Life's a Stitch

 16.1k

 

When we walk such a rural route I can’t shake this preschool song in my ear: I say good morning to the sun, good morning to the hills, good morning to the chickies and the hens….” The ear worm today should have been The Rain in Spain. I am so thankful for my lightweight hiking umbrella that I can attach to my pack so I can still walk with poles.

C with his ground score brolly:

 

 

Our first break today was at a cafe crawling with pilgrims. Tui marks the spot on this route with the minimum distance allowed (100k) for an official Camino Compostela  (certificate). The prospect attracts many pilgrims who have less time. We will enlist our crowd control strategy from last time: try not to follow the stages in the guild book, as most do, and leave later in the morning. The good thing, though, is that at the cafe we ran into both the South African and Latvian couples. So nice to catch up. And our country count went up by two today: Taiwan and Poland.

 

We walked in heavy, misty, drizzly conditions, through a park, forest and some rural residential areas. 

 

Galicia’s horreos granaries are growing in number.

 

Here’s a Roman Bridge with a pilgrim we admired. He was an older gentleman taking it slowly but surely. 

 

We arrived in Porriño to Cass Lolita, a nice old small house centrally located in the old town. The host explained that the Galician Food Festival was in progress. We are always happy to find accommodation right on the Camino. Then find out a festival is on. Then notice the huge sound stage behind the house.

Then hear the fireworks. At midnight. This time earplugs helped tremendously, as well as comfortable mattresses. 

19.1 k

 

Through farms and countryside,

along a brook, a waterfall, over more Roman roads and bridges.

It looked as though the planes were playing aerial tic tac toe.

 

We stopped at a traditional churrascarro for our last lunch in Portugal. I think we’re eating our weekend meal too late, as for the second time, the house specialty (roast pig) was sold out by 2:00 pm. Instead we split what was called a small (read huge) order of ribs, salad and the usual rice and potatoes, this time fries. We spent the same as we would have on a Pilgrim’s meal. So far, this Camino, we are noticing the prices haven’t changed since 2015.

 

Our hostel was about a hour’s walk, through the city of Valenca, around the impressive Fortaleza,

over the tall bridge

and into Tui, Spain. 

 

 

Up the hill, of course, we found our hostel, Ideas Peregrino. It’s kind of a funky artsy place

with shared kitchen, bath, washer and something I’ve never seen before in Spain, a dryer. We picked up something to warm in the microwave for dinner and decided to do laundry. The problem for us were the fact that the laundry had designated hours, the washers here take two hours and Spain is in a different time zone. So by midnight we had wet clothes and no way to dry them. We hung them in the room and went to bed.

 

Notice I said bed, and not to sleep. We were located near the main square and being Saturday night, the Spaniards partied on. And on. And on until 3:30 a.m. when it stopped in an instant, like someone pulled the plug.

 

We got up at 7:15 to dry the clothes and went on our way.

18.9 K

 

The Camino has taught me two things today:

1. Don’t trust Accuweather, there was a reason we dubbed it Inaccuweather on our first Camino in 2015.
2. Don’t label any day the toughest yet, the most challenging, the wettest…because the Camino has more in store for you.  

We looked  at today’s weather and saw 70% cloud cover, but no rain, so we packed off our rain gear with trail transport. It was spitting by the time we hit the bridge. You know how the Inuit was 100 words for snow? I have dozens for rain, I lived in a rainforest for 30 years, after all. 

 

And remember that mountain from a couple of days ago? Turns out it was in our future, with this stage’s elevation gain of 540 meters while inappropriately dressed for the constant mizzle turned to showers. 

 

Cold from the wet, I made a shrug from a silk scarf my daughter brought me from Thailand years ago. Silk is perfect – light in weight, warm, and the rain beaded up on the surface keeping me dryish. Here I am keeping dry in a winemaking shed about a quarter of the way up.

