My hotel offered a buffet breakfast at a nice pilgrim hour of 7am. I had a quick coffee and yogurt and took a sneaky sandwich to go. No time to waste today as it’s going to be a long day on the road. I was out the door at 7:24am into a day with mostly … Continue reading Day 20: Lago, 29.8 kms

The streets of Santiago were dead quiet when I left my pension at 7:15am this morning. It’s a cool, grey day with rain promised around noon so I didn’t want to start too late. I swung by the cathedral for a departing selfie and popped into the amazing Parador next to it for a Santiago … Continue reading Day 19: Negreira, 21.5 kms

My pension is near the cathedral and between 2 large churches of which I can see from the window of my 3rd floor room. A fantastic view, the downside being the chiming of the church bells all night long. Better than sleeping with snorers as at least I get 55 minutes sleep per hour! No … Continue reading Day 18: Santiago, Rest Day

Seventeenth day on the Camino Portuguese and I have about 17 kms left to walk! I feared I’d be walking along that busy N road outside my hotel but after just a short bit we swung off it, never to see it for the rest of the day. We dipped into a cold, dark forest … Continue reading Day 17: Santiago, 16.8 kms

Today started with a 28 kilometer boat ride!* I think they rationalize this modern transport as there’s a belief that the boat carrying the remains of St James traveled this way to Pontecesures/Padron so we are “remembering this journey” or so says the pamphlet. I’m excited about the trip as I love being on the … Continue reading Day 16: A Picaraña, 41.8 kms*

Today was the walk I was most looking forward to: La Ruta de la Piedra y del Agua (Route of Stone and Water). It’s really what makes the Espiritual Variente famous, 8 kms knobbly trail along a babbling creek with a dozen+ ruins of old watermills slowly being reclaimed by nature. I didn’t hit the … Continue reading Day 15: Vilanova de Arousa, 26.6 kms

No need of an alarm clock this morning! One of my roomies was kind enough to hit the snooze button 3x on her phone so I was well and truly awake at 6:15am again. No matter, had a great, uninterrupted sleep so was happy to start getting ready and out the door at my usual … Continue reading Day 14: Armenteira, 22.5 kms

We had a massive snorer in our little room last night. He was on the top bunk, his wife would occasionally wake him from below when he got too bad but I think she eventually gave up. It got worse as the morning approached so I finally got up at 6:15am, took everything out to … Continue reading Day 13: Pontevedra, 22.9 kms

I promised myself to take a day off walking once a week so as not to overdo it and invite further injury. Originally I had planned to take the bus from Ramallosa-Vigo (yesterday’s itinerary) because I had read that it was an awful slog into Vigo but I didn’t and to my pleasure, it wasn’t. … Continue reading Day 12: Redondela, Rest Day

I woke early again, 6:15am, and immediately checked the weather forecast on my phone which declared rain would start at 12:45pm so I decided if I started asap I could potentially get the whole stage done before it got wet. It was finally light enough to leave at 7am. The first few kms were along … Continue reading Day 11: Vigo, 22.8 kms