Bill Arney

A very short walk today. 10 km to O Faramello-Teo, a nice new albergue with three French speakers, one from France, one from Quebec, and a Portuguese fellow who lives in Ontario. Walked with anothe Canadian briefly in the morning. She worked in Ft. Murray, the tar sands town that burned yesterday.  Thanks to technology she already knew everyone is okay after one of the largest evacuations in Canada, and that folks are still looking for trapped animals.

I stopped short of Santiago to review student postings, so I’d better get back to it.

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 the marketing says) of seven or eight old mills, some with their milestones lying around, along with stone water courses to route the river to power the mills, dot the cascading river next to the wooded footpath. It was beautiful,  and the sun didn’t penetrate to the river until very late in the morning.

The second stage of the day was the Ruta Rio, a long, pleasant,  flat walk on graveled paths at an elevation, the GPS said,  of 3 meters above sea level, along the slow moving rio Ulia. Past lots of well groomed commercial vineyards with grapes growing on trellises 5 – 7 feet high and past two or three bodegas producing the wine.

The third stage started with me walking across a 2 km long bridge and finding that I was in Vilanova Islete and not Vilanova de Aurosa where I was supposed to catch the boat to Padrón. Two fellows in a beach bar told me to go back across the bridge and turn left. Oops. I checked the time and headed back to the bridge march. Just as I was about to get on the bridge and as the rain was increasing, the one customer in the bar drove up beside me and motioned me in. He would drive me! Another Angel de Camino. Made it in plenty of time to walk around and find other peregrinos looking for a boat. We gathered in the new albergue, which is part of a new indoor gym.

Stage three was the boat ride to Padrón, up the Ulla river, the river up which St. James’ body was tranported, from Palestine, in its stone boat. Along the river there were, indeed, lots of crosses in the river, 17 by one account, 23 according to our skipper. But our boat did not make it as far as the Saint’s. We got dropped off at the down river town and had to walk 2 km, in some of the hardest rain I have ever experienced, to Padrón,  where the main church contains, under the central altar, the mooring stake to which the stone boat was tied on arrival. The river route is sometimes call “the path of all paths” because, were it not for this river, no body of James in Galicia, no Camino, maybe not even a Reconquista.

Padrón is 23 km from Santiago. I may break that into a two-day walk!

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 have another nice trail towel.

A few km after leaving Pontevedra everyone came to a decision point. Continue on the Portugués way or turn left on the Variant Espiritual? As I was reading about the Spiritual route,  two German women showed up and said, “This is the turn we were looking for.” I joined them.

The route led through woods to the monastery at Poio, down toward the water, along the shore, through an old beach town, then up the mountain! And up more. Most of the rest of the day was up. It had a feel like the Hospidales route over the mountains on the Primitivo and it felt right to carry rocks and unburden myself at the high points. (At one high point I also unburdened myself of a few squares of milk chocolate. Some might say I just carried them differently, but they were no longer weighing down my pack.) After topping the mountain, a gentle downhill led eventually to a wooded footpath down to the monastery at Armenteira. And from there to a closed and locked albergue! But as I was heading back to the monastery and town, the German women walked in, and a car pulled up with a woman saying she would be opening the albergue. Many things were laughable today. Another one: the sun came blasting out for the last several hundred km down the mountain as if to say, “All that rain … just a joke. Sorry.”

One of the nice aspects of this variant is that there are no concrete markers telling you how many kilometers you are from Saint James … telling you right down to the number of meters, if you believe that third decimal point.  That was a distraction it was good not to have. Just had to keep walking. Nothing else to do.

Tomorrow,  I hear, we walk 24 km and then catch a boat. The boat, “which is permitted as part of the Camino” according to the Germans, takes pilgrims from Vilanova de Arousa to Padron along the water route followed by the stone boat carrying the Saint’s body back to Iberia. It is the only water route in the world that contains a Via de la Cruz with, reportedly, 17 crosses marking the water way.

