In the last installment, we had just crossed into Spain - thus the spelling changes - O Caminho becomes El Camino.
Valença to Porriño
Crossing into Spain, we lost an hour, as the two countries are in different time zones. Very weird to walk NORTH into a different time zone. The pavement, now in Spain, improved remarkably. So did the number of walkers. Substantially. Little did we know that the trickle would turn into a stream, then into a river and finally a sea all moving north.
We made our way into Porriño, which was described as a working class town, and it met this description. While that was OK, we found out we had booked an honest-to-god Albergue - shared bathroom, kitchen, etc. We had a private room. Spartan, but thankfully private.
‘Uh-Oh’ - we quickly showered, and realized we couldn’t do laundry. We would have to re-wear the same walking clothes again tomorrow. Ugh. We headed into town and found a restaurant, where by chance we sat next to a young woman and her grandmother from the Czech Republic: Karolina and Mari. They were walking the Camino as well. Karolina spoke good English, her grandmother was a teacher of French, so we were able to communicate.
After the meal, we headed to the grocery store, bought some cold cuts & cheese, headed back to the room and prepared for a 5am wakeup to get moving ahead of the crowd. Albergues have a bit of a Frat-House nature to them, and Steve had to break out earplugs to silence the card players in the common area outside the room so he could sleep. But sleep he did.
Porriño to Redondela
We started in the pre-dawn murk towards Redondela. While the air was cool, Steve quickly overheated. We stopped to allow him to take off his overshirt. Katie took the opportunity to put ON her gloves (since she translates cool to cold).
We ran into Cecelia (from Day 3), and she had been able to get new shoes that helped immeasurably with her foot problems.
We were now firmly on the Via Romana XIX - the old roman road from Braga to Padrón, And there were real roman Milestones to show it. One thing that became noticeable was the amount of red granite that was used for everything. Houses, fences, grape arbors, walls, paving,... It was quite pretty. I’m sure it would cost a fortune to import, but the countertops that could be fabricated would be wonderful.
Coming down off the Santiaguiño de Antas peak, there was a substantial descent, thankfully on asphalt. We’re talking grades in excess of 25%.
Towards the bottom, a road cyclist in full pro-kit flew by us, headed up the hill. Força!! I would have liked to see how he did on the steep part, but he was impressive nonetheless.
Yet again, our lodging was an apartment UP the hill from the center of town. So, climb we did. However, it was a very nice flat and in the end, worth the climb. After cleaning ourselves up, we walked back down, and had a meal at a small pub, where we were able to sit and chat with Diek (sp?) and Tina, an older couple (like us) from Germany. A very nice couple, who, alas we would lose track of after this meet up.
Redondela to Pontevedra
Redondela is where the Camino Coastal enters the Central - so the stream of pilgrims now turns into a river.
The north of the Iberian peninsula has a number of inlets for rivers & such that in some ways appear to be fjords. One is the Ria Vigo, fed by the Rio Verdugo. We walked north in the woods along the Ria Vigo, where we had not one, but two, peaklets to climb. The Alto da Lomba, then descending to the Rio Verdugo at Arcade, and then climbing back out over the Alto da Canicouva before descending to Pontevedra.
A word about the name James - since we’re on “The Way of Saint James”. And to be sure I am not an expert here, so take all of this with a grain of salt. The name starts a couple millenia ago written in Greek as Iacov (today this would be Jacob) - this morphs to Iago, and along the way, our friend James gets canonized, so now he’s Sant Iago - shortened to Santiago. To this day, the names Santiago and Tiago are not uncommon. It may be that Diego comes from this as well. Why do I mention this? Well, Galego (the native language of the Galician region of Spain) has its own thing:
We make it to Pontevedra, walking through the thicket of albergues on the south side of town, onward to the old town, actually glad to continue walking another 1-2 km past them (even after 20ish km) to be able to stay in a more upscale lodging. We made it to our lodgings in the old town and they had a washing machine!! Pure Bliss!! We quickly cleaned up and headed out to forage for food.
Looking for a place to eat, Katie espied a couple sitting at a café with extra seats at their table, they looked familiar, so Katie went over and said - “Is it ok if we sit here…” - and that was all it took, we joined them, Dara and Carol (from Ireland). It turns out the two of them and Katie had a brief meeting coming down the hill earlier in the day. We had a great meal together, before they headed to the church for the evening’s pilgrim’s mass, and we headed to the grocery store for breakfast fixings. Each to one’s own on how to nourish oneself.
Pontevedra - Rest Day
We had decided on Pontevedra as a rest day as it’s a fairly big city, with a university, so the expectation of some life, and it was indeed a lively (in a positive sense) city.
We slept in and after an actual cooked breakfast (and laundry), we went to the more modern section of the city and bought a birthday card for our daughter. We then went to the post office to mail it, Steve doing his best to remember his grade school Spanish, not confusing it with Portuguese. The postage price, however, threw him - “dosdays” - he blindly handed the teller a five-spot and received change. Doing the arithmetic, Katie and Steve realized the woman had said “Dos y Diez” - two and ten. Toto - we’re not in Kansas any more….
Afterwards, we milled about the old city, tried to visit the museum but never could find the entrance. Eventually we headed over to the main square for ice cream and Katie had a great time welcoming pilgrims as they wandered by. Here Steve realized that she (Katie) had been waiting 5 years for all the stars to align on this travel thing and she was reveling in it.
Having, rested and laundered, we were ready for the the final push to Santiago.
Thanks for reading!
Anthony’s Aweigh!
What a wonderful journey!
Keep having fun!
Trudy