Internet problems

The last few days have been plagued by almost total lack of any useable internet. For two days there hasn’t been anything at all. Tonight we have a connection but it is very intermittent and very slow.

Yesterday we stayed at Ponte de Lima, wonderful place!

Today we are at Rubiaes, having scaled the highest and steepest hills of the Camino so far.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we will walk to the Portuguese-Spanish border at Valenca possibly staying at Tui which is just over the border in Spain.

I’ll publish something more interesting when we get some internet.

Day 22 – To Vitorino dos Piâes

We both slept well last night. The beds in the hotel were comfortable but strangely high off the ground, rather like hospital beds, but made of polished oak. Up and around quite early and everything packed and ready to go before breakfast. When we went down to the breakfast room we were greeted with a single made up table laden with food. It seems that we were the only people on the hotel, certainly the only one needing breakfast at 8am.  We finally left at 8:45 for a steady walk, slightly uphill, out of Barcelos. Soon after we started we passed an official looking building with an enormous queue of people waiting outside. We had no idea what the queue was about but it really did look as if the queue was, possibly, to get a weekly/monthly allowance. It may be possible as Portugal is currently quite a poor country with lots of unemployed.

The route soon became more rural and at one point we walked alongside a railway, just as a train passed by and the driver blew his horn, and waved to us as he passed. We waved back. Shades of the Railway Children!  

The route was mainly rural passing through some nice areas with lush fields and farms. There are lots of tractors and other machines around but occasionally we saw some very old fashioned items around. A woman carrying a large sack of greens on her head.

Corn or hay that had been cut and stacked by hand,

and some magnificent horned cattle.

In Barcelos we saw many picturesque cockerels, all as statues and caricatures, today we saw the real item.

The steady climb started getting harder. We stopped off at a small cafe and and had a freshly squeezed, orange juice  and got into discussions with a German man about possible stopping places this evening. We mentioned where we had booked, he liked the sound of it and rang it himself and booked in. So, we may see him later. Later we met a Dutch man who was walking very quickly, otherwise everybody we met today was from Germany.

The afternoon developed into a long slog as we walked mainly uphill. We stopped for lunch and had delicious sandwiches made from bread that we’d just seen coming out of the oven. And met some more Germans. The weather earlier had been overcast and a little cool, but as the afternoon progressed the heat and humidity levels increased. Walking became harder. The track today had initially been in the forest and country tracks, but eventually we were walking only on very uneven, cobbled roads and tracks.  By the time we reached our lodgings for tonight we were flagging!

The place we had chosen, just from the guide, was somewhat strange. It was almost like a set of stables around two sides of a farm yard with an orchard/vineyard facing.

We had booked by phone and so didn’t know what to expect and so were rather surprised. We didn’t quite know what to do, as they was nobody there to welcome us, we were trying to decide when a man appeared from somewhere and told us that we were in Room G. The owner, apparently, would be around at about 6 to 6:30 to deal with registration etc.

The room was quite a surprise, to my mind it was very dark and dismal, with the only window being the one in the door, The floors were very dark and the walls a sort of dark plaster. The bathroom however was quite swish with a very impressive and, as we soon found out, hot shower. We were feeling rather sweaty and soon were showered and changed and started to look around the rest of the place. We had already seen a German couple, in the next room, that we’d met earlier in the day.  Later we also met two more German men who were also staying there.

There was a separate building that, we discovered, contained a very well equipped kitchen, a dining area, a sitting area and a very well stocked bookcase.

Suddenly, again, the man we’d seen before appeared, this time with a mobile phone in his hand, he came to me and said “Carroll”, I answered ‘Yes” and he gave me the phone. It was the owner, a young lady, Susannah, who apologised for not being there, confirming that she would be there sometime after 6pm and checking if we wanted an evening meal. As there were no apparent eating places nearby, and at that time, we didn’t know of any shops, we gratefully accepted the meal offer. We later found that there was a mini market nearby that sold food. Later we went to the market and bought a few beers and some snacks for tomorrow.

