Day 25 - To Valença, our last town in Portugal

We ask had a very good time at the restaurant last night. One of the topics that was discussed at the meal was the question of snoring as the frenchman confessed to being a snorer and was just warning us. At that virtually everyone also confessed. "It will be very interesting tonight then" was the general consensus.

As it happens it was quite a good night, several people said, this morning at breakfast, that they'd woken during the night but not really heard much noise. That changed early-on as a group of school children, teen-agers, that were also at the albergue, woke early and departed with a lot of noise. We had a very civilised breakfast provided by Marlene before leaving.

Today's walk was pretty uneventful compared with yesterday, and some of the previous day's that we've had. We had a climb over lowish hills, nothing like yesterday's scramble, but some areas were rather tricky, especially as we were overtaken several times by groups of cyclists on their mountain bikes. This usually happened just at the rockiest part of the walk.

Overall we passed through some really nice country on our last day's walking in Portugal.

Today we walked alongside running water for a lot of the time. Running water, and lots of it, have been a great feature of a lot of our trail for many days past. Has have the many cuckoos we've heard

When we reached Valença we soon found the municipal albergue, located just outside the walls of the city. The old part of the city is contained within a very large and impressive citadel.

This was a key defence position in years past as it is situated at the main river crossing point of the River Minho between Portugal and Spain.

The arrival at the albergue was rather strange as it was locked with a message on the door to ring a particular number for access. We did this and we're given a code for the door lock. We were greeted, inside, by a French couple that we'd meet a few days ago, who were it's only customers up to that point. Many people had been in front of us on the walk today, but must have decided to walk further.

We were soon showered and dressed in fresh clothes and set out to explore the old town, within the citadel. It was very touristy, with lots of tourist shops, bars etc but still very interesting.

We finished off the day by investigating a large marquee exhibiting, and selling, lots of local produce and food dishes. While we were eating we were entertained in turn by a group doing a, seemingly impromptu, "Flamenco" set of singing and dancing. Just afterwards a group were setting up the stage, and doing some rehearsals.

They seemed to be a retro music group as the pieces that were rehearsing were from the 1940s an 50s.

Later we went back to the albergue as it had a great advantage over several places we've been to lately, good internet access.

Day 24 - To Rubiaes

Our washing did dry last night and our stay in the apartment in Ponte de Lima had been very comfortable and enjoyable. We really think that this was a place we could return to some day.

Today we had an early breakfast, just at the cafe adjoining the apartment, we'd tried to make an early start today as the middle part of the walk is over probably the highest post of this whole route. We have been told by several guide books, and people that have done the walk, that the top part of the climb is hard. We'll see, but just in case we want to get there before the hottest part of the day

We left by crossing over the bridge to that part of town on the other side of the river. We hadn't done so yesterday as we'd found plenty of interest on the initial side. The town over there continued to be very interesting as we left on yet another day with sun from the start. Bernard caught up with us as we left town, but soon moved on as he walks faster than us.

Again we walked steadily through wonderful countryside, stopping off for an early coffee, where we meet a chatty French couple.  This was a change from meeting new German people. It's amazing that almost everyone we have met lately have been from Germany.

Eventually we started "The Climb". Initially it didn't seem too bad, some steep sections interspersed with more level ones.

But the steep sections started to be much more common and the track surface deteriorated from being very good to being very tricky with lots of loose stones. In some places it could only be called a scramble.

Fortunately the trees provided some shade, as the sun was very hot, as we expected. This part of the route must be virtually impossible on heavy rain as most of the pathways you walk along are obvious water runoff channels.

We did, of course, eventually reach the top at Alto da Portela Grande. This is the viewing area at the top where everyone recovered and enjoyed the view.

It was made extra special as just nearby one of the German women we'd met before was playing a tune on a flute, or perhaps a recorder. Very relaxing.

It was a long, but much easier, walk downhill. On the way down we meet up with Bernard again at a small cafe. Time for sandwiches and beer.  We'd rung ahead to book beds in an albergue run by a lady called Marlene, who provided us with a great welcome. We were the first there, I don't know how as lots of people had passed us earlier, but turned up later.

We were amused somewhat by Marlene's puppy who took great delight in trying to steal people's boots as they removed them prior to going into the albergue.

