After a fabulous sleep in a king-sized bed, Luke and I awoke ready to enjoy the wonders of the Lake District and to catch the bus to Windermere to meet Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, at the Windermere train station.
The smiles are a lie. It was freezing and I was deeply regretted not bringing my coat.
We caught the open-topped bus from Ambleside to Windermere and had a wander around Booths while we waited. It is a large and fancy supermarket where everything looks perfect and fresh and the labels are all very English and cute, it’s a bit like walking around an art gallery. Also there are no decent supermarkets in Ambleside so we picked out a few things to buy later before we caught the bus back.
Close to the time the train arrived, we went to the station, which is right next door to the supermarket. Precisely on time, the train pulled in.
I had several potential plans for the afternoon and we settled on the following:
Brunch at a cute cafe.Full English!We saw a huge dog in the street.
Then up to Orrest Head, one of the best bang-for-buck walks in the area and it starts right by the train station.
A lovely leafy walk.Not too many stairs.Beautiful green views along the way.The view from the top was fantastic but is hard to show in a photo, so here’s one of us instead:-) On the way down we found the Gruffalo! We also saw some fat native bumblebees and robins bobbing around the undergrowth.
Then a tour of Booths to buy supplies..
Examining the beer selection.
Then onto the bus to Ambleside!
Followed by relaxing in our lovely apartment, eating cheese, drinking wine and sharing travel stories.
Our flat is up those steps.
In the evening we took a short walked to bridge house, which had already featured in the blog at least once, many years ago. It is the most photographed building in the Lake District and used to house a family with six children. It was built across the beck to avoid land taxes.
We had a drink outside one of the pubs then bought some pizzas from the little local supermarket to heat up at home. We were all in bed by 10!
I’d like to say we looked this happy when we woke up in the morning in our tiny shoebox hotel room, but neither of us got enough sleep and so we struggled out of bed and over to Euston station. Along with an average breakfast sandwich, I had what I hope was the worst coffee of my life, because if anything worse is ahead of me I might avoid coffee forever.
I like how people with bags on wheels take up twice the space of one person and they always seem to walk right in the middle of any walkway.Our train was, and I am not exaggerating, 16 carriages long and we were in furthest one.
The train was on time and we enjoyed watching the scenery roll past and catching up with each other’s lives since we were last together.
We spotted lots of bluebells from the train, so lovely!
We got into Windermere on time just before lunch and dropped our bags at the information centre so we could go for a walk around town and use up the time before check in.
We had some coffee while chasing up the address details for our accommodation in Keswick then went for a walk down towards Bowness.
They spelled my name wrong!It’s been a real trend for people to crochet letterbox decorations for the coronation.
We found a beautiful pub for lunch.
Then walked to a little lookout through some quiet woods.
Lovely weather!
Eventually we got our bags out of storage and caught the bus to Ambleside. Our Airbnb was right in the centre of town in a little alleyway called ‘The Slack’.
By the time we got into the apartment we were more exhausted than we’d been in a long, long time. After almost falling asleep a number of times we decided to go out for groceries and then to the nearest pub.
View from our front step.
We walked into the Ambleside Inn and everyone was watching football so we asked who was playing and who we should barrack for (Liverpool against Leeds, the crowd was fairly split on who to support). We bought a drink each and went into the upstairs bit. We ended up talking to a local guy who told us basically his life story and all about the area. He and his friend gave us a recommendation for a pub on the last leg of our LD trip (the Kirkstile Inn) and I showed him my fell pony photos. We ended up hugging him goodbye and he wished us a lovely holiday. Delightful!
Finally we fell into bed for a long and dreamless sleep, the best we’d had in several nights!
Thanks to Danny booking our accommodation in an epic location, we are really close to almost everything in Porto.
Our apartment is in that white building, behind it is the main cathedral and town square and it’s right beside the biggest bridge across the river.
We had an excellent sleep then I found a very Melbourne-style cafe for breakfast, but at about half the price of a Melbourne brunch.