The owner duly arrived just after 6pm with lots of interesting containers etc. She proceeded to serve up a delicious chicken casserole with salad and bread. Accompanying this was an olive oil dressing, from the olive trees on the farm and several bottles of a good white wine again from the vines on the farm. The meal, for four Germans and two Brits was very sociable with lots of conversation and generally a good time. The owner had, before she left dealt with her administration, stamped credentials etc. and also arranged with a local cafe/bar for the three German men to go there to see Bayern Munich’s match on their TV. The TV on site was limited in channels and couldn’t receive that particular match. Soon after the meal was finished they went off to walk to the next village to see the match. The German lady went back to her room and we stayed in the lounge area reading, and starting this blog. I managed to get the wood-burning stove going so we spent a cosy evening by the fireside.

What I had considered a dark and dismal place turned out to be very nice after all. 

Day 21 – To Barcelos

My blog of yesterday, “To Fão”,  had to be delayed until today for posting due to an almost total lack of Internet at the hostel in Fão last night. Sorry!

We effectively changed lanes today, for the reasons explained in yesterday’s blog.  We are now in Barcelos which is on the traditional Camino route through Portugal.

This morning we checked out of the hostel in Fão and made out way into the town in plenty of time to catch a bus to Barcelos. We met up with two German women who had had the same idea as us. One of them had a slight walking problem and felt that the shorter route possibilities of the the traditional route would be more manageable for her.

Before the bus arrived we had enough time to call into a cafe near the stop to have a breakfast. We’d opted out of the breakfast at the hostel in order to be absolutely sure we were at the correct bus-stop with time to spare. After our cafe break we had time to chat briefly with the German ladies before the bus arrived. The run into Barcelos took about 45 minutes only, so we where easily able to find somewhere for tonight.

We had seen a small hotel mentioned in the guide that was near the bus terminus. We soon found this but when we arrived the front door was closed and locked. As it was still very early we weren’t really surprised. But just as we were turning away a man came up and proceeded to unlock the door and let us in. Apparently they didn’t have any overstaying guests so the door had been locked whilst the cleaning and took preparation was been done. We told him that we wished to stay tonight and he booked us in, even letting us leave our things etc in our room even though, officially, we were too early to register.  Very obliging, as the majority of all the Portuguese people we have met have been.

Having located somewhere to start our next priority was to find a laundry to get some “proper” clothes washing done. For various reasons we’d more or less run out of clean, or even nearly clean, clothes. Again we soon found one nearby and left a largish bundle of duty washing with them, they promised that it would all be ready by 4pm. We now had time to explore the town.

We soon discovered that this week (and a bit) is party time in Barcelos, the whole central area, around where we were staying, is decorated. Many of these decorations are very fancy, Christmas-type, lighting arrangements covering the streets and some of the buildings. 

They all looked good in the daylight and would look even more special in the dark. The whole centre areas of the old part of town is an enormous market during the day combined with a very large fair that runs throughout the daytime and in to later evening. It looks as if this coming weekend , including Mayday, will be the busiest time with a long list of activities scheduled.

Barcelos if also the home of the legend, below, of the crowing cockerel saving a man’s life.

The legend takes place in 15th century Barcelos. Its citizens had become upset by an unsolved crime that was so terrible that it had the citizens in an alarming state. An impoverished pilgrim had been passing through Barcelos, which was a neighboring city to his in order to fulfill a promise he made during a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Despite his explanation for being in Barcelos, he was still arrested and condemned to hang. He refused to go quietly and asked to be taken in front of the judge who sentenced him to death. The authorities granted his wish, and brought him to the magistrate’s house while he was having a banquet with friends. He affirmed his innocence, and swore the proof of his innocence by pointing to a cooked rooster and said that the rooster would crow at the hour of his hanging as proof. The statement caused a large amount of laughter and mockery. The judge ignored the statement of innocence, but still set aside the rooster and refusing to eat it. When the time for judgment came, the pilgrim went to the gallows to accept his punishment. As he was being hanged, the roasted rooster appeared and stood up on the table in front of the crowd and crowed just as the pilgrim predicted. The judged realized the mistake he had made and rushed to save the pilgrim. The cord was not correctly tightened and was able to easily be saved from his death sentence. Later, the pilgrim would return to Barcelos. He sculpted a cross in honor of the Virgin Mary and St. James, who he felt was responsible for saving him with the miracle of the rooster. Today, this cross is referred to as the Cross of the Lord of the Rooster. This statue is still in existence in the Archeological Museum of Barcelos. 

