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.

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One or two people have mentioned that they can't leave comments as the do not have a Google or other accrptable account. 

It is possible but not immediately obvious how. 

If you create a comment by clicking on the "No Comments" or "2 Comments" or whatever, link at the bottom of each posting you will be shown a text box to enter your comments. Below the box is a heading that says "Choose an identity" . Here, one of the options is "Anonymous". This allows any comments without requiring you to sign in to anything. If you do use this method please indicate within your comment who you are, otherwise you will remain truly "Anonymous ".

The final step is to prove that you are human, by ticking a box. That's just to stop automated junk systems dumping unwanted dross onto any comments fields they come across.

Hope that helps. 

If you prefer an even easier method just email us at 

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just remove the spaces I've inserted either side of the " @" symbol to get our proper email address.

Tony

Day 19 - To Vila do Conde

We had a very good night's sleep, and excellent breakfast, at the Holiday Inn, but with one slight problem. Last night we had, in true Camino fashion, done some clothes washing. There weren't many items and, as the room was quite warm, we expected them to dry very quickly, certainly overnight.  That was not to be. This morning most items were still damp, very few felt dry.  We didn't need any of them to wear today, so that wasn't a problem. But nevertheless we did need to get them dried somehow. A quick shuffle around of other clothes allowed us both to put the damp clothes into string-mesh bags that we carry, usually for dirty washing, but today they were used for drying instead. Each bag, with its contents of damp laundry, was hung on the outside of our packs. Here they could catch the sun as we walked. 

And there was plenty of sun to catch today.

With the drying problem sorted out, we hoped, we set out from the hotel. The hotel is not on the Camino route, but some distance off it. To get back onto the route where we left it last night would involve a backtrack of at least 2kms. However, a quick look at the map showed that we could cut off a corner and rejoin the route about a kilometre further along than we had left it. That's what we did and very soon we were back on the Camino route.

Yesterday, as we walked out of Porto along the Camino route we didn't see any yellow arrows. These are the pilgrim's guide, but not really necessary for yesterday's route as it would be very difficult to get lost. We didn't really expect many, if any, arrows today as the guide book could easily say "Walk as near ocean as you can, always keeping it on your left". But we were surprised to find a very clear, bright yellow, arrow almost immediately, the first of this stage of our Camino.

Throughout the rest of the day we saw others as we progressed. Very rarely were they needed, but they are always useful.

Initially we were walking on the promenade, much the same as yesterday but after about 2 to 3 kms we reached the beginning of the boardwalk. The guide says that there are several long stretches of boardwalk over the sand dunes. We reached the beginning of the first boardwalk just at the same time as a party of twelve German pilgrims. They all proceeded to pose for photos, individually and in small groups. I offered to take a photo of the whole group, if they wanted me to do so. It was an offer gratefully accepted, so I took several for them.

From talking to them I discovered that they had, like us, walked out from Porto yesterday to Matosinhos, and today they where planning on walking to Vila do Conde, again like us. We chatted for a while as we walked but gradually we all separated into smaller groups.

That was the start of our day of the boardwalk. We spent the rest of the day mainly on the boardwalks along the sand dunes. The sun was shining, a gentle warm breeze was blowing and the walking was almost all level and very easy. At one point we were walking between the ocean and a large chemical plant, but amazingly it was fairly unobtrusive. It was just "there", no smells, no noise, just part of the scenery.  So just a few photos to give you a feel for the trail.

I found today to be the easiest walk I can remember. By the time we reached Vila do Conde we had walked 23kms, but it didn't really feel to have been that far.

We passed through a whole string of small villages spread out along the ocean's edge and separated by nature reserves with masses of wild flowers, birds and every changing ocean views.

At one small ocean-side village I spotted an obvious memorial to something.

Closer inspection showed it was to the crew of an RAF Lancaster bomber that had ditched there during WW2. They had flown from Lincolnshire, England on a mission to disrupt the railway link between France and Italy, had to divert due to damage and were trying to reach Gibraltar. However they ditched here, into the sea and all the crew were survived and were rescued by the local fishermen.

We eventually reached Vila and started looking for somewhere to stay. We found a place, the Bellamar Hostel, almost as soon as we entered the town and enquired about accommodation. The only thing they could offer us were two bunks in a five-bedded dormitory. We accepted that and we're soon installed, showered and changed. It's quite a big place but they were virtually fully booked. We wondered if our German group had reserved all the places, but it doesn't seem to be the case as we've not seen any of them around in the hostel.

