I got a pretty good night’s sleep last night and was on the road by 6:45 AM. It was a little chilly but that makes for good brisk walking weather.
This is a little village about 8 kilometers outside Pontevedra.
It was a beautiful bluebird day.I am trying to work on the framing and lighting on the photographs.I am especially proud this shot.We are now walking along the coast. I did this same stage when I did the Coastal Camino a couple of weeks ago.Another shot of the ocean.
After about two hours I ran into Hillary from Atlanta and Marco from Italy. I met them at the Alburgue Ninho near the beginning of the Central Portuguese Camino. We spent the rest of the morning walking and talking and I so much enjoyed our conversation that I forgot to take any other pictures.
I am now in Pontevedra at Hostel Charino. It is brand new and it is great.
This is Julio. He owns the hostel. After I took a shower in the brand new bathroom that has a rainforest shower head and a shampoo and body wash dispenser I dried off with my luxurious complimentary towel and Julio grabbed my dirty clothes and said that he would wash them for free! Understand that the stench from my hiking clothes at the end of the day would knock a buzzard off a garbage truck. The stench didn’t seem to faze Julio and an hour later he delivered my clothes clean and dry and folded. I was so happy that I cried tears of joy!
This is my dinner.
Smashburger with goat cheese and fries. It was great.
I met this group after I had dinner. I have been running into them on and off for days.
On the right are Marco and Hillary.
That’s it from Pontevedra. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
The hotel in Porrino put out a lovely breakfast and I decided to stick around until the dining room opened at 7:00.
Fruit, cereal, salami and rolls. Needless to say I loaded up.
As I was walking along the Way this morning I got attacked by this hound from Hell.
This pint sized pit bull was laying down in the middle of the road at a blind curve. I tried to coax this mutt out of the middle of the road and off onto the shoulder. The stupid ankle biter got pissed and started coming at me growling, snapping and foaming at the mouth. I backed off and brandished my hiking poles to let this miniature ball of fire know that I was not a defenseless Pilgrim. This Spanish canine terrorist followed me for almost 100 yards before he gave up the chase and returned to his spot in the middle of the road.
A couple of kilometers later I ran across a group of equestrians getting ready for a ride along the Camino.
Fine looking horses
They were thrilled to meet the Colorado Cowboy 🤠 on the Camino. They heard on the grapevine that I was heading their way so they brought an extra horse and saddled him up hoping I would join them on their ride to Redondela. I was tempted to join them but the stirrups on the saddle they brought were too narrow and I could not fit my size 14 extra wide hiking shoes into the stirrups. They were very disappointed as they had been looking forward to a pleasant morning ride and an all things equestrian chit chat with a real rootin tootin cowboy.
I said goodbye and told them I would catch up with them in Redondela.Spanish muscle car outside an auto repair shop.Dodge 3700 GT. This car was made in Spain for Spanish muscle car enthusiasts.Beautiful trailWe are coming down a steep trail into Redondela with the ocean in the distance.As you can imagine the Way was littered with horse apples this morning. When you walk your dog and your dog takes a dump you pick it up, correct! Why is it that if you are riding your horse on the Camino and your horse takes a dump you feel no responsibility to pick up the horse apples.These two guys were riding at the tail end of the group ride. I asked them if they were on the horse apple clean up detail. They said that if I wanted the horse apples picked up I could do it myself. No way am I picking up their horse apples.
When I got to the outskirts Redondela I had lunch and a couple of Radlers. As I got into town I realized that something was going on. It is a holiday to celebrate Corpus Christi. I ran right into this crazy parade.
A dragon.The Blessed Virgin Mary. And the Corpus Christi.
After the parade a group of Galician dancers entertained us with a folk dance featuring toddlers perched on the dancers’ shoulders.
Everywhere there were flower petal murals on the ground. Kinda like a sidewalk Rose Bowl Parade.
All flower petals and greenery.
That’s it from Redondela, Spain. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
I sacked in this morning and did not get out on the Way until 7:30.
A shot of the Tui Cathedral on the way out of town.
It was a little chilly this morning but it didn’t take long for the sun to chase away the chill.
Here comes the Sun and I say, it’s alright. I sing this Beatles song every morning and I sing it extra loud when it is raining.This is Sean from Ireland. He is a writer and an all around great guy. I have been walking with him on and off for the entire Central Portuguese Camino. I thought I have been losing weight. Where did that beer gut come from. I usually suck it in before anybody takes my picture. I need to dial back on the Radler and the pulpo.These two guys were playing their bagpipes on the side of the Camino. Perfect music for a stroll along a woodland path.This is a warning sign for a speed bump. There is a crosswalk at the speed bump. You would think that the speed bumps would do a good job of convincing people to slow down. People drive like they are in a Formula 1 race between the speed bumps and then hit the brakes for the speed bumps.What a cutie.I made it to Porrino by noon.
