It is my second time with the bittersweet feeling that you experienced on the last day of the journey to Santiago de Compostela. We left our hostel at 6:40 am. We knew that the day was going to be a challenging 14 miles with long uphills and downhills.
Allow me to start with the arrival to Praza do Obradoiro and the feeling that you get when you realized that it is KM 0 at the impressive cathedral. Here are some pictures:
During the 15 miles walk today you cannot stop reflecting on the experience you had on the last 10 days. The camino gives you pain, pleasure, laugh and clarity on what is important and what is not.
The walk started in the dark with a lot of up and down
As we were getting close to the cathedral, your emotions run high and you see the signs everywhere
After getting our Compostela certificates we had a wonderful lunch and celebrated with a bottle of Cava
We them walked to the hotel
Thanks to everyone that has been following our adventure.
Tomorrow, we will attend mass in the cathedral and we will write about the experience
Today, we started early, I was really slow this morning. Diana left at 6:30, Sheri at 6:50 and I left at 7:15, however, I managed a good cup of coffee before I left which is a real treat in El Camino, must places open at 9:00 am.
Caldas de Reís is away from the coast, so you basically start getting into the mountains right away. We are now in a central route to Santiago de Compostela. it was a gorgeous sunrise but I was in the forest when it was happening and I couldn’t take a picture to honor the beauty
We went through farm land and I took a close picture of one of the main plants that people eat in Galicia. The caldo Gallego is made with the leaves from this plant which is in the family of cabbage/kale. The caldo gallego is a soup made with this leaves, potatoes and speck. It is delicious!
The walk was full of peace and serenity until the tourist pilgrims arrived. One of them was playing music on a little speaker. I asked him if he has headphones, he said yes, so I told him, in a proper way, to use them.
Here are some pictures before the tourist arrived
I found Diana on Mile 8 and she surprised me with el camino gift. She basically made me look like a pirate
Since you are away from the coast, and people still want to eat fresh fish, I was amaze when I saw a van honking the horn at specific locations, people will come out and buy fish. This is service!!
We were surprised how fast we walked. We arrived to Padron around 12:30 and needed to kill time because our albergué wasn’t open yet, so you do what the local do, drink wine, beer and eat great food. I ordered a place fist which I dissected with surgical precision
Tomorrow, we are leaving at 6:30 am. We have a big mountain to climb . This is the profile. We want to have time to rest every 3 miles and take it easy.
Potevedra is a city that deserves to be explore, however we had schedule to keep and we departed in the morning. Diana left at 7:45 am and I followed at 8:55 am.
The morning are always pleasant as you depart from sea level and start climbing the mountain and very soon you find yourselves surrounded by trees and water streams
Today, I was fascinated with the different techniques the people in Galicia plan their vineyards. It is very different from how is done in France, the U.S. and many other places.
They start by growing the vines as shown in this picture. Notice that there are not lines
They then build the lines on the top and end up with a canopy as shown in the following pictures
The fruit is underneath and protected from the sun. I feel that it is a better technique but the fruit will have to be picked by hand.
I also saw another technique that actually grow the vines as a bush., no lines. I think that these are Mecías grapes vines.
Today, we were surprised by the number of “pilgrims” we found in El Camino. I put quotes on pilgrims because, they are tourist of el camino and they occupied the coffee shops and breakfast places like a plague. After walking for almost 5 miles, we found the first coffee shop and it was packed with people. The True Pilgrims said, where did these people come from? We know they didn’t come from Pontevedra, because, they were not ahead of us in the mountains. My theory is that they were bussed to a place near el camino, right after the mountain for them to start the walk there.
We are planning to leave tomorrow at 6:30 to 7:00 am to avoid the “Tourist Pilgrims” all together.
A proof they are tourist was our albergue lobby was full of oversized bags waiting for them to arrive.
Changing subject, today, was a relatively easy day, 14 miles. Here are some pictures from our adventure.
Leaving Redondela and getting in the path was easy today, it was just outside our albergue.
