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.