Camino Portuguese 2008 (Part 2)

We started our Camino in Porto - 150 miles from Santiago de Compostela - which can be split roughly into 11 days of walking of 11 stages.  During that time I sent emails to my Dad (via my daughter and sister) as I was going to be away for a month and was a way of staying connected.

We stayed in Porto for a couple of days and took the train to Vila do Conde on the coast and walked to Rates the next day.  Martin tangled himself up with his sticks and feet and the kerb within moments of walking and fell face down wrenching his shoulder.  His pride recovered but his shoulder gave him trouble throughout the camino.  The albergue in Rates was empty and we had to collect the key from the local shop and was apparently clean. However I used one of their blankets and woke up in the middle of the night thinking that I had been bitten on my eyes;  but I had had a reaction to the dirt in the blanket and the area around my eyes had swollen so that I looked like I had been hit full on the face with a frying pan!  What a start!

Barcelos stage 3

Hi Dad,

There was no albergue but we found a lovely hotel for only 35 euro as they gave a discount for pilgrims. Really good room and bathroom plus a balcony and so like gypsies Martin erected a washing line and we washed all our clothes! Very posh!

We liked Barcelos very much. It was a nice medieval town with a friendly atmosphere and be decided to stay another day and visit yet another medieval town called Braga. This wasn't as nice as Barcelos, quite busy and business like. We feel like tourists at the moment as there are no other pilgrims and with no albergue (cheap municipal hostal) we are staying in tourist hotels generally at tourist prices and even with the discount we are still exceeding our budget. It is harder to get into the necessary pilgrim mindset of hard walking when you have a nice place to stay in and everyone is asleep in their nice beds when you start the day at 4.30!

My eye is still inflamed and I have to wear sun glasses all the time even inside cos I am SO embarrassed by how they look!

Lots of love

Jennifer and Martinxxxx

Ponte de Lima Stage 5

Hello Dad,

This is Ponte de Lima and is the prettiest and loveliest town you can imagine! This is day 4/11 of the walk and started the 20.9 mile walk from Barcelos at 5 o clock in the morning. We didn´t know how we were going to get on but thought we would be able to find accommodation en route if it was too far. We managed for 12 miles and then we knew there was no way we could finish it.

However there was also no accommodation either and as it was Saturday, there were no buses as well! So I had to find a shopkeeper and ask him to ring for a taxi! I can´t speak Portuguese and he couldn't speak much English so it was very interesting.  There was no albergue so we found a pension just by this church. A toothless hag was the landlady and charged us an exorbitant 40 euros for a a room with a bathroom that came straight out of the early 1950s and not in a good way. Martin was scared. It reminded him of a hammer house of horror film set. We did the usual bit of washing and hung it out of the window which had a pretty view of the main church of the town. We were very close.

You can just see our bathroom window in the house on the left.  We could hear the priest saying mass but worse of all the bells went off EVERY 15 minutes ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. It was loud. Literally we would sit up in bed wondering what the hell was happening. Our alarm was set for 4.30 again as we had to be out by 5 cos hagless tooth was off to Santiago at 6 herself she claimed. We had decided to take another day off and to swim in the river so we had nowhere to go for 2 hours before the sun came up and we could go in a cafe!

It was a fabulous place with lovely gardens and cold river to swim in we had a lovely time there.

Have to go now,

Love you lots

Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxx

We were only given the hotel room on the condition we left at 5.30 (all negotiated in Spanish - how?) because the landlady was going to Santiago herself at 6. We had decided to take a rest day and so had nowhere to go and had to sit in the square with all our stuff on a bench. We did not have enough clothes to keep warm and the square was dirty with food and drink from the night before. Tired and cold, we felt a bit sorry for ourselves (me that is) and to top it all, we saw the landlady going to 8.30 mass.

A quick mention of the area around the borders of Spain and Portugal.  Memories of pre-dawn walks, cooling down in ice-cold forest streams in the heat of the day, yet another medieval castle not forgetting the brilliant views at the top of mountains (but forgetting the tiring walk up them!)

Porrino to Redondela stage 7

Hi Dad,

This walk was from Porrino to Redondela which was one mountain that went to 210 metres in only 2 km and down in 5km. It was really hard. No, really hard. Words cannot express how hard!!!! Our book is not up to date and where it said there were cafes there were not and any cafes we saw were closed. It was physically really hard but also psychologically because we we pinning our hopes on finding a cafe and food and a coffee and we were constantly being disappointed. The landscape didn't seem to match the book at all and the last 5 km went on for ever! miles in fact! We always seemed to have another 3 point bloody 4 km to go no matter how far we walked!

Stayed in the Albergue (government run hostals which are for pilgrims) which was a converted medieval tower. So exhausted after the days climb that couldn't be bothered to go out and look around the town. Not looking forward to the climb the next day which is 2 mountains but not as high as today's one.