I was hungry and googled good restaurants and this one came up on Google.
Burgers and beer all served up by a woman named Fran. Perfect.I quickly found out that Fran is not a woman. This is Fran and his magic cup that made my one euro coins disappear.
Fran’s place is strictly a hangout for locals. When Fran saw me and my backpack he knew he had a new audience for his magic tricks. Every time I ordered a Radler Fran would bring out an appetizer, on the house, and show me a new magic trick. I finally ordered the Fran burger and boy was it good.
All kinds of yummy stuff on this burger. When I was done with the burger I told Fran that it was best burger in the whole wide world. He gave me a big hug and brought out a bottle of coffee liquor and insisted that we drink a couple of shots to my hometown, San Francisco. After a couple of shots he finally realized that I was from Colorado, not San Francisco. We had to drink a couple of additional shots to honor Colorado.This is where I am staying tonight.I have a nice basic room. Nothing special.
That’s it from Porrino, Spain. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
I got a good night’s sleep and was out on the Way at sunrise.
Rubias at dawn.
As I was walking along the Way, lost in my thoughts, I heard a blood curdling scream and just about had a heart attack. I looked up and to my left, towards the source of the scream, and saw this big aviary.
I can’t identify these birds. But I can tell you they are big and colorful and they sit in their aviary screaming at every pilgrim that passes by.This is an arch over the road leading to the church on the left side of the picture.
I covered the 20 kilometers from Rubias to Valenca in about 4 hours. I took a few shortcuts but only legal and approved country road shortcuts. Valenca is on the south side of the Minho River. The Minho River is the border between Portugal and Spain.
I know that there are a few bee keepers following the blog. This picture for you. A bee keepers supply store in Valenca.There is a large medieval walled city in Valenca. It is very popular with tourists on bus tours. I veered off the Camino and walked on the path at the base of the wall and then rejoined the Camino at the bridge over the Minho.This is Tui, the town across the river from Valenca. At the top of the hill is the Cathedral and next to the Cathedral is my alburgue.This is the bridge over the Minho River.Halfway across the bridge we go from Portugal to Spain.I am officially back in Spain.
I needed to kill a little time before I checked into my alburgue and I was thirsty so I decided to get a cerveza.
I stopped at an Irish bar and had to choose between a Radler, on the left, or a Guinness, on the right. It was a hard choice but I decided it was too early in the day for a Guinness.This is my bottom bunk bed in the Alburgue Ideas Perigrinas in Tui, Spain.
I spent an hour touring the Tui Cathedral. Very impressive.
Beautiful entrance.This altarpiece was at least fifty feet tall and all of it is carved and gilded.
The Cathedral is at the top of a hill overlooking the Minho River and the old walled city of Valenca.
The Minho River.The old walled city of Valenca.Pulpo 🐙 for dinner.
That’s it from Tui, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
Last night the front desk clerk mentioned that they had a complimentary breakfast starting at 7:30 AM. I wanted to get out on the Way early but he told me that I should stick around for breakfast. A normal hotel breakfast is toast with a tomato spread. Boy am I glad I heeded the front desk clerk’s advice and waited until they put out the breakfast buffet.
After I went through the buffet line and loaded up on fruit and cheese and ham and yogurt and pasteries, a nice young woman asked me if I would like some scrambled eggs and bacon. I was pretty full by then but of course I said yes. It took some effort but I cleaned my plate and then wadled out to the Way. Yesterday afternoon there was a Portuguese folk music festival along the river near my hotel. The Portuguese love to dress up in folk costumes and celebrate their musical heritage. It sounded like a lot of caterwauling to me but what do I know about Portuguese folk music.This is an old Roman bridge that we had to cross to exit Ponte de Lima.This is the municipal alburgue on the other side of the bridge. No sheets or towels or blankets or massages or steam rooms or jacuzzis. That is barbaric!
The first half of the walk was a pleasant stroll through vineyards and farm fields. The second half was a grueling hike up a big hill on a very rocky treacherous path.
What are you looking at?Beautiful waterfall.This is an old water powered grist mill.This is John and Ann. He is a retired family practice doctor and she manages their home. I walked with them for the second half of the day and really enjoyed their company. They are devout Catholics and they are on a pilgrimage not just a hike. Good for them!
I finally got to my alburgue, The Nest, at about 3:30. The owner greeted me with a beer and showed me to the bottom bunk she has been saving for me.