The result is that there are statues of brightly coloured cockerel ask over the town and the cockerel is the unofficial mascot figure of Portugal.

Overall we’ve really enjoyed our day here, generally looking around and finding places we heard of. Also, as so often happens on the Camino, we met again with people we’ve seen before but never expect to see again. The first meeting was with the Belgian couple we meet yesterday, we came across them exploring the market/fair area, just as we were. We had another long chat with them over coffees and found out a lot more about each other. We’ve exchanged details and may well make further contact. The other meeting was with Alex, from Brazil and, currently, Berlin. We had met him in Mealhada some days ago and certainly not expected to every meet him again as he was going to take some time out in Porto to meet a friend there, and we were, at that time, planning to be taking the coastal route. Nevertheless we did meet him some time after meeting the Belgian couple. He is steadily making his way to Santiago and even with his time out, had now overtaken us again, so it’s unlikely we’ll meet again. But who knows?

Also our laundry was ready, washed, dried and very neatly folded when we returned to collect it at 4pm

Late, in this evening, we returned to the central area to look at the illuminations and fair in the darkness.

The lights were great, the fair was all running, we’d heard a concert going on earlier on the large stage, but when we were in turn nearly everywhere was deserted. Very strange. Hopefully it will get busier as the week progresses.

Day 20 – To Fão

The three, younger, people that were staying in our room last night came in at about 12:30, very quietly. They were all still asleep when we packed and left this morning. The breakfast that was provided by the hostel was OK but somewhat light on choice.  As we left, heading towards the seaward side of town we saw the German party setting off towards the river side. That direction would take them across country towards the more central route of the Camino. There are, as I think I have mentioned before, several Camino routes from south to north in Portugal. We have walked on the most westerly one, along the edge of the ocean, “The Camino Litoral”, so far.

It took us a while, walking through the town, to reach the coast again, we had to come inland a lot yesterday to cross the river at the first bridge. Today is 25th April, the day that, 42 years ago, Portugal had its “Carnation Revolution “, when it’s last dictator was removed. So it is a national holiday. The streets through the town were very quiet, all the offices etc were closed as were many shops. When we arrived at the promenade though things changed. The whole length of the very interesting sea front for several kilometres was thronged with people out strolling, walking jogging, running and cycling. The whole length was nicely developed with lots of interesting buildings, sculpture and other public art of all kind

Eventually the numbers declined as we left the built-up areas and got into the countryside again.

The boardwalks across the sand dunes were again much in evidence. These provide a very pleasant walking environment.

Eventually, however, we had to head away from the actual coast and the route moved inland for a distance. This part of the route was a total change from the earlier one. The area we were now walking through seems to be one gigantic market garden. It consisted mainly of hundreds of plastic growing tunnels interspersed with small plots of land, all intensively cultivated.

The main crop were onions, we could see, and smell, the plants all over the area. The environment was not very pleasant to view and certainly not to walk on as we were now walking entirely on very rough cobbled roads that seemed endless. The map showed that there were no villages, etc, anywhere in any direction for several kilometres, so we had no chance of a break for lunch. We did come across a campsite at one point. The entrance looked to be quite a distance off our route and there were no indications that there were any eating facilities there, so we decided to continue. 

After several more kilometres we reached the town/village of Apulia, again no cafes, bars or other eateries. Eventually we reached Fão  and our destination for today, the local youth hostel.  We were soon allocated a room with four bunks, and settled in. Strangely we would have to wait until after 6pm to register and pay for the room, a strange system as there is nobody there during the afternoon to do the paperwork. Weird!.

Later, while we were waiting to pay etc. we met a Belgian couple, about our age, who had intended doing a cruise along the Duoro river but this had been cancelled as the river levels were too high due to the heavy rains recently. Instead they were doing a driving tour around the area and happened to be staying in the youth hostel tonight. They were very interesting to talk to and were really interested in the whole Camino idea. 

By this time we were feeling very hungry, not really having had anything to eat since breakfast, so we went up into the town to try to find somewhere to eat. Fairly close by we found a bar/restaurant that looked OK, so we gave it a try. It turned out that the restaurant service didn’t start until 7pm, about 20 minutes time. So, while we waited we had a drink and some olives and crisps as an appetiser.