Diana left at 7:20 am, I followed at 8:45 after making lunch for all of us. The morning was cool and beautiful. We entered the path in the mountain very fast on steady ramp.
Diana was energized and today, she walked fast. I joined her about mile 5, we walked together for a while. I stopped for another coffee and she went ahead. About 3 miles later, I found her again
Getting close to Pontevedra you find some very old and interesting Camino markers like these ones
Entering Pontevedra, you do it by crossing a Roman Bridge, it is always a great feeling to walk in something that has being standing for a long, long time
Now, a little bit about Pontevedra.
During the 12th century Pontevedra rose as an important commercial centre; it reached its zenith in the 15th century as a trade and communications hub. Pontevedra was the main Galician urban centre. In fact, Pontevedra has the second largest “old town” in Galicia, only after Santiago de Compostela.
Today, after watching clothes and taking a power nap, Diana and I when to the old city part of Pontevedra and walked the town. The amazing thing is that we added almost 3 miles to our walk today.
Any way, we had a great time eating croquetas and wine waiting for the restaurants to open. As always, we had an excellent dinner.
We attended the end of a pilgrim’s mass and took picture with the priest and other pilgrims.
These are some of the pictures from our evening walk around town.
After 8.5 miles, we finally found a Cervezeria and I refueled with 3 beers
Today, we arrived to our pension very early and did our normal routine, watch our clothes, shower, buy the essentials for next day.
The pension has a washing machine, but the dryer uses renewable energy
The host of the pension provides massage services, so Diana is taking a 30 minutes massage on her legs and feet before we go out for dinner.
Now, about the village we are staying tonight. Redondela is known as the “Village of the Viaducts” because of its two major railway viaducts built in the 19th century. The older viaduct is made of iron and stone, is 32 meters (105 ft) high, and 411 meters (1,356 ft) long. It was active for over a century on the Vigo-Ourense railway route until 1971, when the railway line was modified. The structure was rehabilitated in 2014 and is now used as a pedestrian walkway.
We started the day at 8:00 am under a light rain. It was supposed to be an easy day, however it ended up as a hard day because of the 4 miles in the city of Vigo on hard surface.
The morning was beautiful even with the light rain
About a mile and a half from the flat that we stayed the night, we reach the river Miñor and we walked over a Roman Built bridge. Diana was very excited about using this Roman made bridge.
The following pictures were taken to illustrate the number of climb we found today. Diana develop a battle cry every time she started a climb she screaming “Steve is a lier”. She was in pain climbing a big slope after 8 miles walk. Diana is going to talk Steve’s mother, Ellen, about the pain he caused 🤣🤣. You can see how high we are from sea level. Steve, I am only the messenger.
Steve, this was part of the profile for today
I only had two beers today, but they tasted amazing
We finally arrived to the center of Vigo, beautiful city with a lot of history.
Diana when shopping by herself while Sheri and I had a wonderful dinner. I am very proud of her because she did shopping by herself in Spain using her Spanish lenguaje skills. She bought some additional hiking gear, food for tomorrow, water and wine. We are drinking the wine stray from the bottles 🤣🤣🤣
Diana ended walking 20+ miles today while I did 18.2 miles
Tomorrow supposed to be to be an easy day, however, we are climbing again.
This is the profile of the camino for tomorrow
I’ll let you know if my feet and back are angry at me. I think that my feet and my back are going to create a labor union and probably call strike 🤣
Life for us most of the time is full with a lot of unwanted input, but we got living life accepting them. We have so much noise and light pollution that we don’t understand the opposite to that. We get many unwanted e-mails and phone calls that we just delete or ignore. That is our daily life. I am not talking about the good things like cocktails and cooking time, that is a good thing with friends and family.
Today, I found my Camino Portugués “Sound of Silence”.
Diana left the flat at 6:45 am and I left at 7:30. It was dark and the streets in A Guarda were empty. As I walked toward the outskirts of the town, a sense of peace and fulfillment embraced me. There was complete silence and almost no light pollution and the only thing present was the sound of the ocean to my left. I recognized that as my “Sound of Silence” and it stated with me until sunrise. Here are some pictures from that moment.