In the evening we, the French couple from early in the day, and a Dutch couple we met at the albergue, all went down to the village for a meal together. Very appropriate as we'll all be sharing a room tonight.

Day 23 - To Ponte de Lima

We had a really comfortable bed last night, so much so that it was difficult to get up, but we did so, at 7:15. We saw Heinz and Claudia, from last night, before setting off. It was a beautiful day again, clear blue sky all around as we walked through lovely countryside. We had our breakfast at a bar after a few kilometres of walking and met two more Germans. We kept meeting then for the rest of the day in different places. Today started with a climb but it was so, relatively, gentle that we suddenly realised that we were on the downslope. Some while later, stopping for an early lunch, as there didn't look to be any places further on, who did we meet?  Bernard our, by now, good friend from before Porto.

The weather by now was getting hotter, spring is really advanced here.  

We did discover something that we've never seen before, but commented that it would be very helpful, that is a rest station for weary pilgrims. We found one just outside a private house, there were several benches to sit on, fresh water on tap and even a jar of fruit sweets of you fancied one.

Sheer luxury, there should be lots more.

It was a long way to Ponte de Lima through very pleasant countryside, with the last kilometre or so being alongside the river.

As we entered the town we started to look for somewhere to stay. We hadn't bothered too much before as we knew that the town had plenty of accommodation. As we reached the centre Barbara was walking a little in front of me when a man from a restaurant asked her if we needed somewhere to sleep. We agreed to have a look at it and it turned out to be a very swish apartment in the centre of the town, for a very reasonable price, so we accepted. It has very good facilities including a clothes washing area. We, therefore, managed to catch up with our washing and hung it all in an enclosed veranda to dry. Hopefully it will be dry by morning. There is one major drawback, though with this apartment, there is absolutely no internet access available. In cases such as this I have occasionally used our spare phone, with its Portuguese SIM as a local Wi-Fi "hot-spot" but I couldn't get that to work either. I think the credit must have all been used. Some of the local cafes have internet but all are very marginal in signal.

We went out later for a drink and met our German couple from yesterday. Barbara also spotted another pilgrim, looking rather lost.  She went over to him to ask if we could help. The guy, another German, wanted the tourist office. That was just nearby, but closed. He was looking for somewhere to sleep. So Barbara mentioned the apartments that we were staying in, he was interested. She took him around to the place where they did the letting, and they booked him in for the night.

This whole town is very nice, we've had some time to look around and been very impressed.

The main feature of the "Ponte" or bridge. There are about 26 arches and if very old, it's only used for foot traffic now as a much more modern bridge crosses the river just nearby.

By the old bridge is a sculpture depicting a group of Roman soldiers marching towards the river. On the other side of the river is a single Roman officer, on horseback, shouting back to his men. The legend it relates to is that when the Romans first came to this area the river was supposed to have magic properties and anyone who crossed it was supposed to forget about everything they had ever done before.  When this group of Roman soldiers arrived here the officer crossed over before allowing his men to do so. When he reached the other side he called back to each of his men by their individual names so proving that it was safe to cross without losing their minds.

Internet problems

The last few days have been plagued by almost total lack of any useable internet. For two days there hasn't been anything at all. Tonight we have a connection but it is very intermittent and very slow.

Yesterday we stayed at Ponte de Lima, wonderful place!

Today we are at Rubiaes, having scaled the highest and steepest hills of the Camino so far.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we will walk to the Portuguese-Spanish border at Valenca possibly staying at Tui which is just over the border in Spain.

I'll publish something more interesting when we get some internet.

Day 22 - To Vitorino dos Piâes

We both slept well last night. The beds in the hotel were comfortable but strangely high off the ground, rather like hospital beds, but made of polished oak. Up and around quite early and everything packed and ready to go before breakfast. When we went down to the breakfast room we were greeted with a single made up table laden with food. It seems that we were the only people on the hotel, certainly the only one needing breakfast at 8am.  We finally left at 8:45 for a steady walk, slightly uphill, out of Barcelos. Soon after we started we passed an official looking building with an enormous queue of people waiting outside. We had no idea what the queue was about but it really did look as if the queue was, possibly, to get a weekly/monthly allowance. It may be possible as Portugal is currently quite a poor country with lots of unemployed.

