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.