 

Most of the climb was in wet rock through eucalyptus and pine forests:

 

 

The weather cleared as we approached our accommodation, a casa rurale about 1.5k off the Camino. Could this really be it? It has its own church? This property is larger than some of the villages we’ve walked through.

La Quinta Gandra was spectacular. Large rooms, private baths,

impressive commercial kitchen and dining room, but they only serve breakfast. For dinner the cheerful helpful hostess, Isabella, drove us to a nearby restaurant, Bon Retiro, which sounds appropriately like good retirement to me.

 

The restaurant catered to pilgrims with a lengthy reasonable menu. We sat with a couple from South Africa and shared good conversation. We were driven back to the Casa with another couple from Latvia (the country count now stands at 19).

 

Isabella met us in the dining room with a bottle of Port for the six of us. When her shift ended she left an additional bottle just in case.

One glass is all I could handle.

I’m falling behind on my blogging. Lack of wifi, being sick and full days are my excuse. 

 

This recovering pilgrim stayed in bed until nearly 10:00, feeling much better. After noon we decided to explore the town. Ponte de Lima, located on the Lima River,  is Portugals’s oldest city. Their rambla was lined with huge sycamores:

 

It was perfect for my wood lover. Look at the size of the camo patterned trunk.

 

C was hungry so we went for a pilgrim’s meal at a local restaurant, where we could sit outside and admire the river view. 

 

7e each bought us these main courses:

plus soup, bread, a cappuccino, and your choice of beverage, “anything but whiskey.” I had an agua con gaz (sparkling water) and C had a cider. C ate his entire meal plus a good deal of mine. 

 

We returned to our mansion (how often can you say that?) To plan our next five days. We will turn off at the “spiritual variant” of the Portugues Camino, where there is a convent that accepts guests whose goals are consistent with their culture, and are not just pilgrims seeking a place to stay. I sent a request and received a reply in the morning that we were accepted.

 

Back to our accommodation, which we had all to ourselves, here are some pictures of the rooms.

My major complaint that can’t be resolved in buildings this age was the sewer odor, particularly at night. It’s consistent with other older European construction. 

 

Back on the trail tomorrow. I hear it will be a tough one.

 

 

 

 

 

13.8 including 1.8k diversion to a grocery store.

This day was the most challenging yet, at least for me. At 2:30 a.m. it hit. Major GI disturbance plus a fever, which lasted all night long. I was torn – take a cab to the next destination or attempt the walk.

C made sure that we could stay until the later checkout time of noon and was sent back to our “stall” with lemon verbena tea. I went back to bed with some Tylenol, which brought down the fever, and some other appropriate meds.

I thought of the two pieces of advice KC, my SIL, gave us before this Camino. When faced with tough times you can ask yourself what a pilgrim would do and if the going gets really tough everything is solvable by going a bit above budget. At 11:30 I elected to be a brave pilgrim knowing we would be going through several villages where I might be able to call a cab.

One guide book described this as the most beautiful point on this Camino and I couldn’t bear to miss it. C slowed his pace for me. I was so relieved we scheduled a rest day tomorrow in Ponte de Lima. Initially I thought it was too soon to have one after only five days.

It lived up to its reputation.

On the Camino, the sight of mountains in the distance gives you that uh-oh feeling. You squint your eyes looking for the tracing of a vertical trail populated with what looks like ants going upward, really pilgrims in the distance. Looking on our map there is a steep climb in our near future. 

it was a relaxing trek past cornfields, vineyards, olive and walnut groves, the only traffic was the occasional farm tractor and trailer filled with vats of grapes.

And there were mushrooms! If I wasn’t so sick to my stomach and if I knew we had kitchen privileges in the next town, we might have picked some of the puffballs. There was also chicken of the woods, but it was beyond its prime. This is a picture Marcus took yesterday.

The presence of St. James, the namesake of the Camino  de Santiago, appeared regularly.

We arrived in Ponte de Lima at our guesthouse, an old two story stone building about the size of a school with 20 classrooms. A wing has been converted to five guest rooms, but we had it all to ourselves.