Near us was a large table of people of various ages who were all spread out using various devices and tapping away. We thought they were all working independently. Just before we left they all stopped typing and started introducing themselves and talking about poetry. We tried to overhear when was going on but it was a bit mysterious.
Next stop: stained glass museum! As you can imagine, one of us was more excited about this that the other.
Danny wasn’t terribly keen, but it was only eight euros and literally backed onto our accommodation so if he wanted to go sit it out he could.
A nice surprise when we paid…
Art and port, a winning combination! Sure, it was 11am but it would have been rude to refuse.
The museum is very small but had some nice stained glass.
Tiffany!
Next, a quick break at the apartment to charge devices and do some puzzles with our feet up. I hadn’t known previously that we were both fans of word puzzles and this book I bought in Australia has been great entertainment.
Then we went for a walk and had a snack break with a view.
It was kind of a brioche-pizza-calzone mashup.
We wanted to do a bit of shopping today. We walked to a mall for a look around and I bought a book. Shopping centres really are the same all over the world.
I was very grateful that the mall bookshop had a couple of shelves of books in English and even a decent selection of fantasy and sci fi.
We went on a walk around town to see street art and other lovely sights.
Iconic Porto church.
I found a nice middle-aged-lady fashion store and bought a dress to wear if we go out to somewhere nice for dinner. While in the shop I met a couple of Kiwis who had been living in Mount Martha for the last ten years. it’s (relatively) just down the road from where I live so it seemed like quite a coincidence.
Next we walked through some markets where I bought strawberries. the strawberries we’ve had here have been really great.
Danny has been wanting some open shoes that would be more comfortable with his blisters.
Despite my encouragement he didn’t even try on this pair of fake-diamond-encrusted trainers (rude) and went for some Birkenstocks.
We made it to 10km and decided to have an afternoon rest and watch some Rick and Morty, during which Danny feel asleep and I started my book.
I’m coming to realise that this isn’t my most riveting blog entry but I’ve written too much to stop now!
Porto is a VERY hilly city and the walk to our restaurant for the evening was quite an ordeal. Worth it though, for views towards the sunset and feeling like we’d found a place where locals hang out.
I’d been reading up on local street artists and there was some work right by our spot.
Subtle but beautiful. Hazul luzer, a local artist.
We walked back to the apartment to get our laundry at 9pm. It turned out that the nearest laundromat was halfway back to the restaurant. Up and down hills again.
In the very new and clean laundromat we got talking to a couple from Melbourne and a couple from Turkey. We all agreed that the laundromat was the place to be on Monday nights.
We’d brought drinks, everyone agreed it was the right idea.
We booked two nights in Pontevedra (when I say ‘we’ Danny did literally everything) and left Santiago mere minutes after signing off on the Camino. We didn’t stay because we are coming back for a few days later on so we’re seeing a bit more of Galicia before then.
After this is three nights in Porto.
The apartment Danny found is lovely, it opens right onto a laneway in the old part of the city.
The interior is mostly mint green trim and feature walls of flamingo wallpaper.
Unfortunately, because we booked a Friday and Saturday night, between 4 and 6am crowds of people streamed past my window shouting, singing and partying on their way home from nightclubs.
The lady who owns the place met us when we arrived and said the front bedroom was loud but didn’t specify that the street noise, which was minimal during the day, wasn’t the problem. I’m writing this at 5:30am because I’ve given up on going back to sleep. Every time I think there’s going to be no more noise another group comes along to stand right outside talking at top volume.
Aside from causing me to wake up angry, Pontevedra has been a lovely place to stay. What did we do here?
We walked around the old town.We went to the art gallery.We saw lots of lovely impressionist work.We walked along the river and took some photos for some tourists. We found a market.And a free rock music festival We watched a bit of the coronation on tv. We saw pigeons causing havoc on unattended tables, inadvertently smashing wine glasses and bottles.
Mainly we sat in various squares doing what the locals do – people and dog watching.
And being watched in return.
I’ve brought a crossword book and so we did that for a while too. All very relaxing!