My bottom bunk. This place is really nice.This is the dining room table where we will all be eating dinner in a couple of hours. I am getting really hungry.The group dinner at the nest.Chicken and rice.This is the kitchen crew. Marlene owns the alburgue and Domingo who helps in the kitchen. I helped with the cleanup by drying the dishes. I only broke one dish.Another evening of drinking with the boyfriend of the alburgue owner. His name is Antonio. What was I thinking!
I decided to play it smart and call it a night at 10:00 PM. No more hungover death marches for this pilgrim.
That’s it from Rubias, Portugal. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
This stage is an ass kicking 35 kilometer slog. I can do 20 kilometers and have something left in the tank at the end. I can do 25 kilometers and it won’t kill me. When I do 30 kilometers I am a broken man at up the end of the day. I have no interest in doing a 35 kilometer day at this stage in my Camino journey.
How do you magically turn a 35 kilometer stage into a 20 kilometer stage? You call a cab. Yesterday I arranged for a cab to pick me up at my hotel this morning and drive me 15 kilometers along the Camino and drop me off. As one of my bosses at the UP used to tell people: “Don’t underestimate Mark. He isn’t as dumb as he looks.”
Today is Sunday and as I was walking through the farm fields and vineyards the church bells were ringing, calling people to Mass.Another church with its bells pealing a call to the people in the village to come together and celebrate Mass. I love the sound of church bells on a lovely Spring Sunday morning.This is the famous Casa Fernanda, reputed to be the best alburgue on this or any Camino. I tried to get Fernanda to reserve me a bed but she is all booked up for the rest of the year. My loss.I was starting to run out of steam when I stumbled across this guy who was selling breakfast in his backyard.
The flowers are really putting on a show.
Did you know that most homes in this area don’t have natural gas service.
They get their gas in these tanks which are about twice as big as the tank you use for your barbecue grill.These grapevines provide a lovely arbor over the Camino.This is the Lima River in Ponte de Lima.This is my hotel, the InLima Hotel and Spa. What was the architect thinking or smoking when they designed this building?? And yes, it is going to be another spa day.I have a beautiful room with a king sized bed and a balcony.The spa lady just delivered my robe and slippers. God did not tell me to do this spa day. Instead I could distinctly hear him say: “You have got to be kidding me! Another spa day??”
Instead of doing the Camino de Santiago I am doing the Camino de Spatiago. For my spa adventure this afternoon I spent 30 minutes in the steam room and 30 minutes in the jacuzzi. They will need to drain and disinfect that jacuzzi.
Now it is off to dinner.
A plate of olives and a nice bottle of vino verde.Beef stew. Not as good as Mom’s beef stew but pretty darn good.
My mother cooked for a family of five kids on a limited budget and one of her favorite budget meals was beef stew. When I got home from school I would always ask her what’s for dinner. When it was beef stew I would grumble because I was not a big fan of her beef stew. When I grumbled she would always say: “Buster, there are two things on the menu for supper tonight, take it or leave it, your choice.” When I graduated from law school Mom gave me a beautiful antique recipe box with one recipe card inside, the recipe for Mom’s beef stew.
That’s it from Ponte de Lima, Portugal. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
Braga is a 30 minute bus ride from Barcelos. Braga is known as the Rome of Portugal and a must see destination when you are traveling in Portugal. So I decided to take a day off from the Camino and visit Braga.
When I booked my bus tickets I bought tickets for the express bus. The express bus takes 30 minutes to travel between the two cities and the local bus takes 60 minutes. What I didn’t realize is that the bus stop for the local bus is a block away from my hotel. But the bus station for the express bus is quite a schlep. It was a good thing that I left my hotel early as it took me 30 minutes to walk to the express bus station in Barcelos and I got there with only a few minutes to spare.
I booked a walking tour of Braga that was scheduled to begin at 10:15 AM. I got off the bus a little before 9:00, walked a block and ran right into a crowd of people going into a church. I followed them in and attended the 9:00 AM mass.
What a beautiful church.A closer view of the altarpiece.
I was at the meeting place for the walking tour at 10:00 AM for our 10:15 AM walking tour. We were told to show up 15 minutes before the start time for the tour. The tour guide, Joseph, finally showed up at 10:15 and I was the only one who signed up for the tour. He gave me a 15 minute introduction to Braga and when he was done two British couples asked if they could join the tour. This necessitated a repeat of Joseph’s introduction to Braga speech.
Braga is called the Rome of Portugal not because it looks anything like Rome, but because the Romans were instrumental, along with the Braga archbishops, in founding and developing Braga as an important city in the region. Every year Braga holds a weekend festival to celebrate its Roman heritage. This weekend was the Braga Roman Festival.
