Porto, Day 1

by Miss Penny Black

We had to be up and out by 7:30 to walk to the train station for our trip to Porto via Vigo. As I’d been woken at 5am by people literally screaming and shouting on their way home from nightclubs (don’t book central locations on weekends, friends), I was pretty much packed and the apartment was tidy before Danny’s alarm went off. He has wisely chosen a bedroom at the rear of the apartment.

The train to Vigo was only 20 minutes then we had half an hour to get across town to a different station for Porto.

Seemed like a brand new station, kind of like Melbourne Central but empty.

A lady on the Camino had said Vigo wasn’t worth a visit but what we saw was nice enough.

No time for breakfast so it was lucky we’d stowed some biscuits and fruit in our bags. The views from the train were very misty and everything looked very green. I always think of the Iberian peninsula as dry and hot but it’s definitely not all like that, particularly in the north and by the coast.

The train from Vigo to Porto was about 2.5 hours and our clocks changed as Portugal is on the same time as the UK.

Our carriage was full of pilgrims and this is a terrible photo of their backpacks.

As we left the station there was a charming sight!

We arrived in Porto quite hungry so we had to tick this off our Porto bingo sheet:

I did actually make a Porto bingo sheet.

We dropped our bag off at our accommodation then it was time to revisit one of the best foods Luke and I had on our last trip: roast pork rolls and green wine!

They had revamped since the last time and added some menu items but it was still amazing food.

Ice filled cooler bag covers for wine bottles – brilliant.

I’m sorry to say that the first thing I did was video call luke to tell him where I was.

It was warming up. The next logical step was…

We had a wander through town and listened to some street performers, took some photos of the views and then went to look for a bar.

We specifically wanted the smallest bar in Porto.

I was tired so we went back to the apartment and I slept from 5pm to 7pm. By the way, Danny tells me it’s bizarre that I don’t have my watch face showing 24 hour time, he thinks 12 hour time is for babies. Except when talking about time out loud. I don’t get it.

We wandered around in the evening and found a restaurant that was nice.

I had prawn linguine and Danny had a local dish, kind of a croque monsieur but with gravy.

It gradually dawned on us that the service would’ve been a lot better if at least one of us had been a teenage girl – the waiter was talking to every table of girls for ages and barely spoke to us. Eventually I had to interrupt him flirting right behind us just to get the bill.

We then wandered through the streets.

Across one of the big bridges.

Had a drink at a bar then brought some wine home to watch a bit more Ted Lasso. We’ve got a few things lined up to do tomorrow but I’m looking forward to lying in!

6May2023

Pontevedra, Spain

by Miss Penny Black

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 saw lots of lovely impressionist work.

We walked along the river and took some photos for some tourists.

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.

I’ve brought a crossword book and so we did that for a while too. All very relaxing!

3May2023

Camino Ingles Day 5: Ordes to Segueiro

by Miss Penny Black

Most pilgrims stay in Bruma but we had missed out on accommodation so we had walked off trail to Ordes. I don’t know if I really spent enough time in my last post emphasising precisely how many trucks were driving through the main street of Ordes, where our hotel was. It was like a truck convention had come to town.

It was pretty much a constant stream of loud traffic. The town had a strange vibe, with half the businesses clearly closed down but also a lot of fancy cars and richly dressed pedestrians. All the buildings were soot stained… basically we weren’t sorry to leave. If Pontedueme was 4/5, this was 1/5.

I cannot complain about the staff at our hotel, who were so so friendly and helpful and apologised all the time for their English (this is so embarrassing for me and my ten words of Spanish). Breakfast was … tomato on toast!

Plus a special treat.

Mum, I know exactly what you’ll say when you see this photo! Coco pops was my special treat cereal as a kid.

Hotel decor was a bit dramatic for breakfast.

As we left the hotel I noticed something significant – a pile of bags with tags. This meant the bag transfer service was available! I got out my little backpack, we put all of Danny’s heavy stuff in my big bag and left it for pick up. Having an AirTag on my bag made it easy to check when it reached its destination and helped us navigate to the right place.

Walking out of town was a pleasure and quickly took us away from the grotty part of town and into the countryside. Along the way was some great graffiti.

Five kilometres out of town was an excellent little cafe with an owner who spoke not only perfect English but with a West Sussex accent despite being clearly Spanish. she has been born in England then moved back to Spain with her Spanish parents to look after her grandmother.

We asked her if pilgrims were annoying and she said ‘only the Spanish ones’ and when we asked how they were annoying she said ‘in every way’ and the gist of it seemed to be that they were very entitled and acted like they were doing her a favour and didn’t realise her business was mainly supported by locals, pilgrims were ‘holiday money’. It was really interesting to be able to talk to someone about the local side of living on such a popular route.