We left Sigueiro at about 9:30 and had 15km to walk to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Apart from a few spots of rain the worst of the weather was just a lot of cold wind, which made walking easier.
I kind of expected the path to be quite industrial as it was so close to Santiago but, either by luck or design, it was mostly forest and fields for all but the last few kilometres.
A second later it caught a mouse.
We saw many more pilgrims than previous days but only really talked to one, a lively Italian lady named Leah who told us she had left her husband at home and decided to do the walk by herself at the age of 70. She didn’t have any aches or pains and wished Danny improvement with his feet.
At about 11:30 we stopped off at a food place that was right next to the trail in a forested part.
It was a big open cement area and a huge echoing hall that looked like the world’s saddest wedding venue. It had a tiny bar and food counter set up so we had some coffee and sandwiches.
Such a welcoming atmosphere.
We have been told that the government is using money to promote this route but it would be nice to spend some money on making it safer as often footpath just runs out and trucks almost clip you as you walk.
The amenities and businesses along the trail (or lack thereof) have been a constant source of bemusement. The traffic along this branch of the Camino has been increasing drastically over the last two decades (from under 100 people to over 22,000 last year) but there’s quite long stretches of road with no footpath, no places to get food and not one public toilet to be seen along the whole route, which Danny says is typical of Spain. Anywhere that sells food is expected to let people use their bathroom but quite often there’s nowhere open.
Coming into Santiago from the opposite direction to the most popular trail meant that it was just right into the older part of town.
The industrial estate part of the walk wasn’t pretty but had excellent wide footpaths. The last laundry station!
Our first sight of the cathedral??
No.
How about now?
No.
Then Danny said that we would hear bagpipes when we got close, an instrument that is traditionally Gaelic, so they are played here as well as in Scotland and Ireland. I completely neglected to take a photo of the piper, but eventually we heard them as we continued through the lovely ancient streets.
Crowds of pilgrims in the square.Done!
It was great to finish, and it felt like Danny might not have made another day with his blisters as they were getting worse.
Seeing all the groups of pilgrims getting photos and looking so excited was very nice, I imagine that if you’d come here just for this and if you’d finished one of the longer walks – quite a lot of people walk from France or further – the sensation of relief and achievement would be overwhelming.
All the lines are Camino routes.
Having just spent twice as long walking through much more dramatic countryside in England, this was fun but it didn’t particularly make me want to do other Camino routes. I’m not against the idea either, I just have other places I’d like to walk.
Danny and I did discuss what we’d learned from the experience. I’d totally agree with Deb that four days got me into my stride, so doing a longer trek would definitely be possible and if I’d put more effort into preparing I probably wouldn’t have had such sore feet in the beginning.
I felt a bit hamstrung by not speaking the local language and I think a lot of my enjoyment from travel comes from meeting people so that was a down side. We didn’t really meet many people who spoke English confidently.
I think if I’d done this years ago I would’ve been part of the ‘get up and on the road by dawn’ crowd, but going slower and making decent stops has increased my enjoyment. I don’t think I could ever walk ten hours a day so there’s no need to be up and out so quickly.
The time of year we’d chosen was really good. None of the days were too hot or too cold and we had luckily sat out the rainiest day. The time of year also meant that there were lots of flowers in bloom and the farmers were yet to spread manure on the fields. I always forget how much of country walking is accompanied by the smell of manure but it wasn’t too bad this time.
Despite being surrounded by long green grass most days my hayfever was fine. I really don’t understand why it’s so bad in England and not here where the plants are almost identical.
Collecting the stamps along the way was fun. Who doesn’t like stamps? I think the stamp system would be a great thing to institute on other long walks around the world. It’s an easy and fun reminder of all the places you stop at.
We did 122km or so, 100 is needed for the certificate at the end. We did get the certificates but I think the stamps are actually a better souvenir.
So that was our Camino! Probably the least impressive in terms of length but a very nice walk and Danny and I managed to get along very well, both being very patient when the other needed to go slowly or take a break.
To finish, here’s a series of photos of us in front of highways and derelict petrol stations. It’s not all forests and fields!
Here Comes The Planet 