As I continue my long walk for the day, I was welcome by Saint James. It is always nice to see him.
I walked for 4.3 miles without coffee, which is a crime if you know me. But at that point I joined Diana on a very small place close to the water and we had great coffee and freshly made Tortilla Española, so good.
Diana and I continue walking and stopped to rest about the 7.0 miles mark, I took a 400 mg Ibuprofen and spread Bengay on my shoulders. We saw a single sail boat on the ocean and decided to take a selfish.
I started to walk and Diana followed me later, I found a restaurant at 1:00 pm. You would think that at this time lunch menu is available, but NOOOO, you are in Spain, the only menu available was breakfast. So we managed to have something and I ate my food with two beers, very important. If I have not being clear, beer is the fuel for the camino, while wine is the pain killer at night. Two very important food groups
While walking I came across something that I saw on the camino Frances when I entered Galicia.
Those building are the family silos for their grain.
Now, allow me to ask my wife, I want to have hydrangeas like this in our house. It makes a nice hedge 🤣🤣 please, please
Diana has being fascinated by this tree, it is every where
Today, we knew that it was going to be a long day, but it was harder than we expected. 4 miles before we reached Baiona, there was about 1-1/2 miles of heavy climbing, which felt really bad after 15 miles of walking.
Steve Niehaus, I know that the camino Frances was hard but this one felt hard and Diana really wants to have a conversation with you.
While going downhill, I needed to boost the battery on my phone. I found a very small bar and asked for a beer (my 3rd of the day) and they help me with my phone. While having the beer, the owner asked me, can I tell you something about the history of Baiona?, I said, I would love to hear that. He then proceeded to tell me that Baiona, was the first port that Christopher Columbus landed after he discovered America and the town had a replica of La Pinta vessel. This is what I found about Baiona.
“Baiona (Bayona) Galiza Spain
In the days of the famous voyages of Christopher Columbus, Baiona was the first port to hear about the discovery of America and today a replica of the Pinta is permanently moored in the harbour. Baiona’s fascinating history attracts almost 35,000 tourists each summer with yachts from all over the world sailing into its port in preparation for their transatlantic crossing.”
Here is a picture of La Pinta replica
Remember, I said that it was a hard day, well it was and when we arrived to our apartment we didn’t want to go anywhere, we ordered food delivery and I went to a local grocery store for wine, water and breakfast stuff (tomorrow).
We did almost 48,000 steps or 21.23 miles
Well, I believe that my feet are going to be on strike. Tomorrow is an easy day, only about 12-1/2 miles.
After a very hard previous day, we started our morning a 7:15 am with coffee and high spirit. We when to a coffee shop next to our albergue, got a nice “cafe o Leite” (cafe con leche in Portuguese) and a pastry, so good. We noticed on the wall, a world map with pins from people that have visited them, of course, we marked where we came from. Such a great idea
Today, while walking, I looked at flowers along the camino and I missed my wife and my daughter Elena. Elena loves Sunflowers, Paula loves hydrangeas and purple flowers. Here are a few pictures.
While you are doing the camino, there are so many religious signs reminding you about Christ. These are a few pictures that I took along the way
The path today was easier but with challenges along the way, we did have cobblestones path but not as much as the previous 3 days, nice eucalyptus forest with great eucalyptus smells. My feet don’t hate me as much as before, but they are very sore.
We came across the town of Villa Pria do Ancora and they were getting ready for a big festival, the main church have the Virgin Mary ready to be parade in the town, the streets were dress up and the circus was in town. Also there was a stand being setup for all king of cocktails that I want Jeff to notice.
Walking along the seashore was beautiful but the win was strong. There were benches and swings along the way and people were enjoying the morning watching the ocean, it felt so relaxing
We were getting close to Camiñha to take a boat to A Guarda. At this location, you cross the border in the middle of the river. The sigh were every where to hire a water taxi. I found this one from Popeye but couldn’t find the bugger
Any way, we arrived at the end of the Portugal border to take the water taxi to A Guarda shoreline, Spain, and we find this guy that looks like he had a hard night the day before. We paid the money and we departed.
