The 24 km walk of today’s portion of the Variant Espiritual began with the Ruta Pedra y Agua, the route of stone and water. Stone and water used to mean grain milling, an in fact you could call this a walk “down by the old mill stream.” The ruins (“in various states of conservation,” as […]
Walked out of Pontevedra, met Julia from Germany, and was able to return the towel she had left in the albergue the night before. I picked it up thinking that the best that could happen would be that I got to return the towel, and the worst that could happen would be that I would […]
A surprising number of peregrinos on this route. Albergue was almost full last night. Today a good, short (20 km) walk to bustling Pontevedra. I decided to bypass the municipal albergue at the railway station, near the southern edge of the town, and stay at Slow City Hostel near the bridge out of town. Very quiet, […]
It felt good to get back to walking but the 32 km from Tui to Redondela was a little tiring. The new path installed to avoid the industrial areas before Porriño was very nice. It stayed next to a small river for much of the way and had fresh gravel over most of it. The […]
A wonderful, hour-long train trip down the rio Minho (or Miño). River to the left and Miño river valley grapes that are starting to show up in wine shops in the US to the right. Many of the grapes, you could see, are planted in the rocky soil famous for making the flavorful wines from […]
Bused to Ourense today and will be heading over to Tui tomorrow, from the Via de la Plata to the Portugués. From the bus this way back to Santiago seemed hilly and not so interesting. It could have been the tiredness that caught me, of course. Yesterday Michaela kept talking about being very tired, first […]
A beautiful, warm day to walk the final 20 km into Santiago. Met Michaele, a woman from Sweden walking from Leon. Met her at the first corner in Pedrouzo and we walked into the Plaza Obrodoiro together. An emotional arrival for both, of course, and we stretched out in the sun and greeted Camino friends […]
Warmer and more crowded. Started the day in the shade of the river valley, around 4ºC, but walked up the other side of the valley, into the sun and started shedding layers. Not a peaceful walk like yesterday’s. Many people, many groups including, imagine this, a school group. You don’t have to ask where the […]
A peaceful, often meditative day. Flat, good, well waymarked roads all the way to Melide, where the Primitivo ended. Thomas Melcher, an Austrian who has walked the Camino yearly since 2009, took us into the main church to get the final Primitivo sello. We waited through the end of a baptism mass and went into […]