The route soon became more rural and at one point we walked alongside a railway, just as a train passed by and the driver blew his horn, and waved to us as he passed. We waved back. Shades of the Railway Children!  

The route was mainly rural passing through some nice areas with lush fields and farms. There are lots of tractors and other machines around but occasionally we saw some very old fashioned items around. A woman carrying a large sack of greens on her head.

Corn or hay that had been cut and stacked by hand,

and some magnificent horned cattle.

In Barcelos we saw many picturesque cockerels, all as statues and caricatures, today we saw the real item.

The steady climb started getting harder. We stopped off at a small cafe and and had a freshly squeezed, orange juice  and got into discussions with a German man about possible stopping places this evening. We mentioned where we had booked, he liked the sound of it and rang it himself and booked in. So, we may see him later. Later we met a Dutch man who was walking very quickly, otherwise everybody we met today was from Germany.

The afternoon developed into a long slog as we walked mainly uphill. We stopped for lunch and had delicious sandwiches made from bread that we'd just seen coming out of the oven. And met some more Germans. The weather earlier had been overcast and a little cool, but as the afternoon progressed the heat and humidity levels increased. Walking became harder. The track today had initially been in the forest and country tracks, but eventually we were walking only on very uneven, cobbled roads and tracks.  By the time we reached our lodgings for tonight we were flagging!

The place we had chosen, just from the guide, was somewhat strange. It was almost like a set of stables around two sides of a farm yard with an orchard/vineyard facing.

We had booked by phone and so didn't know what to expect and so were rather surprised. We didn't quite know what to do, as they was nobody there to welcome us, we were trying to decide when a man appeared from somewhere and told us that we were in Room G. The owner, apparently, would be around at about 6 to 6:30 to deal with registration etc.

The room was quite a surprise, to my mind it was very dark and dismal, with the only window being the one in the door, The floors were very dark and the walls a sort of dark plaster. The bathroom however was quite swish with a very impressive and, as we soon found out, hot shower. We were feeling rather sweaty and soon were showered and changed and started to look around the rest of the place. We had already seen a German couple, in the next room, that we'd met earlier in the day.  Later we also met two more German men who were also staying there.

There was a separate building that, we discovered, contained a very well equipped kitchen, a dining area, a sitting area and a very well stocked bookcase.

Suddenly, again, the man we'd seen before appeared, this time with a mobile phone in his hand, he came to me and said "Carroll", I answered 'Yes" and he gave me the phone. It was the owner, a young lady, Susannah, who apologised for not being there, confirming that she would be there sometime after 6pm and checking if we wanted an evening meal. As there were no apparent eating places nearby, and at that time, we didn't know of any shops, we gratefully accepted the meal offer. We later found that there was a mini market nearby that sold food. Later we went to the market and bought a few beers and some snacks for tomorrow.

The owner duly arrived just after 6pm with lots of interesting containers etc. She proceeded to serve up a delicious chicken casserole with salad and bread. Accompanying this was an olive oil dressing, from the olive trees on the farm and several bottles of a good white wine again from the vines on the farm. The meal, for four Germans and two Brits was very sociable with lots of conversation and generally a good time. The owner had, before she left dealt with her administration, stamped credentials etc. and also arranged with a local cafe/bar for the three German men to go there to see Bayern Munich's match on their TV. The TV on site was limited in channels and couldn't receive that particular match. Soon after the meal was finished they went off to walk to the next village to see the match. The German lady went back to her room and we stayed in the lounge area reading, and starting this blog. I managed to get the wood-burning stove going so we spent a cosy evening by the fireside.

What I had considered a dark and dismal place turned out to be very nice after all. 

Day 21 - To Barcelos

My blog of yesterday, "To Fão",  had to be delayed until today for posting due to an almost total lack of Internet at the hostel in Fão last night. Sorry!

We effectively changed lanes today, for the reasons explained in yesterday's blog.  We are now in Barcelos which is on the traditional Camino route through Portugal.

This morning we checked out of the hostel in Fão and made out way into the town in plenty of time to catch a bus to Barcelos. We met up with two German women who had had the same idea as us. One of them had a slight walking problem and felt that the shorter route possibilities of the the traditional route would be more manageable for her.