People had left pilgrims messages so I left the orange one in the middle letting people know that the little boxes on stilts were for corn. Later on we met some British girls who had also been wondering. It wasn’t just us who was mystified!

The lady in the cafe had said the walk from then on was easy and she wasn’t wrong. Either that or Deb had been right about day five and onwards being easier… or the cooler weather made a difference. Maybe it was all these aspects combined?

Most of the walking was by fields, through trees and on roads.

There were definitely more people on the trail today as both routes had properly joined. We kept leap-frogging groups and saying hello … well, hola! When everyone says hola it’s really hard to work out who speaks English.

We had a nice chat with some Spanish men who spoke English at a rest stop by the second last pilgrim bath of the day.

The last part of the day was beside a highway but behind a hedge, thankfully. Also it was a gentle downhill for once.

Then through industrial estates but they seemed quite new and busy.

Apart from Danny’s epic blisters we both agreed that it was by far the easiest day. Most of the other pilgrims had walked further than us though as we had stayed at a town that wasn’t exactly on the trail. We had wondered if towns not on the official route would still give us stamps but it turned out to be fine no matter where we went.

Walking into Sigueira was lovely with a nice park and an open cafe.

As we sat with a snack under some lovely wisteria, too early to book into our accommodation, the weather turned a bit.

Danny was not happy about getting out his raincoat.

My bag had been taken to a different hotel so we had to pick it up before our accommodation. The AirTag was a super handy way to find my bag. The lady at the hotel was very annoyed that my bag had been sent there when we weren’t actually staying at her hotel and she said ‘maybe it was there, maybe not’ but a nicer member of staff went to look and found it immediately. If I hadn’t been able to track my bag with my phone I would’ve had a proper panic!

Our apartment was on the third floor so after we lugged our bags up we went out for food – delicious arepas at a bar that was playing almost nonstop Adele videos.

I will admit this photo doesn’t look great but it was actually one of the best things I’ve eaten so far on this trip.

We highly recommend this bar, not just for the food but the staff were lovely.

We bought some wine and snacks and by 7pm we were on the couch watching Drag Race.

Danny’s feet had been hurting so much that we decided to book another night in Sigueiro. It turned out to be a great decision as it started raining during the night and hasn’t really stopped since!

2May2023

Camino Ingles Day 4: Beche to Ordes

by Miss Penny Black

We set our alarms early and were on the road by 8:30. Danny left his sunglasses behind but otherwise it was a good start.

Our continual conundrum is where to stop for food. Since we started early we stopped at the first roadside cafe/general store where we saw lots of other pilgrims.

When Danny ordered sandwiches the lady brought the whole giant loaf/ring of bread to ask how much we wanted.

This is a style of service I could get used to.

God knows how she works out a price for this.

She made us take lots of photos – of her with us but also of her with other pilgrims.

She had a box of little flags and things and even found me a tiny clippy koala.

We also spoke to an American man from Kansas who was in Spain for a couple of months and was on his fourth Camino of the trip. He started on the primitivo Camino but wildfires blocked the path so he changed and had been doing bits of several.

Eventually it was time to hit the road. Today is a 17km walk and by lunch we had done 12km. The afternoon was a lot of hot walking in the sun. I employed my festival survival hack and socked my cotton scarf in water. At one point I saved my giant ice cubes from a cafe and wrapped them up for my neck, which worked well.

A transfer station is an inspiring reminder of man’s ability to generate electricity. Also I know I look sunburned but it’s not as bad as it seems and I am wearing a hat and sunscreen all day.

A pilgrim bath that was the first we’d seen that actually looked clean enough to put your feet in, even though we didn’t.

Authentically Spanish afternoon snack;-)

Sitting in a dirty bus stop watching trucks go past.

My hip pain came back a bit in the afternoon but only in short spurts. We had our worst walking right before our hotel in Ordes, right beside a highway with only a narrow strip and heaps of trucks. It was pretty grim but the trucks very kindly moved over as far as they could, probably cursing us all the while.

When we got into the town we stopped at a pharmacy to buy ibuprofen and more foot plasters.

The towns seems to have some interesting street art.

Our hotel with generic tortured trees. Why do they cut all the branches off?? It looks awful and there’s no shade.

We arrived about 4:30 and decided to relax and shower before seeing where to eat this evening and do some laundry. Exciting stuff!

Action shot of our pilgrim passports being stamped. I don’t think I’ve mentioned them before. You have to get at least two stamps a day to prove you’ve done at least 100 for a certificate at the cathedral. We keep changing our minds about whether we want the certificate or not.

My room has a bit of a weird smell but whatever.

We went out to do laundry and have dinner.

An entire meal of salad was very exciting.