At 7pm the barman told us that we should go upstairs to the restaurant proper. We hadn’t realised that the bar and restaurant were separate and followed a waitress upstairs into a really nice area. Initially we were the only ones there but within 30 minutes there were about 12 people there, and by the time we left there must have been about 25. The menu was quite extensive with lots to choose from. The meal itself was delicious, and turned out to be very reasonably priced even including a very nice tasting bottle of local red wine.

Over the meal we discussed our future route. Today’s route was initially good, but once we turned inland it deteriorated a great deal. The prospects for the next few days look similar. We’re also back in the situation that the distances between places we can stay become rather more than we like to walk. So a rethink was necessary. The conclusion of this rethink is that tomorrow we will take the bus directly inland for about 25kms to the city of Barcelos,  which is on the “traditional” Camino route. Essentially we are not advancing any further towards Santiago but changing “tracks” onto a route with somewhat better accommodation prospects for the next few days. The two routes will join together, anyway, in about 4 to 5 days time.

After our meal we returned to the youth hostel to find that we still had the whole of our room to ourselves, no other pilgrims had been allocated to fill the spare bunks.

Adding comments, you don’t need to sign in!

One or two people have mentioned that they can’t leave comments as the do not have a Google or other accrptable account. 

It is possible but not immediately obvious how. 

If you create a comment by clicking on the “No Comments” or “2 Comments” or whatever, link at the bottom of each posting you will be shown a text box to enter your comments. Below the box is a heading that says “Choose an identity” . Here, one of the options is “Anonymous”. This allows any comments without requiring you to sign in to anything. If you do use this method please indicate within your comment who you are, otherwise you will remain truly “Anonymous “.

The final step is to prove that you are human, by ticking a box. That’s just to stop automated junk systems dumping unwanted dross onto any comments fields they come across.

Hope that helps. 

If you prefer an even easier method just email us at 

thecarrolls @ sky.com 

just remove the spaces I’ve inserted either side of the ” @” symbol to get our proper email address.

Tony

Day 19 – To Vila do Conde

We had a very good night’s sleep, and excellent breakfast, at the Holiday Inn, but with one slight problem. Last night we had, in true Camino fashion, done some clothes washing. There weren’t many items and, as the room was quite warm, we expected them to dry very quickly, certainly overnight.  That was not to be. This morning most items were still damp, very few felt dry.  We didn’t need any of them to wear today, so that wasn’t a problem. But nevertheless we did need to get them dried somehow. A quick shuffle around of other clothes allowed us both to put the damp clothes into string-mesh bags that we carry, usually for dirty washing, but today they were used for drying instead. Each bag, with its contents of damp laundry, was hung on the outside of our packs. Here they could catch the sun as we walked. 

And there was plenty of sun to catch today.

With the drying problem sorted out, we hoped, we set out from the hotel. The hotel is not on the Camino route, but some distance off it. To get back onto the route where we left it last night would involve a backtrack of at least 2kms. However, a quick look at the map showed that we could cut off a corner and rejoin the route about a kilometre further along than we had left it. That’s what we did and very soon we were back on the Camino route.

Yesterday, as we walked out of Porto along the Camino route we didn’t see any yellow arrows. These are the pilgrim’s guide, but not really necessary for yesterday’s route as it would be very difficult to get lost. We didn’t really expect many, if any, arrows today as the guide book could easily say “Walk as near ocean as you can, always keeping it on your left”. But we were surprised to find a very clear, bright yellow, arrow almost immediately, the first of this stage of our Camino.

Throughout the rest of the day we saw others as we progressed. Very rarely were they needed, but they are always useful.

Initially we were walking on the promenade, much the same as yesterday but after about 2 to 3 kms we reached the beginning of the boardwalk. The guide says that there are several long stretches of boardwalk over the sand dunes. We reached the beginning of the first boardwalk just at the same time as a party of twelve German pilgrims. They all proceeded to pose for photos, individually and in small groups. I offered to take a photo of the whole group, if they wanted me to do so. It was an offer gratefully accepted, so I took several for them.

From talking to them I discovered that they had, like us, walked out from Porto yesterday to Matosinhos, and today they where planning on walking to Vila do Conde, again like us. We chatted for a while as we walked but gradually we all separated into smaller groups.