The Braga Roman festival is kinda like a Renaissance Fair, entertaining but cheesy.
A Roman taking a coffee break.
The first stop on the tour was Saint Barbara’s Garden.
Saint Barbara’s Garden.They just replanted the garden.There are blooming flowers in this garden all year.
The next stop on the tour was the banana bar and liquor store.
You don’t see many bars or liquor stores with bananas in the window.
A number of years ago the owner of this place held a Christmas Eve party for his friends and the adjoining business owners. He was serving a Moscatel wine and people complained that it was too sweet.
The infamous Moscatel wine.
The owner didn’t have anything in his store to cut the wine with but for some reason he did have a bunch of bananas. His guests peeled the bananas and dunked the bananas in their glasses of Moscatel and ate the bananas. That was such a big hit that in the ensuing years as many as 10,000 people show up in the street outside this liquor store on Christmas Eve with their glasses of Moscatel and bananas. They have a back room bar where you can get a glass of Moscatel and a banana.
The next stop on the tour was the Cathedral.
The Cathedral is over one thousand years old. It could use a power wash and a little sprucing up.This is the main altar in the cathedral.This is a side altar in the cathedral.This is the group that went on the tour.This is me and Joseph at the end of the tour.
That’s it from Braga and Barcelos, Spain. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
I got up early and was on the Way by 6:30 AM. It is starting to get warm here so it is nice to walk in the cool of the morning.
What a beautiful bridge.This guy has an orange tree in his backyard. He provides the oranges and the bench for any weary pilgrim who wants to take a break. I had one of those oranges and it really hit the spot.
The walking surface on this Camino is rough. Many of the farm roads that are part of this Camino are strewn with baseball sized rocks. It is hard and very time consuming to walk on this surface without twisting an ankle or tripping and falling. It was slow going this morning.
One of the little towns I was walking through is having a Francesinha festival tomorrow.This is a Francesinha. It is the national sandwich of Portugal.In this same town there was a restaurant with a menu in the window proudly advertising their special Francesinha. A loaf of bread!!!! What a gut bomb. If I tried to eat that for lunch I wouldn’t be able to walk and if I tried to eat it for dinner I wouldn’t be able to sleep. At some point on this journey I will need to try a Francesinha, but not today.
After a couple of hours it was time to stop and eat breakfast. Unfortunately the cafe where I stopped was sold out of everything but orange juice and one lonely pastel de nata.
The pastel de nata is the national pastry of Portugal. It is a flaky pastry cup filled with egg custard. Very tasty but not very filling.
While I was sitting on the patio of the cafe Danny walked by and joined me for a cup of coffee
Danny is a firefighter from Germany who slept in our bunk room last night.
Danny told me all about his job and how his job differs from firefighters in the USA. He works four shifts. Each shift lasts 12 hours and then gets three days off. He used to work one 24 hour day on and then would get two days off but the European Union nixed that. I think Danny gets a lot of vacation time as he and his wife have taken a number of long vacations all over the world.
Every firefighter in Germany is a fully trained and certified paramedic. Once he works for 20 years, when he is 45, he gets a full retirement. Not a bad deal.
This crazy rooster was sitting in a rest area way out in the middle of nowhere. It is the town bird for Barcelos.
As I passed by Quintao I decided to stop for lunch. It was already 1:00 and was getting hot and I had at least 10 kilometers to go to get to Barcelos, my final destination. I ordered the special pilgrim meal, soup, salad, bacalao, which is codfish, and new potatoes and rice and a drink for 7 euros. What a deal.
Potatoe soup.Bacalao, potatoes, rice, salad and a Coke. What a meal.
After I paid the check I walked outside and realized there was a beautiful church right across the street.
I also noticed an aura emanating from the cross on the top of the church and heard a voice telling me to take a cab to Barcelos. The voice was very clear and left no doubt that I must follow its command.
So I went back to the restaurant and asked my waiter to call me a cab. While I waited for the cab to arrive the front patio of the restaurant filled up with about 30 guys playing cards.
These guys weren’t eating or drinking anything. They were just using the front patio of the restaurant as their card room.
My waiter must have told the cab driver that I enjoyed my bacalao because all she could talk about during the 20 minutes it took her to drive me to Barcelos was bacalao this and bacalao that. I am sure it was very interesting but I didn’t understand a word she said other than bacalao.
At 2:00 PM, as I was checking into my hotel, the Casa da Ana Boutique Guesthouse and Spa, I noticed that one of the spa services they offer is a Pilgrim massage. I told the guy that checked me in that I would kill for a massage. He said that would not be necessary and that he would schedule a massage for me later on in the afternoon. He carried my backpack up to my room just as the cleaning lady finished spiffing it up. Apparently the cleaning lady is also the massage therapist and she said she would come by my room in 30 minutes for my massage.
