We had intended to walk another 4 days and 80kms to Finisterre (‘The End of the World’), on the west coast, but I was somewhat less than enthusiastic, and Greg kind of lost interest after learning that in fact it’s not the westernmost point of the Iberian peninsular. So it seemed like a bit of a waste if we both didn’t really want to do it. Greg’s shoes probably don’t have another 80km of tread in them, and his feet or ankles won’t cope well if he keeps on wearing them …… he’s planning a whole post on ‘Why not to wear lightweight shoes to do a Camino’ at some later stage. So instead, we’re flying to Barcelona this evening for a few nights, followed by a few nights in Madrid, then home early next week.

The stuff that hung off our rucksacks has been removed, our walking poles are packed inside, I have thrown out my yucky socks and some clothes that I didn’t really like anyway (but they dried fast, so were good to walk in), and we have changed from pilgrims into ageing backpackers. We spent some time this afternoon sitting at a cafe which is on the route to the Cathedral. We watched the passing parade of people – locals, tourists and pilgrims. The pilgrims who were walking the last few hundred metres of their Camino were such a varied bunch – some walked very fast, some limped, and some almost floated past us. I hope they all felt as happy and relieved to be (almost) finished as we felt yesterday.

And now, here are a few words I prepared earlier. I actually wrote most of the following back in 2010, but didn’t get to use it then.

Thank you:

• To our family and friends who read this blog, left comments and emailed us while we walked
• Barbara and Bryan, for first telling us about the Camino and igniting the spark
• Our parents, Sam and Brianna, and my brother Phil, for keeping an eye on our place and ‘doing stuff’ for us while we were away.
• The guy with the yellow spray paint can, for those arrows which were often our only guiding light, and which were the difference between us staying on track and ending up hopelessly lost. Greg’s GPS helped a lot too.
• The pilgrims and the friends of the Camino we met along the way, for sharing their stories, and for listening to ours.
• Greg, whose kind words and actions gave me wings when my legs felt like lead. Muchas gracias mi amigo. Thanks for sharing your Caminos with me, and for being part of mine. I couldn’t, and wouldn’t have done them without you.

To future pilgrims who stride, walk, stumble, limp and hobble in our footsteps, we wish you all a BUEN CAMINO

A pretty easy second-to-last day of walking, apart from the heat. We just  ambled along for most of the day, stopped at the Cafe Esperon near Carrecedo for a medicinal Coca Cola for Greg, and a lemon ice tea and tortilla espagnol (potato tortilla) for me, then stopped at regular intervals after that for much-needed shade breaks, drinks of water and food.

We took our usual quantities of water – 2 x 500ml bottles for me, 2 x 750ml bottles for Greg, but had been relying on getting more at a cafe at the 12km mark at San Miguel. That didn’t work out for us as it closes between 2 – 5pm, and we walked past at 2.20, however there was a mains water fountain about 1km further on, and then another 5 fountains within the next 4km!

Tonight we’re staying at Padron, which is significant as this is where Saint James Santiago first preached the word of the Lord. So Padron was important during James’s life, and Santiago has become important after his death.

So …how does it feel that we’re now so close to our destination? Exciting, a relief nd a feeling of … finally! We’ll let you know tomorrow.

Hot water fountain in front of the hotel

Padron (click for larger version)

Padron Rio Sar (click for larger version)

We spent the morning walking close to the Ria de Vigo inlet, a very picturesque, calm body of water with villages dotted along the other side of the bay. A mix of quiet roads and forest tracks for most of the day, apart from one short stretch along the main road north, the N-550. Our guide book made a big deal out of how dangerous this bit of road was, so we donned our fluoro vests and took a deep breath. Actually, compared with the horror stretches out just before Vilarinho and Barcelos, today’s  bit was fine, with at least a metre of margin for us to walk on. We’re a bit puzzled that the guide book doesn’t pay more attention to the dangers of the earlier stages out of Porto.