That was the start of our day of the boardwalk. We spent the rest of the day mainly on the boardwalks along the sand dunes. The sun was shining, a gentle warm breeze was blowing and the walking was almost all level and very easy. At one point we were walking between the ocean and a large chemical plant, but amazingly it was fairly unobtrusive. It was just “there”, no smells, no noise, just part of the scenery.  So just a few photos to give you a feel for the trail.

I found today to be the easiest walk I can remember. By the time we reached Vila do Conde we had walked 23kms, but it didn’t really feel to have been that far.

We passed through a whole string of small villages spread out along the ocean’s edge and separated by nature reserves with masses of wild flowers, birds and every changing ocean views.

At one small ocean-side village I spotted an obvious memorial to something.

Closer inspection showed it was to the crew of an RAF Lancaster bomber that had ditched there during WW2. They had flown from Lincolnshire, England on a mission to disrupt the railway link between France and Italy, had to divert due to damage and were trying to reach Gibraltar. However they ditched here, into the sea and all the crew were survived and were rescued by the local fishermen.

We eventually reached Vila and started looking for somewhere to stay. We found a place, the Bellamar Hostel, almost as soon as we entered the town and enquired about accommodation. The only thing they could offer us were two bunks in a five-bedded dormitory. We accepted that and we’re soon installed, showered and changed. It’s quite a big place but they were virtually fully booked. We wondered if our German group had reserved all the places, but it doesn’t seem to be the case as we’ve not seen any of them around in the hostel.

This evening we’ve just wandered around this part of an interesting town.

Later, being somewhere surprised that this hostel was full, we arranged our accommodation for tomorrow night. That will be after another day on the boardwalks, as we’ve been promised.

Day 18 – To Matosinhos

It’s been a funny day, as they say. Yesterday, for all sorts of reasons was hard going. Our decision to stay at a good hotel at the end of our day’s walking helped a lot. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the accommodation in the town was sparse and not given very good reviews. At the beginning of yesterday’s walk we did consider going on to São João Da Madeira, which is a bigger town and had more , places to stop. However by the time we reached Oliveira de Azemèis frankly, we’d had enough, and the thought of another 9.5kms with even more hills, and built-up areas, didn’t appeal.

So the hotel it was.

Today presented an even greater problem for us. The only possible stopping place between Oliveira and Porto was São João which was now too close for a valid day’s walk. After São Joào it was 34kms to Porto, in itself too far in a day for us. Additionally all of the route between Oliveira and Porto is classed as built-up and very hilly. 

After considering all the options we decided to opt-out of that section all-together and travel in to Porto by bus, and then walk on from there. We found the bus times, had a lazy morning, with a very good breakfast in the hotel. A breakfast which I commenced by spilling a full glass of fruit juice all over the sparkling clean table cloth. We had to move to another table. Also, I didn’t realise at the time, but I was sitting there wearing my shirt inside out. Not a great start to the day.

We finally got to the bus station about 11am and duly travelled into Porto by bus.  We didn’t actually go all the way into Porto, but got off a few stops from the centre, an area we knew from our previous visits.

We walked over the high level “Eiffel” bridge, with its views of the city and into the cathedral area from there.

We needed to go to the cathedral for two reasons. Firstly it is the starting point for the Porto to Santiago Camino. Secondly we needed to purchase two more credentials as our current ones, from Lisbon, are getting full. They will definitely be full before Santiago and there is nowhere else to get additional copies, that we know of, between Porto and Santiago.

As we arrived at the cathedral we met Bernard, from Germany. He had arrived there somewhat earlier than us. He also managed to miss out the grind into Porto after being offered a car lift for about the last 20kms. Shortly afterwards we meet Joe, from Ireland, with his wife. She had flown in to meet him for the weekend before flying back to Ireland leaving Joe to continue his walk to Santiago. We are constantly amazed how often we re-meet people we think we’ll never see again. 

We decided to lunch in Porto before starting out to walk along the riverside, out to the Atlantic ocean, and up the coast to Matosinhos, our stopping point for today. We couldn’t decide what to have for lunch, that is until we spotted Subway. We decided to try it, and it was exactly the same as every other Subway we’ve ever been in. We were soon served, had lunch and set off out of town. 

The initial part of the route took us through a lot of the historical, and very touristy, parts of Porto, all of which were crammed with people.