Before the bus arrived we had enough time to call into a cafe near the stop to have a breakfast. We'd opted out of the breakfast at the hostel in order to be absolutely sure we were at the correct bus-stop with time to spare. After our cafe break we had time to chat briefly with the German ladies before the bus arrived. The run into Barcelos took about 45 minutes only, so we where easily able to find somewhere for tonight.

We had seen a small hotel mentioned in the guide that was near the bus terminus. We soon found this but when we arrived the front door was closed and locked. As it was still very early we weren't really surprised. But just as we were turning away a man came up and proceeded to unlock the door and let us in. Apparently they didn't have any overstaying guests so the door had been locked whilst the cleaning and took preparation was been done. We told him that we wished to stay tonight and he booked us in, even letting us leave our things etc in our room even though, officially, we were too early to register.  Very obliging, as the majority of all the Portuguese people we have met have been.

Having located somewhere to start our next priority was to find a laundry to get some "proper" clothes washing done. For various reasons we'd more or less run out of clean, or even nearly clean, clothes. Again we soon found one nearby and left a largish bundle of duty washing with them, they promised that it would all be ready by 4pm. We now had time to explore the town.

We soon discovered that this week (and a bit) is party time in Barcelos, the whole central area, around where we were staying, is decorated. Many of these decorations are very fancy, Christmas-type, lighting arrangements covering the streets and some of the buildings. 

They all looked good in the daylight and would look even more special in the dark. The whole centre areas of the old part of town is an enormous market during the day combined with a very large fair that runs throughout the daytime and in to later evening. It looks as if this coming weekend , including Mayday, will be the busiest time with a long list of activities scheduled.

Barcelos if also the home of the legend, below, of the crowing cockerel saving a man's life.

The legend takes place in 15th century Barcelos. Its citizens had become upset by an unsolved crime that was so terrible that it had the citizens in an alarming state. An impoverished pilgrim had been passing through Barcelos, which was a neighboring city to his in order to fulfill a promise he made during a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Despite his explanation for being in Barcelos, he was still arrested and condemned to hang. He refused to go quietly and asked to be taken in front of the judge who sentenced him to death. The authorities granted his wish, and brought him to the magistrate’s house while he was having a banquet with friends. He affirmed his innocence, and swore the proof of his innocence by pointing to a cooked rooster and said that the rooster would crow at the hour of his hanging as proof. The statement caused a large amount of laughter and mockery. The judge ignored the statement of innocence, but still set aside the rooster and refusing to eat it. When the time for judgment came, the pilgrim went to the gallows to accept his punishment. As he was being hanged, the roasted rooster appeared and stood up on the table in front of the crowd and crowed just as the pilgrim predicted. The judged realized the mistake he had made and rushed to save the pilgrim. The cord was not correctly tightened and was able to easily be saved from his death sentence. Later, the pilgrim would return to Barcelos. He sculpted a cross in honor of the Virgin Mary and St. James, who he felt was responsible for saving him with the miracle of the rooster. Today, this cross is referred to as the Cross of the Lord of the Rooster. This statue is still in existence in the Archeological Museum of Barcelos. 

The result is that there are statues of brightly coloured cockerel ask over the town and the cockerel is the unofficial mascot figure of Portugal.

Overall we've really enjoyed our day here, generally looking around and finding places we heard of. Also, as so often happens on the Camino, we met again with people we've seen before but never expect to see again. The first meeting was with the Belgian couple we meet yesterday, we came across them exploring the market/fair area, just as we were. We had another long chat with them over coffees and found out a lot more about each other. We've exchanged details and may well make further contact. The other meeting was with Alex, from Brazil and, currently, Berlin. We had met him in Mealhada some days ago and certainly not expected to every meet him again as he was going to take some time out in Porto to meet a friend there, and we were, at that time, planning to be taking the coastal route. Nevertheless we did meet him some time after meeting the Belgian couple. He is steadily making his way to Santiago and even with his time out, had now overtaken us again, so it's unlikely we'll meet again. But who knows?

Also our laundry was ready, washed, dried and very neatly folded when we returned to collect it at 4pm

Late, in this evening, we returned to the central area to look at the illuminations and fair in the darkness.