Now this is all looking a little sketchy but I hopped in the shower, got cleaned up and put on a pair of gym trunks and a tee shirt and waited for her knock on the door.
This is a selfie of me and Olga my Ukrainian massage therapist, taken after the massage.
Olga didn’t speak a lick of English and I don’t speak a lick of Ukrainian but she used Google translate to give me instructions. She set up her massage table and had me lay down on it for my massage.
It wound up being a two hour professional massage, most of which I slept through. What a great massage for 50 euros.
This is my room at Casa Ana. A king size bed and sheets and blankets and towels. I might never leave.
Tomorrow I am going to take a 30 minute bus ride to tour the town of Braga. It will be nice to take a rest day and I have heard that Braga is beautiful.
I had dinner at a place a few doors down from the hotel called Babettes.
This is an on the house appetizer of tuna and olives and bread.This is dinner. I had an artisanal hamburger with an egg and cheese and chips and a glass of green wine. It was too much food but it was very good.
That’s it from Barcelos, Portugal. I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are.
This will be a short post because today was a travel day. I got up at 5:00 AM to walk to the bus station in Muxia to catch a 6.15 AM bus to Santiago. I had a 90 minute layover in Santiago and then caught a bus to Porto.
I got into Porto at about noon and Googled restaurants around the bus station. An Indian restaurant piqued my interest and I thought I would give it a shot.
The woman who owned the restaurant waited on me and she was so nice. She asked if I wanted my food to be without spice. I told her I wanted a very mild spice, not real spicy.
I ordered chicken saag, chicken in a spinach sauce, and boy was it spicy, and not very good.
The first stage of the Portuguese Central is mostly walking out of Porto through the industrial zone. I didn’t really want to start my Central Portuguese Camino by walking through long stretches of ugly Porto.
It was easy for me to walk over to the taxi line at the bus station and the older gentleman who was first in line was more than happy to drive me out to my alburgue.
This is my lower bunk bed. Nice and cozy.This is our host. Port wine and coconut pastries.This was dinner. Steak, an egg, spuds and a beer for 8 euros.
Yesterday I arranged for a service to transfer my backpack from my hotel in Finisterre to my hotel in Muxia. Best 5 euros I ever spent. I knew that today was going to be a rollercoaster up and down 35 kilometer day. Carrying a 20 pound backpack might have broken me. Instead I carried a lightweight backpack with a water bottle and my rain gear. I went from carrying 20 pounds to carrying 2 pounds. It was great!
I got out of the hotel by 7:30 but it was raining so I stopped at a bar and had breakfast. By 8:00 I was finished with breakfast and the rain had stopped.
The stone markers will now guide me to Muxia.The Way out of Finisterre was smooth and well marked with only a gentle rise.After a couple of hours we topped a ridge and got a view of the Atlantic Ocean. I think there were people camping and surfing at this beach.Well I finally ran into old Bucky. He found a wonderful new home with a lush pasture and he is very happy.Another shot of the ocean.
The bars on this stretch of the Way were few and far between. At about 11:00 I ran across a bar that was serving food and stopped for lunch.
This is another kitchen sink omelette sandwich. I took this picture and set my phone down next to the plate. A seagull flew over and shit on my phone. Was he trying to shit on my sandwich and missed? Or was he trying to shit on me and missed? Why would he do that?A flock of newly shorn sheep.This is what happens if you pull up lame on the Camino. No matter what, just keep on walking.
For most of the day the Way was an up and down rollercoaster trail. The last 5 kilometers was all downhill and my feet didn’t like that.
As I got to the bottom of the hill we turned right and walked along the coast.At about 3:30 we finally got to Muxia.
I have a cardinal rule that you check in to your alburgue or hotel, shower, wash clothes and only then can you have a Radler. Today I broke that rule. After I checked in to my hotel I asked the front desk clerk/bartender if he had Radler. He did and I ordered two
I deserve two Radlers after today’s up and down 35 kilometer hike.Nice room at the hotel.This is the view from my hotel window.One more opportunity to have pulpo for dinner.And Tiramisu for dessert.
Tomorrow I catch a 6:15 AM bus from Muxia to Santiago and then a bus to Porto. Then I grab lunch and take a cab to the end of the first stage of the Portuguese Central Camino. This first stage is 5 hours of walking out of Porto. Nothing pleasant about that. I am more than happy to skip it and take a cab.
That’s it from Muxia. Spain. I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.
AbeAndMarkontheCamino 