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Published: November 22nd 2017
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The Fishing Beach Monday, November 13, 2017, Sardines and Friends, Povoa do Varzim, 22 km. A beautiful day today, much less wind, with most of our walking along boardwalks right next to the ocean. We are getting more "Bom Caminhos" - there seems to be more recognition of what the Camino is than there was south of Porto. We met a pilgrim from Germany walking with her 5 year old daughter. She's a professional photographer and is collecting photos and stories from fellow pilgrims. She took several pictures of us and asked us a bunch of questions for a photo story she's doing. We're in an interesting and funky hostel tonight called Sardines and Friends. It's a family room. We're in twin beds next to each other plus there are 3 bunks, but nice sheets and pillows and thick mattresses and a private bath. We have the place to ourselves all for 25 euros. There's a casino here built in the 30s where we were told we could get a meal. We were definitely out of place and made a quick exit. It's not like Las Vegas!
Tuesday, November 14, 2017, Hotel Mira Rio, Esposende, 19km. It's hard to believe it's been a
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Boardwalk month since we flew out of Austin and that we'll be in Spain by Friday. We walked out of Povoa do Vazim along the ocean on wide walkways and then onto boardwalks. The route headed inland, and then at some point first the yellow arrows lied and then our GPS when we tried to correct. Instead of the Litoral Route (which mostly hugs the coast) we wound up on the deceptively named Coastal Route. Oh well. It was going to the same place we were headed. After heading inland we passed kilometer after kilometer of greenhouses and fields planted in vegetables, and of course, being gardeners, we had to stop and check each one out. The only other pilgrim we saw today was from Germany and he was walking the Coastal Route. At one point we even had an official Camino detour (road out, we learned) which added to our time. Approaching Esposende we walked through forests again and across yet another long scary bridge. We're in a warm comfortable place. They packed us a breakfast to take with us in the morning.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017, Hospedaria Senhora do Carmo, Viana do Castelo, 23 km. + 8 by P1000537
Sardines and Friends taxi. We have a GPS trace we downloaded of the Litoral Route the follows the coast. Our Brierley maps showed the Litoral cutting inland, but we like walking along the coast and decided to be adventurous and follow the GPS trace. We walked along some roads near the beaches and then the trace ventured onto the beach through the sand, and then turned across what looked like a road through a field (we verified with Google Earth). In reality, no road, so we trudged across the overgrown cabbage field, surprising a few workers there and made out way back to the beach through the sand again. It's not fun walking through the sand carrying a backpack so we gave up on our adventure and made our way over to the hilly Coastal Route. By this time we had wasted most of the morning and still had nearly 18 kms. to go. Whoever laid out this part of the Coastal Route seems to have deliberately avoided any town that might have something to eat. The path zig-zagged through the hills, sometimes going in the opposite direction. We did go through some lovely sections, a narrow but rocky path through the woods
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View along the coast and along a river, but by 4:00 we still had 8 kms to go to Viana. At the rate we were going it would be 6:00 by the time we got there. Yes we're slow, and the hilly rocky trails were slowing us down even more. We came to a break in the woods, spotted a taxi and went for it. As we were driven into Viana do Castelo I was happy we had avoided yet another long bridge across the very wide river. He dropped us off at the wrong place (a similarly named albergue), so we had another 2 kms to walk to find it. We're have a small but good value room. Happily, we got our clothes washed and had a good huge dinner (we hadn't had any lunch). Hope our clothes are dry by the morning.
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