We probably saw as many people this afternoon as we’ve seen since leaving Lisbon. As we walked along the riverside the crowds reduced slightly but there were lots of people all the way, about 14kms, to the centre of Matosinhos.

The weather was very good, sunny but not too hot and nice, flat, and interesting walking.

Close to Matosinhos, we noticed some bronze plaques set into the pavement on a stretch of the road near the sea, all were related to car racing.  

Some quick research this evening revealed that this road formed part of the “Curcuit de Boavista” a car racing circuit used mainly in the 1950/60s, but still used occasionally today. It was the track used for the Portuguese Formula-1 races on two occasions. Wikipedia has details here.

Just nearby is a beach area, close to the port, that was being used by several surfers. 

The only real problem we had was, as ever, right at the end of the walk. The hotel we’re staying in, as pilgrims with a very good rate, is the Holiday Inn Express, which is located about a kilometre out of the town centre and beyond the port area.

It took a little finding. It is however a very nice place.

That’s two nights in a row that we’ve lived in luxury, probably the last for some while, but we have also reached two significant points. The first if that we have reached, and passed, Porto and that we have now walked over 200 miles on this trip. Porto is significant in that many people who say they have walked the Camino Portuguese actually only start from Porto, so we should now start seeing many more pilgrims along the way.

Day 17 – To Oliveira de Azeméis

Last night Barbara took her turn to sleep rather badly for some reason, I slept badly a couple of nights ago. Maybe she was too warm. We’d had to ask for the heating to be turned on earlier in the evening as the room was decidedly chilly, but when it eventually came-on it became much better. I slept OK, but the bed felt as old as the hotel and was not very comfortable. 

Breakfast was not included in our room rental and nobody was around when we were ready to depart. We had heard some voices last night that seemed to be from the room next door, but everything was silent as we left. I took the opportunity to take one or two photos as we left, there hadn’t been chance yesterday.

These, I hope, give a little of the feeling off the place. it’s like a time warp.

Yesterday we had a very nice coffee break as a cafe very close to the hotel and, at that time, checked their opening time for breakfast. The very cheerful owner said that he was open from 7:00 to 22:00 and he would happily serve us with breakfast. We took him up on his offer this morning and went to his cafe at about 8:15. It was rather busy, but the owner instantly recognised us, told us to sit at a table, and a few minutes later was with us deciding on suitable breakfasts for us. We both decided on fresh bread, cheese and ham. These  were soon prepared served with excellent coffees. A little later, when we’d finished, he came over again for a short chat. We suggested that he, somehow, arranged for an advertising sign nearby as the cafe is just off the obvious route for people on the Camino. He should get lots of custom with the correct advertising.

After great goodbyes and thanks from us we made our departure. We hope that his new venture is successful, he deserves to.

It took us a little while to get out of the town and on our way. The route moved into forest walking quite quickly, again we had problems with very rough and/or flooded tracks from time to time, but nothing impassible.

We did have a rather unsettling incident though at one point. At the time we had just left a forested area and we’re walking on the road near to a large convent and religious centre. Here Barbara noticed a bloke on a moped in the large car parking area that ran along side the road that we were walking on. He was following us, as we moved on so did he. As we moved on he eventually left the car park and followed us about 50 metres to our rear at a walking speed for about a quarter of a mile. At one point I deliberately stopped and turned around to face him, he just sat there, not moving on until I returned to walking and left him about 100 metres behind. We shortly afterwards left the road and went back onto a forest track. He didn’t follow us and we saw no more of him.

The incident made us remember the young woman, Ava, that we had met a few days before. She was travelling alone, and camping out most nights. We wondered how she would cope with such an encounter. We hadn’t seen her, other than in our meeting the other day, so she would probably be further away by now. 

Our forest walking gradually changed into more “urban” walking as more and more buildings intruded into the countryside. Eventual we were walking through rather dreary areas.

The Camino route seemed to be deliberately taking us through all the backstreets of somewhat rundown areas. It was still hilly and the weather had become very humid. All in all that part of today’s walk wasn’t very enjoyable. To crown it all there was also a great shortage of either suitable sitting points or anywhere to take a break and a coffee. We had found one place at about 11am where we got a drink, but that was off the Camino route, we’d just noticed it marked as nearby on the map.