We reached the town of Arcade at around lunchtime, so even though it has a Michelin recommended restaurant, Restaurant Arcadia, we decided to give it a miss (ha, ha!) and got bread and ham from the local supermarket to eat by the river.

We have seen at least 10 pilgrims today, almost more than we saw the whole time we walked in Portugal.

The most common building material around here is pink granite. Anyone who has either installed or even just priced a granite benchtop in Australia may shed a few tears when they learn that whole houses are built out of it here, together with fences, stone walls, paving and park benches & tables in council picnic areas.

This afternoon we resurrected our practice of soaking our feet. We did it often on our last camino, but this time it hasn’t been as easy to find water. Now that we’re in Spain, there are a lot of water fountains. We’re very wary of drinking from them, but the water is great for a mid-afternoon foot soak. We do usually do it at the end of the day, in our hotel room.

Pontevedra is a large town, population  75,000. We’re staying at the Hotel Ruas in the old section, and just from walking to the hotel, there seems to be plenty to see and do here – lots of history, museums, cafes and a walking tour around the historic centre.

Bridge at Arcade

Yet another overgrown spanish rest area. We have seen this many times before in Spain. They get money to develop a rest area. They build it, and it is then abandoned. The bins are never emptied. The grass in never cut. Eventually the rest area becomes completley overgrown and unusable. This rest area was developed in 2010. In 2012 its unusable.

La Peregrina, 18th century dedicated to pilgrims (click for a larger version)

Vigo Inlet (click for larger version)

It was cold and cloudy, but like yesterday it never really rained for longer than a couple of minutes. Enough to make us drag out the wet weather gear, walk for a while and get hot, then take it all off again.

There are more pilgrims on the road now, as we get closer to Santiago. Interestingly, many of them feel the same way about pilgrim albergues as we do – tried that, not doing it again.

We have arrived in Valenca early enough to be able to spend some time walking around the Fortaleza, the old fortress on the Rio Minho, which marks the northern border between Portugal and Spain.

Valenca and the hills of spain in the distance

So …. what’s so good about this place? Well, everything. I know, this is going to sound like some tacky travel promotion, but we want to write it all down so we remember our stay there, plus give the owners of the 16th century Casas do Rio some well-deserved publicity and encourage anyone going to Portugal to plan a short or long stay at this wonderful haven. As well as being a beautiful place, the customer service is outstanding.

Jose and Cristina Amaro have owned Casas do Rio for the last 9 years and have spent a lot of time renovating both the buildings and the grounds. The 6-room boutique hotel is  managed by their daughter Sofia, who originally suggested that it should be opened to the public. It’s only been open for 7 months, but judging from the reviews and feedback, it has been an outstanding success. Our bedroom with ensuite was on the 1st floor of the stables. There are a total of 4 double bedrooms, plus a family room and a suite. The large grounds have lots of fruit and nut trees, chickens, ducks, geese & swans, and a sparkling clean pool which we spent some time swimming in, and lying beside.

There are a couple of restaurants nearby, but we just didn’t have the energy to walk to any of them, so our very kind hosts offered to cook us a meal, and we gratefully accepted. We ate on the terrace just outside the stables and chatted with Jose and our fellow guests, a couple from Germany who have travelled a lot in Portugal and who also thought that Casas do Rio was one of the best places they had ever stayed at.

The following morning, we had the most incredible buffet breakfast I have ever seen, anywhere. All homemade, from home-grown produce, cooked on one of their two wood stoves. At least 3 different kinds of cake (Greg’s idea of the perfect breakfast), a vegetable quiche, a chicken and tomato pie, 3 different kinds of home-made jams, home-made yoghurt with red-berry jam, a platter of fresh fruit, breads, meats and cheeses. And 3 home-made juice combinations. Our hosts encouraged us to take any leftovers with us for our lunch, so we made some ham and cheese rolls and enjoyed them later in the day.

I was very sorry to leave Casas do Rio after such a short stay, but walked out of there feeling relaxed, rested and reinvigorated, and ready to do a day’s walk. And I’m already planning our next holiday in Portugal, with at least a week’s stay at Casas do Rio! It’s the perfect place for pilgrims, foodies, tourists and travellers.