The lights were great, the fair was all running, we'd heard a concert going on earlier on the large stage, but when we were in turn nearly everywhere was deserted. Very strange. Hopefully it will get busier as the week progresses.

Day 20 - To Fão

The three, younger, people that were staying in our room last night came in at about 12:30, very quietly. They were all still asleep when we packed and left this morning. The breakfast that was provided by the hostel was OK but somewhat light on choice.  As we left, heading towards the seaward side of town we saw the German party setting off towards the river side. That direction would take them across country towards the more central route of the Camino. There are, as I think I have mentioned before, several Camino routes from south to north in Portugal. We have walked on the most westerly one, along the edge of the ocean, "The Camino Litoral", so far.

It took us a while, walking through the town, to reach the coast again, we had to come inland a lot yesterday to cross the river at the first bridge. Today is 25th April, the day that, 42 years ago, Portugal had its "Carnation Revolution ", when it's last dictator was removed. So it is a national holiday. The streets through the town were very quiet, all the offices etc were closed as were many shops. When we arrived at the promenade though things changed. The whole length of the very interesting sea front for several kilometres was thronged with people out strolling, walking jogging, running and cycling. The whole length was nicely developed with lots of interesting buildings, sculpture and other public art of all kind

Eventually the numbers declined as we left the built-up areas and got into the countryside again.

The boardwalks across the sand dunes were again much in evidence. These provide a very pleasant walking environment.

Eventually, however, we had to head away from the actual coast and the route moved inland for a distance. This part of the route was a total change from the earlier one. The area we were now walking through seems to be one gigantic market garden. It consisted mainly of hundreds of plastic growing tunnels interspersed with small plots of land, all intensively cultivated.

The main crop were onions, we could see, and smell, the plants all over the area. The environment was not very pleasant to view and certainly not to walk on as we were now walking entirely on very rough cobbled roads that seemed endless. The map showed that there were no villages, etc, anywhere in any direction for several kilometres, so we had no chance of a break for lunch. We did come across a campsite at one point. The entrance looked to be quite a distance off our route and there were no indications that there were any eating facilities there, so we decided to continue. 

After several more kilometres we reached the town/village of Apulia, again no cafes, bars or other eateries. Eventually we reached Fão  and our destination for today, the local youth hostel.  We were soon allocated a room with four bunks, and settled in. Strangely we would have to wait until after 6pm to register and pay for the room, a strange system as there is nobody there during the afternoon to do the paperwork. Weird!.

Later, while we were waiting to pay etc. we met a Belgian couple, about our age, who had intended doing a cruise along the Duoro river but this had been cancelled as the river levels were too high due to the heavy rains recently. Instead they were doing a driving tour around the area and happened to be staying in the youth hostel tonight. They were very interesting to talk to and were really interested in the whole Camino idea. 

By this time we were feeling very hungry, not really having had anything to eat since breakfast, so we went up into the town to try to find somewhere to eat. Fairly close by we found a bar/restaurant that looked OK, so we gave it a try. It turned out that the restaurant service didn't start until 7pm, about 20 minutes time. So, while we waited we had a drink and some olives and crisps as an appetiser.

At 7pm the barman told us that we should go upstairs to the restaurant proper. We hadn't realised that the bar and restaurant were separate and followed a waitress upstairs into a really nice area. Initially we were the only ones there but within 30 minutes there were about 12 people there, and by the time we left there must have been about 25. The menu was quite extensive with lots to choose from. The meal itself was delicious, and turned out to be very reasonably priced even including a very nice tasting bottle of local red wine.

Over the meal we discussed our future route. Today's route was initially good, but once we turned inland it deteriorated a great deal. The prospects for the next few days look similar. We're also back in the situation that the distances between places we can stay become rather more than we like to walk. So a rethink was necessary. The conclusion of this rethink is that tomorrow we will take the bus directly inland for about 25kms to the city of Barcelos,  which is on the "traditional" Camino route. Essentially we are not advancing any further towards Santiago but changing "tracks" onto a route with somewhat better accommodation prospects for the next few days. The two routes will join together, anyway, in about 4 to 5 days time.

After our meal we returned to the youth hostel to find that we still had the whole of our room to ourselves, no other pilgrims had been allocated to fill the spare bunks.