It was a crazy, fast and bumpy ride. Diana was jumping on her seat. He dumped us on shoreline, Spain side. Diana and I felt like pirates invading another country, I felt very illegal.
We walked another 3 miles to small flat we rented for the night. The view of the A Guarda bay from the window of the flat was amazing.
We showered and went downstairs for an early dinner, 7:30 pm, very early for Spanish people. We sat on a table looking at the bay enjoying some Mencia wine and eating fantastic seafood
The evening ended with a beautiful sunset, coffee and torta de Santiago
I have to say that today the Camino through another wrench in the fan.
First, I want to apologize to my daughter Diana and our friend Sheri. I made reservations for our Albergue yesterday, and I booked the location for the same day rather than the following day. It is clear that I need an assistant.
I realized my mistake half way through and I rushed to make a reservation and everything was booked, I found a place with an address in Viana do Costello, but (this is the big BUT), it was in the north outskirts of the city so it added another 7 miles to our journey, that was already difficult with many hills. According to my Apple Watch, I when up 35 floors.
So today’s walked was about 23 miles and the plan was 18 miles. No good. Diana, Sheri and I are very sore. The only good thing is that tomorrow is going to be only 14 miles to our albergue.
Now, all that aside, let’s talk about the walk. We started walking at 7:00 am, of course a lot of cobblestones but the morning grace us with a nice sunrise
We crossed the bridge to Esposende which was under construction and very scary to walk on the scaffolding outside the bridge. It was just crazy, I don’t believe that they will allow that in the US.
That’s just the beginning. In Esposende, we came across a protected area that floods at high tide and brings a lot of sea creatures from the ocean. I took a picture of our shadows looking toward the ocean
We saw a lot of Camino signs in addition to the directional yellow arrows. Here are some of the most interesting signs
Always, in El Camino you find statues of Saint James and today was different.
Today, my feet are happier, we had a section in the climb that was just dirt and Diana and I felt like goats, climbing the hill like nothing and our feet felt fantastic.
This was the church that we stop to rest and found out that our hotel booking wasn’t there and then I booked another one that was too far away. I have being fired by my daughter and I am not longer allow to book anymore albergues, possadas or hostels. As a pennant, I was told that I needed to climb all those stairs
Anyway, every one was on the albergue by sunset and tomorrow is another day
While everyone rest, I am assigned to wash and dry the clothes, so I am drinking wine and writing today’s story.
Our original plan was to go to Esposende, however, the Camino Portugués, has become a very popular place and all the Albergues in Esposende were booked. So, I found a very nice albergue near Esposende in a town name Fão. The host, Luis is fantastic.
As my experience from Camino Frances thought me, everyday is unique, and with new challenges. Today, the day started overcast and windy as we walked in the outside of Villa de Conde, we found some great surprises. One of them was the celebration of Noite Branca, which means the following:
“Noite Branca de Braga is a 3-day festival that presents a large cultural program including concerts, exhibitions, performances, arts and light installations as well as community built projects. The last edition was actively participated by an audience of 300 thousand people. Since its earlier editions, Noite Branca de Braga as progressively become an anchor of the strategy of the city to promote creativity and innovation as essential values for social and cultural development.”
I found this to be a great concept for a city
The weather turn from overcast to rainy and windy and we quickly started to get layers and getting the rain cover for the backpacks
As you walked you find Art inspired by the camino, some done by the city and some by the fellow pilgrims
We are still walking in cobblestones and my feet still hate me. Today, we didn’t had any beer and Diana and I walked more than 13 miles without a significant break and arrived to our albergue at 1:30 pm, of course, they open at 3:00 pm, so we when for lunch and vino verde immediately, of course, just to kill 1-1/2 hours, we had a great time and the lunch was fantastic. That’s all for today !! Buen Camino….
Ennodio’s Adventures 