from a restaurant asked her if we needed somewhere to sleep. We agreed to have a look at it and it turned out to be a very swish apartment in the centre of the town, for a very reasonable price, so we accepted. It has very good facilities including a clothes washing area. We, therefore, managed to catch up with our washing and hung it all in an enclosed veranda to dry. Hopefully it will be dry by morning. There is one major drawback, though with this apartment, there is absolutely no internet access available. In cases such as this I have occasionally used our spare phone, with its Portuguese SIM as a local Wi-Fi “hot-spot” but I couldn’t get that to work either. I think the credit must have all been used. Some of the local cafes have internet but all are very marginal in signal.

We went out later for a drink and met our German couple from yesterday. Barbara also spotted another pilgrim, looking rather lost.  She went over to him to ask if we could help. The guy, another German, wanted the tourist office. That was just nearby, but closed. He was looking for somewhere to sleep. So Barbara mentioned the apartments that we were staying in, he was interested. She took him around to the place where they did the letting, and they booked him in for the night.

This whole town is very nice, we’ve had some time to look around and been very impressed.

The main feature of the “Ponte” or bridge. There are about 26 arches and if very old, it’s only used for foot traffic now as a much more modern bridge crosses the river just nearby.

By the old bridge is a sculpture depicting a group of Roman soldiers marching towards the river. On the other side of the river is a single Roman officer, on horseback, shouting back to his men. The legend it relates to is that when the Romans first came to this area the river was supposed to have magic properties and anyone who crossed it was supposed to forget about everything they had ever done before.  When this group of Roman soldiers arrived here the officer crossed over before allowing his men to do so. When he reached the other side he called back to each of his men by their individual names so proving that it was safe to cross without losing their minds.