This evening we've just wandered around this part of an interesting town.

Later, being somewhere surprised that this hostel was full, we arranged our accommodation for tomorrow night. That will be after another day on the boardwalks, as we've been promised.

Day 18 - To Matosinhos

It's been a funny day, as they say. Yesterday, for all sorts of reasons was hard going. Our decision to stay at a good hotel at the end of our day's walking helped a lot. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the accommodation in the town was sparse and not given very good reviews. At the beginning of yesterday's walk we did consider going on to São João Da Madeira, which is a bigger town and had more , places to stop. However by the time we reached Oliveira de Azemèis frankly, we'd had enough, and the thought of another 9.5kms with even more hills, and built-up areas, didn't appeal.

So the hotel it was.

Today presented an even greater problem for us. The only possible stopping place between Oliveira and Porto was São João which was now too close for a valid day's walk. After São Joào it was 34kms to Porto, in itself too far in a day for us. Additionally all of the route between Oliveira and Porto is classed as built-up and very hilly. 

After considering all the options we decided to opt-out of that section all-together and travel in to Porto by bus, and then walk on from there. We found the bus times, had a lazy morning, with a very good breakfast in the hotel. A breakfast which I commenced by spilling a full glass of fruit juice all over the sparkling clean table cloth. We had to move to another table. Also, I didn't realise at the time, but I was sitting there wearing my shirt inside out. Not a great start to the day.

We finally got to the bus station about 11am and duly travelled into Porto by bus.  We didn't actually go all the way into Porto, but got off a few stops from the centre, an area we knew from our previous visits.

We walked over the high level "Eiffel" bridge, with its views of the city and into the cathedral area from there.

We needed to go to the cathedral for two reasons. Firstly it is the starting point for the Porto to Santiago Camino. Secondly we needed to purchase two more credentials as our current ones, from Lisbon, are getting full. They will definitely be full before Santiago and there is nowhere else to get additional copies, that we know of, between Porto and Santiago.

As we arrived at the cathedral we met Bernard, from Germany. He had arrived there somewhat earlier than us. He also managed to miss out the grind into Porto after being offered a car lift for about the last 20kms. Shortly afterwards we meet Joe, from Ireland, with his wife. She had flown in to meet him for the weekend before flying back to Ireland leaving Joe to continue his walk to Santiago. We are constantly amazed how often we re-meet people we think we'll never see again. 

We decided to lunch in Porto before starting out to walk along the riverside, out to the Atlantic ocean, and up the coast to Matosinhos, our stopping point for today. We couldn't decide what to have for lunch, that is until we spotted Subway. We decided to try it, and it was exactly the same as every other Subway we've ever been in. We were soon served, had lunch and set off out of town. 

The initial part of the route took us through a lot of the historical, and very touristy, parts of Porto, all of which were crammed with people.

We probably saw as many people this afternoon as we've seen since leaving Lisbon. As we walked along the riverside the crowds reduced slightly but there were lots of people all the way, about 14kms, to the centre of Matosinhos.

The weather was very good, sunny but not too hot and nice, flat, and interesting walking.

Close to Matosinhos, we noticed some bronze plaques set into the pavement on a stretch of the road near the sea, all were related to car racing.  

Some quick research this evening revealed that this road formed part of the "Curcuit de Boavista" a car racing circuit used mainly in the 1950/60s, but still used occasionally today. It was the track used for the Portuguese Formula-1 races on two occasions. Wikipedia has details here.

Just nearby is a beach area, close to the port, that was being used by several surfers. 

The only real problem we had was, as ever, right at the end of the walk. The hotel we're staying in, as pilgrims with a very good rate, is the Holiday Inn Express, which is located about a kilometre out of the town centre and beyond the port area.

It took a little finding. It is however a very nice place.

That's two nights in a row that we've lived in luxury, probably the last for some while, but we have also reached two significant points. The first if that we have reached, and passed, Porto and that we have now walked over 200 miles on this trip. Porto is significant in that many people who say they have walked the Camino Portuguese actually only start from Porto, so we should now start seeing many more pilgrims along the way.