Our steady progress, through the unimpressive countryside, continued for some while until at lunch time we were again looking for somewhere to rest and get a bite to eat. We’d seen that another cafe was shown, nearby, on our map. We eventually reached it, it looked fine from outside so we decided to go in. As we entered, through a central door, Barbara turned left towards a spare table just as I glanced to the right to see Ava sitting at another table. It was a great coincidence seeing her sitting there after discussing her only about an hour previously. She was fine and making good progress, still sleeping “rough”.

We talked for a long while before she decided to move on, she’d already been at the cafe for about an hour recharging her phone etc and needed to move on to get planned stopping place for tonight.

We had our lunch and enjoyed the break, eventually starting the last stage of our planned the for today.

The weather had changed a little when we came out of the cafe, it was somewhat fresher, with a little breeze, much nicer to walk in. Also the countryside was a little more interesting. At one point the footpath shares a rather narrow bridge, under a road, with the local railway line. The path simply runs alongside the track for about 100 metres, no sign of a fence or other protection.

The rail line however sees to be hardly ever used. The rails are very rusty, but with just a faint sign that a train had run along there at some time in the last few weeks. We didn’t see any today.

Finally we got near to our destination town, Oliviera, to see the reality of what we’d already seen on the map. We’ve spent a lot of time today climbing steadily, sometimes descending a little, but the map showed that the very last stage was severely uphill into Oliviera. And that’s what it was, a long, and in some places very steep, uphill climb towards the town centre. It seemed never ending as it became very steep towards the top

We were unsure what we might find when we eventually got to the top and the town. There were two albergues listed but one had a very damning review with it, warning pilgrims try stay away from “a filthy place”. After last night’s place, which eventually was just about OK but expensive, we decided to book into a four-star hotel. 

We did get a good rate when we said that we were weary pilgrims, which at that point was perfectly true. The place is very nice, totally different to last night. We’ll enjoy it here.

Day 16 – To Albergeria-A-Velha

I slept on the top bunk last night, in our room for two.  It’s the first time on the top bunk since the last Camino. Normally they don’t bother me, but last night was uncomfortable. Quite late in the evening the heating in the room turned on, which was quite nice at the time, as it had become rather chilly. However it stayed on all night, with the result that I was rather hot, not sleeping too well. 

We had opted to have breakfast at the albergue this morning, at a very reasonable €2.5 each. We didn’t expect to have anything much more than coffee and bread with possibly some jam or marmalade for that price, but we were presented, instead, with a feast. We had a choice of color meats, cheeses, cereals, various fresh fruits, different breads etc.  And excellent coffee, the best in Portugal so far. Very good value.

Les set off at about 8am and was soon followed by a Danish lady that we hadn’t met before, but who is doing a solo Camino. We later met her again, briefly, out on the trail.

Today started out with nice weather and we both chose to walk without our legs on. The removable legs of our walking trousers of course. Barbara removed hers a day or so ago, but I only removed mine yesterday. It is much cooler in the warm weather we’ve had over the last couple of days.

Looking back at our albergue from last night we were glad that today’s walk didn’t start with the long climb that we finished with yesterday

Our route today gave us two options, one was to walk to Albergeria-A-Velha, a distance of about 16kms or go on to the next town adding another 7kms or so. We opted for the shorter distance, partly to allow us time for washing/drying etc. Our social late afternoon and evening yesterday was very nice but it meant that some things we needed to do didn’t get done, so a short day today should help.

Shortly after leaving our albergue we were walking through an industrial area, and not too sure about the way the route went, when a young woman came to us and asked, in good English, if we needed directions. She, she claimed, was also a Camino pilgrim, having walked to Santiago a year or two back and she envied what we were doing. She was just on her way to work and decided to help. “The Camino will provide”, goes the legend.

Our route today was, again, very nice countryside. One or two hilly stretches, as is normal around here, but very pleasant. On one stretch we walked along what is claimed to be a Roman route, now bypassed by a modern road, which suddenly became a very long many arched low bridge over a large lake on one side leading to the river on the the other side.  

It is a beautiful place, lots of bird, and frog, songs to entertain you. Up to fairly recently this part of the trail continued across over the river on a higher-arched old (Roman) bridge.  This is no longer possible as the centre arch collapsed into the river some time ago. Instead the route now crosses the valley by means of a very modern, very high bridge.