Tomorrow is a much needed rest day.

According to StingyNomads.com it was supposed to be 16k. Reality: 22.3k, a significant difference considering the amount of incline and humidity.

We opted for breakfast at the sister hotel to our hostel, which was a treat as I was able to make a two egg brekkie sandwich, a protein load for the unexpectedly long day to come.

We started flat, went up and levelled off. We went up again and levelled off. We knew it would be a steep day and were pleased at our performance. Then we went up, up and up some more. We sat at a covered bus stop to check our maps in the shade and realized the website’s error. There was no choice but to tough it out.

it was a day of many surfaces.

Cobblestones

Mud

Sandy farm road 

Dirt

When we crossed this bridge it was raining, but a fellow pilgrim, shared this photo from when he was ahead of us on the trail:

With breaks it took us about eight hours to arrive at Estabulo de Valinhas, a traditional casa rurale located in a vineyard.

C decompressed with a new friend.

We opted for the communal dinner, which was simple, but featured the farm’s own olive oil and wine. We started dinner with a group of German pilgrims, when who walks in? Marcus, the dentist we walked with yesterday.

The dining room had maps where you could pin your names to your home location.

Remember how we slept in the train station in Porto? Now we’ve slept in an old horse barn, the stalls converted to comfortable bedrooms with private bathrooms.

The long day today should make for an easier one tomorrow.

16.5K

 

A good manageable day on the Camino. One of our favourite aspects is meeting people from all over the world. On the Frances route we met people from over 30 countries. It’s our third day and the count stands at seven. We are still in touch with Diego, the young man from Mexico we met on the second day of our first Camino.

 

We started the morning leaving our room at Casa Da Vila. Clank went the heavy automatically locking front door… with our hiking poles left behind. Two texts and it was arranged for them to be transported to our next stop. C made me a walking stick out of a branch from the eucalyptus forest.

 

We found our way to the Romanesque church to find our guiding arrows, and discovered a family of four taking pictures. They were a retired mom and dad and their daughter and son-in-law, originally from Colombia, now living in Florida. 

 

We walked the entire morning with them. What a great experience they’re having walking the Camino together. Hmmmm, Bryant and Sammy? Mari and KC? Elina and Sean, it would wear those boys out (in a good way)? 

 

The first half of the day was through farm communities, corn and grapes, goats and sheep. 

 

 

And dogs. This was the most well behaved Camino dog we’ve met:

 

 

We split paths with the family as we were ready for lunch. It was an instant replay of last night’s pilgrim meal, with a better version of the soup. In fact that was the third similar meal in a row as we had dinner leftovers for brekkie.

 

The second half was on cobblestones all the way to Barcelos. It’s hard on the feet, but there are always lengths of narrow sandy shoulder to give the feet a break.

 

And now we’re at a wonderful hostel with shared laundry and kitchen. We took the opportunity to cook and do laundry.

 

Today ended up being not so bad, elevation-wise. Tomorrow might be another story.

 

 

 

 

 

24.5k (14.7 miles)

 

Our guesthouse in Labruge was comfortable, with a decent continental breakfast, which on the Camino can be toast and coffee. It’s always a bonus when there is cheese and meat on the table, but add in boiled eggs and it feels like a meal. They had an interesting solution to converting a tub to a walk in shower. 

Those crocheted toilet paper holders seem popular in Portugal this time.

 

I woke up at 5:00a.m., just like at home, but managed to go back to sleep. My alarm went off at 7:00 and it wasn’t raining, however with all the humidity our stuff was still damp. It amazing how much weight rain adds to your pack.

 

The first half of today was still along the coastal route we did last time. Most was familiar, but as our first stage was longer, everything was viewed in a different light of the day. It’s Sunday and there were many locals strolling the boardwalk, their town’s “cholesterol trail.” 