The next day we started off early - left at 5 - and made good progress but then we reached a point where we had to climb down a dirt track with forestry and no light. So we had to sit until dawn broke as we could have broken our necks instead. That was the low point of the whole walk so far. I was at my physical and psychological low of all time and just couldn't face the day. Martin was a star. When we did get going I cried with relief when we got to the top of the first mountain and knew it wouldn't get any harder.

Anyhow gotta go now. I have to say that the earlier days have been really good fun and I will write to you about them as soon as I can. Portugal is a really beautiful country and really friendly people. The medieval towns are a real treat and Martin´s need for history in the holiday have been more than satisfied.

Love you lots,

Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Redondela to Pontevedra stage 8

Hi Dad,

The walk is 11 days long in all. The walk to Redondela to Pontevedra was only 11.3 miles but involved 2 mountains. I didn't like the town very much as it was quite commercialised although it was another example of a medieval town with much of the original features. Its funny how they are all different! You would think that one medieval town would be like another but in fact they all had their own character. Pontevedra was a bit of a rip-off place I felt. it was expensive and busy.

The best bit was the roman bridge that we crossed to leave! The albergue was full up (much to our relief) and so we stayed in a basic hotel which had a TV and en suite bathroom. This was great! We watched badly dubbed Australian programs which was strangely soothing, had a take-in meal (as restaurants so dear) of pie and rolls and was just what we needed to do. The albergues are cheap (3 Euros each or donation) but there is no privacy and it is quite stressful being in such close proximity to so many foreigners lol! We seem to be hanging around with the same group of people now. They are mainly Italian and Spanish and we cross paths during the day and meet up in the Albergue or the bars in the evening. It is a shame there are no English as it would be good to have conversations with people. They do not speak English well enough and I guess that after a hard days walking and for them being part of a group anyways, it is probably too much effort to try and engage with us too much.  The next days walk is to Caldas de Reis and is a gentle mountain. It is 15 miles though and as there is no such thing as a piece of flat land in Spain I guess it will still be hard.

Love you lots

Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Caldas de Reis stage 9

Hi Gill,

Having problems with stamps, postcards and post boxes so can you print and give to Dad for me please!

Hi Dad, how are things? Having problems with finding stamps and postboxes and now I am in Spain with 2 postcards for you with Portuguese stamps on!

We are in Caldas de Reis in Spain which is a Spa town where people come to 'take the waters'. We arrived having walked for 8 hours up a gentle mountain and we were on our last legs literally.

In the front of this hotel is a fountain where you can bathe your feet in the healing waters, so the first thing we did was to throw our rucksacks down, boots off and into the fountain with our painful feet! It was really hot! 40 degrees and the floor of the fountain was covered in moss and slippery. Martin slipped in his haste and nearly got another part of his anatomy scalded! It smelt like rotten eggs but we persevered and it was lovely. We lay out on the floor with our feet dangling in it which shows how bad we felt. It was a build up from the previous 2 days of bloody hard walking up sodding mountains! Yes we ARE having a great time but this was really hard haha. We found a place to stay and the woman offered to do our washing for us which was fantastic as we were down to our last bits and my rucksack was a washing line with 2 pairs of socks pinned to it so that would dry during the day. It was washed and ironed too!

We decided to take a rest day today and so went out for a nice tapas meal by the river and drank 2 bottles of wine between us followed by brandy and coffee - excellent! A lovely, lovely lie in until 9 o'clock rather than the usual 4.30 and a nice breakfast in the bakers. However we do have a bit of a headache this morning so that's one more to add to the list of aches and pains. We are actually hobbling! When I find another internet cafe I will send you another update as I am giving up on the snail mail.

Love you lots,

Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

It was an atmospheric taverna, situated overlooking the river, with an enigmatic waitress who while taking our order swiftly stuck her chewing gum under the table after it fell out of her mouth while she was speaking!

Santiago stage 11

Hi Dad,

Well we made it. It was bloody hard going that's all I am going to say haha as you have had enough of my moans already. We did it on a bit of a hangover as well. The first part was ok but there was a really, really, steep mountain just to finish the day off.

We had to queue for 1 1/2 hours to get our official certificate which added insult to injury. As before it is a bit of an anti- climax as Santiago is busy busy and full of pilgrims and tourists.

We are staying tonight with the woman I stayed with before which is nice. She doesn't remember me though! We have just booked a place on a campsite for 7 days in Cee (pronounced Thee) which is great although I don't know how much it is going to cost as we asked the woman in the internet cafe to book it for us! It is near the bus stop so that is very good for our feet but we didn't want to turn up at the site and be told that they were full and we have to walk 10 miles to find another!

It looks really nice and we hope it will solve our finance issues! The first part of our holiday was more expensive than we expected.

OK bye for now love you lots

Jennifer and Martin xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cannot resist including this picture of my favourite thing in Santiago.  I want it!!!! It is actually a piece of furniture but it is fantastic!  Where can I put it in the cottage? It's like a big happy welcoming mumma!  And I just want to hug it!