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, near Santa Maria la mayor, a beautiful basilica.

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 charm of the day was seeing the first grapes budding on the relatively new, leafy stems. Tiny (~0.5 cm x 3 cm) clusters of almost embryonic “grapes,” but you know what’s coming.  The impressive thing was how many houses had only enough grape plants to line the outer perimeter of the yard. Probably just enough for some home fermentation or to include in a communal vat. More and more signs of spring peaking through the all-day rain.

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 this region.

Hard to get started on a new Way. Yesterday in Ourense and today in Tui I was turned away from the municipal albergues because you have to have begun walking before  staying in those official pilgrim places. All for the better. Last night a Turismo official pointed me to an inexpensive pension with a private room, double bed, private bath. Luxury. Tonight in a private, great albergue with lots of good people.  And with sellos in my new credencial from the catedral, albergue, and a bar! I will be “On the Way again, just got to get on the Way again”… From Tui, on the Camino Portugués.

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 time on her walk, she said. Maybe the walking and emotions of arrival caught up with us. By going to Tui I can also spend the first big (or so it’s predicted) day of rain riding a train.

One nice little time in Santiago bus station.  A pilgrim walked by, I waved, she acknowledged me and went on to buy her ticket. Later she came back and sat down. “This is not the first time a complete stranger has said hello on this trip.  It’s very nice.” A few tears welled up. “That wouldn’t happen back home in Germany.” We shared some of the personal moments from our walks and our agreement about there being a lot, lot, lot of laughter around the tables in Santiago populated by pilgrims. Brief, gentle, very nice moment.

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 as they came in.  Went to the Pilgrim Office to receive the compostelas after which Michaela wanted nothing but a large beer. Wandered into a pub and found two of her Camino buddies. Two large beers and a good sized lunch later, her friend who had just sold his company and is heading for retirement paid our bill and we went to find our places for the evening. A fine ending, with lots and lots of laughter, to this part of the walk.

Tomorrow, probably, off to Ourense for a few more days walking.

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 Camino is; you just follow the line of backpacks. Azura and Pedrouzo, the main towns on this stage, are pilgrim oriented, lots of albergues and conchas on every business, no matter what’s for sale.  The municipal albergue packs a lot of pilgrims in a small space, but there’s a nice kitchen, almost enough plugs to recharge all the gadgets, and it’s still 6€.

Just out of Ribadisio you encounter a garbage can with “free philosophy” written on it and then a line of posters, in Spanish and English, containing some of the great quotes from philosophers (Ronald Reagan even gets an entry) and spiritual leaders.  And there’s a promise of more free philosophy at km 33. At km 33, more sayings, a food cart (food for the belly, not, directly,  the mind), a large gathering of pilgrims and Bruno, the “seeker”/philosopher behind it all.   I asked where he studied philosophy.  “Here, in this life, in conversation.” Good start.  And it just got better. Talk with him. He’ll drag you into philosophy and, if you read all the way to the end of the  sayings on his wall, into the Bible (as studied by Bruno, not as preached by any church). Just another creative quirk on El Camino. And the cake was good too.

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 the sacristry for the stamp; a good end to that way.

I thought I would stay in Melide, but, having nothing else to do,  I walked on another 10 km, 30+ for the day,  to Ribadisio do Baixo where there is a beautiful, large albergue right on the river. Sam and I stayed here last year after we saw the big uphill into Azura and decided to call it a day here.  Stories now complemented by memories.

On having nothing else to do: Yesterday Sophie and I were deciding, around 2:30, whether or not to go on. She said, “I don’t have anything else to do.” A few minutes later, this usually somber person started laughing and laughing and eventually got out, “I don’t have anything else to do!” When she stopped laughing, she explained that at home there is her job and at home her husband who was severely disable by a car accident some 25 years ago. She always has so much to do, but here, “I don’t have anything else to do.” Another chuckle.  Later, just before dinner,  I saw her lounging back on a chair in the sun reading her Bible and smiling. Nothing else to do.