 

 

We walked into Vila do Conde feeling wilted, passing a huge fig tree in a garden. C asked the woman permission to pick some, she said to wait a minute, went into the house and returned with a bowl of washed fresh figs, indicating we could have as many as we want. Her English was excellent and we talked fig recipes – jam and chutney. Those sweet juicy figs replenished us enough to get into town.

 

Took a long break in Vila do Conde, then onto our diversion to the central Portuguese route. We had a lovely time walking through small villages while talking with a 45 year old German dentist. We left him at a higher end restaurant to enjoy his lunch.

 

 

It was a tough day. On our two prior Caminos, we took the first two days slowly. This time we went in full force, 23+k two days in a row. It was warm and difficult to stay hydrated.

 

Stopped for dinner, all C wanted was soup. It tasted like thickened Campbell’s chicken noodle with the addition of cabbage. I went for the pilgrim’s meal: same soup, generic meat (think it was beef), rice, potatoes, cabbage and fresh fruit salad. It was fuel for the body. We shared a delicious bottle of Portuguese wine.

 

Dinner was followed by a Google goose chase, where it sent us in circles, nowhere near our Air B&B destination. Not the first time. Then the excitement began.

 

We were looking forward to having a bath tub to soak away the pains of the day, however there was no hot water. The host returned and found a workaround that allowed us each a hot bath, luxurious after our first two days on the trail. When we drained the tub the second time the apartment flooded. It was as if we had tried to fill last night’s bath tub. The host came again to continue our efforts, sopping up the water with mops and towels.

 

He offered us an additional free night. As if. 

 

Now there’s no wifi, but I won’t bother him again. My Air B&B review will be: host 5, accommodation 1. 

 

The next couple of days will be about 16k (10 miles) each. Sounds easier, but it will be steep. 

23 K (13.8 miles)

 

I don’t remember Porto being this loud and crowded the last time we were here on a Friday/Saturday earlier in September. I looked at pictures from 2016 and the streets were far more empty. Something must be happening this weekend. We’re looking forward to the quiet of the Camino.

 

What would you think if I told you we slept in the train station? There were few reasonable centrally located accommodations available this weekend, another clue regarding the hoards of tourists in town. So, we stayed at a place called the Passenger Hostel, built into part of the station, a Unesco World Heritage site, a beautiful structure circa 1896. It has both shared and private rooms. A “5 star” hostel, it features local artists and boasts its green status. From the lounge:

 

The 18 foot ceilings allow for triple bunks in the dorms. Ours was a private room with a shared bath. Oh yes, the room came with two sets of earplugs, an acknowledgement of the street noise. View from our room:

Included breakfast was at 8:00a.m. And then we hit the road. I love walking out of big cities and watching the gradual change in landscape. We walked along the Douro River and turned right at the ocean.

That turn put us directly into the teeth of a gale. Think sheets of rain and strong wind.  It came on so quickly I had an earful of rain before I could unpack my fancy hiking umbrella, its fibreglass ribs recovering easily from being blown inside out. 

 

 

We’ll be turning off the coastal route tomorrow, but today was a repeat of our last Camino. Back then we stopped for pizza on the beach, when C was baptized by seagull, if you know what I mean.

 

(more…)

Soooo, we cancelled the details of our trek on Spain’s Camino Via de la Plata and the Camino Sanabres, hopped on an unpleasant 5:00 am bus for four hours to Porto, Portugal to do a variant of the Camino Portugues.

We’ll overlap a couple of days from the Coastal route we did last time and plan to add on the Espiritual Variante close to Santiago. Then, who knows? Maybe a few days on another route if we have time.

We stayed in Zamora another day. Nice city of 66,000 on the Douro River, much of it behind the original ancient walls.

But like a typical medieval town, it’s built like a maze to throw off invaders. It seems you can’t walk anywhere in a straight line and when you do, the street name changes. I knew we were in trouble when we were greeted by this poster at the train station. 

The rain gear is out, there’s a yellow alert for rain tomorrow. They say the Camino parallels life. It can’t always be sunshine and roses.