This gives great views down into the village below, and also saves a lot of descent and ascent across the valley. Shortly after the end of the modern bridge we rejoined the old trail to walk through some more eucalyptus forest and on to our destination town.

There are one or two places to stay here, but we decided to stay at the local pension, the “Casa da Alameda”. This has obviously been a very upmarket place in the past, the long past. It’s a decidedly funny place, a snapshot of sometime between Victorian and 1950s.  There seem to be lots of bedrooms that are simply storage for assorted furniture and fittings, with staircases that should lead elsewhere but are now cordoned off by strategically placed armchairs.  Everywhere is either very dark-brown wood furniture and muddy cream walls, or is painted dark-brown to match the woodwork. But we have our own room and bathroom. We did have to request that the heating be put on as it was decidedly chilly. 

Anyway we’ve had a restful and useful afternoon, and as a fortunate side-effect, missed walking in some very heavy rain that occurred not long after we arrived. This evening we had a short stroll around the centre of town finding a rather good cafe for our breakfast tomorrow. The place is run by a local man who lived for some time in Montreal in Canada where he learned his English, amongst the French of course. But he was very eager to practice English again and refused any attempt by us to try any of our very sparse Portuguese. ” I must practice my English before I forget it ” he claimed. He also repeatedly said “You are very welcome here”, something that we’ve noticed all over Portugal so far.

Day 15 – To Agueda

We set off today with a totally clear, blue, sky and brilliant sunlight. As we tend to, we had decided to have breakfast on the trail. At the first village there was nothing available, but at the second village, Aguim, we had delicious sandwiches and coffees. The cafe was a little off the Camino track and we only found it by accident. They really need to put a sign on the Camino trail and they would get a lot of business. On through other places including Anadia, after we walked through a large, totally deserted sports and athletics complex. It had become a feature of this trip to suddenly come across large modern structures that seem to be completely unused and deserted, probably due to the economic crisis that hit Portugal a few years ago. 

We continued steadily, coming across various odd features from time to time.

Things like a very artistic garden arrangement

the two headed goat,

footballing lions

and the dragon goalkeeper.

Later we stopped for a coffee break at another small village, Alfaloas, where the cafe owner, very kindly, gave us a leaflet for an albergue for tonight, and showed us her book of comments from other pilgrims, also stamping our credentials. While we were there we were joined by the youngest pilgrim that we’ve met so far on this trip, a young lady called Ava. She was originally from Belgium but currently living in Norway, and obviously wanted a chat with someone. She is walking the Camino by herself and camping out every night. Not something either of us would like to do, even in better weather than we’ve been having. It must be pretty horrible in the rain we’ve had over the last week or so. I heard, about a week ago that it’s been, officially, the wettest April in Portugal for many years. 

We had a few more kilometres of countryside before our lunch in the early afternoon, again at a very nice little cafe with a very welcoming owner, she actually gave us two very nice meringues on the house. 

Somewhere along the route we passed a rather surprising, very modern, structure. This is a communal wash house for the village with the water being supplied from the local stream.

It seems rather a throwback to mediaeval times, but it is obviously very new. We’ve seen many other similar structures before, most villages have them, but most look very old and unused.

The other item we saw was this Camino marker. One part of it shows the direction to take on the Camino, but the other gives the distance to Santiago de Compostela as 303kms.

As most guides quote a distance of just over 600km between Lisbon and Santiago it means that we are just about halfway there. By evening we definitely will be.

The guide we’re using describes the next stage into Agueda as a long slog through an industrial area. That sums it up entirely. It was a hard uphill climb through factories and warehouses, followed by similar downhill stretch into the centre of Agueda, followed by another long, steep uphill stretch to our albergue. 

We soon checked in, the receptionist mentioning that another Englishman, Les, had already checked in.  Later, as I caught up with my laundry requirements, he and Barbara walked back down the hill to the local Lidl to get two bottles of wine and some nibbles for later in the evening. We also ordered some takeaways to be delivered as an evening meal. High living on the Camino – partly to celebrate the halfway point, mainly for the hell of it. We were also joined by Bernard, from Germany, whose English improved greatly as the evening wore on and the wine took effect. 

All of us were fairly tired and retired to our rooms by about 8:30, me to work on this blog and Barbara to catch up with The Archers on the BBC Radio iPlayer.