Casa do Rio (click on image for larger version)

We stopped a couple of times for snacks along the way, but it was too cold to sit for too long, so we just kept on walking and reached our hotel in Porto by 3pm. We’re staying at the B&B Hotel Porto Centro, a gorgeous new hotel in an old cinema. There is a large B&W photo of Ingrid Bergman on the wall of our room.

Rest day tomorrow, which will give us a chance to see a bit of Porto.

Walking in the rain again on a Roman road

Flowers on every grave

Judy at the Pont Louis I bridge (click for larger version)

Porto and the river (click on image for larger version)

Porto stage options: If you are walking to Porto there is another hotel that has been built about 7km north of Sao Joao Da Madeira. It is the Hotel Feira Pedra Bela. This would make the leg to Porto a more manageable 28km.

The section after the Roman bridge has been altered – previously the Camino looped under the main road a couple of times and crossed the Rio Vouga via a side-bridge. However, a section of that bridge has collapsed, so the yellow arrows now point straight along the N1 and over the main bridge.

It was warm today, with not much shade for most of theday, but this afternoon we did walk through eucalyptus plantations for a while. On the outskirts of Albergaria-a-Velha, there is a large, modern supermarket – Intermarche. We wandered in there for a while to take advantage of their air-conditioning, and spent a long time browsing their refrigerated and frozen goods! We did buy some cold drinks which we consumed immediately.

Tonight we are staying at the Casa de Almeda in Albergaria-a-Velha – the first place we have stayed at on this trip which has shared bathroom facilities rather than an en-suite bathroom. Nice place, though and there’s a restaurant just downstairs where we’ll have dinner.

We are now halfway to Santiago.

Mud brick, adobe house, we have passed many in the last 2 days

A lavadero for washing clothes

The broken bridge that forced us to detour (click for a larger version)

Roman road and bridge from the 2nd century

Later in the morning, we stopped at a little cafe at Adfeloas. The owner offered us a stamp for our credencial – Pilgrim Passport – and asked us to sign his guest book. We found our old friend John Smith had been there several days before us, and there are a couple of Australian girls a few days in front of us too.

We had a proper cooked lunch at the Queiroz restaurant at Avelas de Caminho. Their specialty is leitos – suckling pig – but as we had had that for dinner the previous evening, we each had an omelette.

The day’s walk seemed to just go on and on for me, by the end I was feeling pretty tired and emotional – Greg ended up taking even more of my stuff, and at one point even carried my pack for a while. But we got there in the end, and stayed at a lovely place, Residencial Celeste, which is 1.5km north of Agueda on the main road.

Walking on the N-1 highway

The Camino is a faint track through the trees

We spent the morning wandering around a bit lost at times – getting back onto the Camino route was tricky, and then we missed a yellow arrow and a road that used to be on the map has disappeared or been incorporated into a new section of main road. We ended up walking on the 4-lane main road for a bit, then clambered up an embankment (not easy to do with a rucksack trying to drag you back down the slope) and found those yellow arrows again.

We stopped at the first cafe in the next village, Cernache, but it was closed due to the death of the owner. Some little old ladies assembled in the street told me all about it – and I’m pretty sure they said that the owner died whilst doing the Macarena, just keeled over on the dance floor. When your number’s up and all that ….

Most of the day’s walking was on sealed roads, which is always tough on the feet, but we did do a nice section of bush track walking at around lunchtime, and found a shady, grassy spot under some fir trees.

Our first view of Coimbra (former capital of Portugal in the 12th century, now a university town, population 160,000) was one of  the most breathtaking town vistas we can remember. We walked down a cobbled street from Santa Clara, via the Santa Clara convent, crossed the Mondego River and into the town of Coimbra. We’re staying here for 2 nights.

Saturday afternoon at a cafe

Coimbra

Down the zig zag road

Over the bridge into Coimbra