I took a photo of this bin truck outside the restaurant where we had dinner to remind myself of all the trucks they drive through Ordes constantly. I’ve never seen so many trucks in a small town.

A note regarding yesterday’s post, we discovered the tiny sheds on stilts were actually for storing corn.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler and we are going to set off around 8am as the hotel breakfast is at 7:30. it’s another day that’s just under 20km. It’s worked out well they we arrive at our destination in time to shower, rest, then enjoy the evening somewhat. I can well imagine that doing this for weeks on end would result in much improved fitness. Im not sure I’ll see any benefit but it’s nice knowing we are succeeding at something that seemed quite daunting initially.

2May2023

Camino Ingles Day 3: Betanzos to Beche

by Miss Penny Black

I awoke this morning with some trepidation. I had woken up a few times during the night and in the morning my feet were a bit swollen. I rarely get blisters and my shoes were very well worn in so I don’t know why I had developed so many. On the plus side, they weren’t hurting much and I had plenty of plasters.

I spent quite a while stretching and then putting plasters on the tender parts of my feet. Everything seemed to be mostly ok.

After a breakfast of crushed tomatoes and olive oil on toast (just for something different) we sorted out our belongings then set off.

The Camino Ingles has two possible starting points that eventually join – like a ‘Y’ shape. We had started on the right fork of the route but, due to a lack of accommodation on that path, were planning on crossing early from one side to the other, before the two parts officially joined.

The route out of Betanzos was uphill for a couple of kilometres. I had contemplated catching a taxi to the top because of my hip pain but the stretching and sleep has possibly made a difference because up to the halfway point everything seemed to be ok.

The countryside was still very green and the undulations made it very scenic. I haven’t mentioned it before but from arriving in Ferrol we continually heard very loud booming sporadically during the day. It was still audible close to Betanzos so if anyone knows what it might be please comment!

Another feature of the walk has been these raised boxes/sheds. What are they for? I thought they might be pigeon cotes but some have crosses on them so I’m not sure.

We saw only a few other pairs and groups of people in the morning but stopped for lunch at a roadside bar.

We sat outside and had drinks then a family-looking group turned up, pulled out a guitar and started playing to the tables of people outside.

Danny was particularly loving the situation – in Ireland casual musical performances are very common and this part of Spain is very closely related to Ireland, being part of the Gaelic world. Locals we have met have been very pleased to meet Danny and find out he’s Irish. A couple of old men even took photos with us yesterday.

We decided to order food since the bar was so nice. The food took forever but the sandwiches were amazing when they arrived.

Being a public holiday most of the shops were shut and we had no idea what we would find for meals so being somewhere that was open was worth stopping for.

Everyone was loving it and then they stopped for lunch and another group of people came along with a piano accordion and did some more singing.

The lady with the accordion came over to talk to us and asked if there were any tunes we knew. Obviously at that point neither of us could think of the name of a single song so she said ‘Beatles!’ and played some Obla di obla da (is that what the song is called? You know the only I mean!).

The whole thing was a very quintessential Spanish experience but also felt like a pub session in Ireland. One of the old men asked Danny where we were from and when he said Ireland the man said ‘same same!’

I’m not sure, if I lived somewhere that had a constant stream of sweaty tourists, that I’d be quite as welcoming and friendly, but we’ve had a number of very charming interactions with locals and it’s really been the highlight of the walk so far. Well, that and the food and the scenery.

We sat for about two hours and had a delicious tortilla sandwich before moving on.

The parts of Galicia we walked through on this day were definitely more affluent than yesterday. The houses were in more subtle colours and everything looked neat and either historically old or new and fancy.

Most of today’s walk was along roadsides but, being a holiday, the roads were pretty quiet and it wasn’t too traumatic.

The last bit of walking was through a eucalyptus forest that felt like it was never going to end.

Eventually we made it to our accommodation, which turned out to be a stunning eco retreat cabin by a very popular dam and recreation area. Walking out of the forest to discover it was almost a religious experience.

It was really a cut above our previous, somewhat utilitarian, hotel in Betanzos.

The view from the front of the cabin is of the dam and people having picnics. Beside the cabin is a bar and restaurant but they closed at 5pm (not very Spanish hours but it is a public holiday) but I managed to snag a bottle of wine before they closed.

The wine was beautiful and local, there was also a bottle of red left for us in the cabin and Danny prefers red so that worked out well!

We had bought croissants and apples in Betanzos, knowing we might not see another open shop, so wine and croissants were our dinner.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 27 degrees so we plan to leave early and get most of our 17km done before lunch.

So far we have done over 70km, which is really good for us! I know some people manage much further in shorter times but we have stopped a lot, eaten great food and had great chats with people along the way.