Tourists Dressed as Pilgrims

September 21, 2017March 11, 2018 / runningforthegate / Leave a comment

Well yesterday was a tourist day! While we still had the pilgrim shuffle, clothes and packs; we decided to take the day and be tourists.

We didn’t get to see any of Viana de Costa after coming in so late and tired the day prior. Sad thing. We had heard from many pilgrims that it is one of the nicest cities on the Portuguese Coastal Route. So we decided to strap our hiking shoes to our packs and instead venture around the city of Viana in sandals before making our way by bus to Esponsende. Our new home for the night and the start of today’s walk.

Wow are we sure glad we did!

Our day started with breakfast and a reminder of how wonderful the people of Portugal are. We were invited into this tiny cafe by the most sweet little old grandma for breakfast. They really only eat pastries for breakfast here and we were looking for something beyond a sweet. She personally made us coffee and a ham and cheese bun sandwich (so fresh and good) and then also gave us some traditional pastries to try as dessert. Ironically she gave the very pastry we were talking about wanting to try just minutes before. Custard / creek brûlée in a puffy yet chewy pastry shell. Mmm We were the only ones in the cafe and she was so sweet!

Next, we took the cool little elevator trolley car thing up the huge hill in the middle of the city center to see the city from and coast line from a birds eye view and check out this massive church.

Funny as we made our way up in a normal elevator to get to the street that has this trolley elevator an old wee man joined us. He simply rode up with us to ask if we are pilgrims,how far we are walking, where we are from, etc. we assumed he was just in the elevator by chance. Nope when we got off he took it back down and wished is a good journey. He simply wanted to know more about us and say good luck.

The church at the top was a temple and monument to Santa Luzia and it was very impressive! We could see it for a long long time in the distance as we walked into Viana the day prior, so it was neat to check it out!

Before we went into the church, Lana was held up by some wee grandma who was rubbing her arm talking about the Camino and pilgrim and her poor feet. All in Portuguese so only a few words were understood.

Next we ventured though the small, winding, character streets of the city center that have all these little shops and cafes, amazing tiles and iron work, and just feel so different than our streets back home in Canada.

We enjoyed a super yummy lunch sitting at a wee baby table on one of these side streets. We don’t understand all the words on a menu so find something we think we know and get that. Today we got ‘pork meat’ and it came with salad and chips and rice and a bun. I appreciate how seriously these great people take their carbs and starches!

Then made our way to the bus station behind the below gorgeous old train station for a 3pm bus to Esponsende. Prior to boarding the bus, the very nice man who gave us the bus timetable earlier that day came to the platform to confirm for us that we were getting on the right bus!

By 4pm we were in our new city of Esponsende checking into the really great Hostel Eleven.

We dropped our packs, checked in with the family on our arrival then headed out to see what this city has to offer.

Before leaving we asked the hostel guy to help us arrange bag transport for us, from Esponsende to Vila do Conde. It’s been tough every day to get someone to move our extra bag. Yesterday we couldn’t final a single company or person willing which was a big part of our decision not to walk. Well Hostel Elevan was amazing and they worked our a deal with a local transport company to move our pack for us as an exception to the services they provide for just 10 euros. Deal. What was so easy to arrange on the St James Camino is a real struggle here on the Portugal Coastal away, especially walking backwards!

That done and dealt with, we ventured out into the central city of Esponsende.

We wrapped our day up with some red wine and homemade pasta in our hostel kitchen. I hate cooking usually but when you have been eating out all meals on most days it feels so good to prepare what you eat! Also all this for 7 Euros plus an apple and cookies for a trail side snack tomorrow is a price we can’t resist!

By the way – that big plate of cheese and bread and chorizo isn to make sandwiches for it walk today.

Just prior to making this meal, we saw the three pilgrims we crossed the ferry into Caminha with a couple days again show up in a taxi. We weren’t the only ones who suffered the day before and had to skip some or all of yesterday’s walk as a result. Ouch!

We are heading out now to walk 25km to our next home, Vila do Conde.

Buen Camino!
Brande

Finding Viana de Costelo

September 20, 2017March 11, 2018 / runningforthegate / Leave a comment

Yesterday was a tough day on the Camino Portuguese Coastal Route. Perhaps tough is not a strong enough word to be honest. Many challenges for the patience, a happy outlook, desire to keep walking, find the way, and overall for the body!

We started the day without any idea of how we would get our extra bag forward to Viana de Costelo our new home for the night. Sending ahead our heaviest stuff had turned the days into walks from slogs on the uphill, hard downhill and rough terrain. Further it had made a huge difference in the what could have been a Camino ending blister situation for Lana. So we were keen to keep what was working for us, working for us!

Santiago Backpacker Express advised late the evening prior they couldn’t find anyone at all to move our bag and had been trying all avenues, all day. They suggested we ask reception in our hostel. So we did but the guy was new and didn’t know about transport. He said I could ask the guy that comes on at midnight. Well I haven’t seen midnight for weeks so I though I could just ask in the morning. Oops. In the morning no one spoke any English and we couldn’t communicate effectively in my bare minimum unpracticed Portuguese. So we instead went to Tourist Info when it opened. Turns out they can not help at all with Camino stuff (very different than our experience in Spain) and suggested a travel agency. If we couldn’t get help at the agency, we were staring down the barrel of a 30 Euro taxi for our bag.

Well the Camino provides again! We walked across to the travel agent. Turns out that guy has a friend who could help – he called the friend right then and there, and made arrangements for us for 7 Euros. He actually asked if 7 Euros was ok as if it was too steep – we were like totally ok! We had been paying 15-20 Euros each day since the Portuguese route began. In Spain it was only 3 or 4 Euros so this was requiring some budget adjustment.

With a bounce in our step, we returned to our home Arca Nova to pack and mark the transport bag then get going on our 30km route to Viana. The friend would pick it up from Arca Novel Hostel and deliver it to our new home Zimbrio Guest House. Yahoo!

The day started out great. We had a good idea of where the path was and the guide book we had seemed it might be relatively helpful this morning. This sadly has not really been the case on this Camino, especially following it backwards. We are walking away from Santiago not to it as most pilgrims do and the guidebook and way markers are designed for walking to Santiago.

We had to largely guessing how to make it through the above forest path due to some really confusing way markers and no clear path. The pine needles cover any path that might have been obvious but they are so spongey and nice walk on you forgive them. Well this ‘largely guessing’ concept became the theme of the walk from there on in …. mixed in with very few but welcome moments of path clarity.

Soon, fog rolled in big style and for the following few hours we couldn’t see far enough ahead to know what we were aiming for, see any markers, sometimes see any humans at all. Further they were doing these what will be updates to the waterfront infrastructure – and seems they may have been replacing many of the posts and structures that used to have way markers!

At many points we had to simply walk the beach and search for the next place we could get on solid ground, beach boardwalk, or even some kind of path. What’s the problem, that sounds glorious right? The idea is better than the reality. The sand here is thick, thick, thick. Every step was tough especially in shoes (which you have to keep on as you have blister bandaids on your feet) and with a pack of 15lbs or so. We didn’t have any water fill up opportunities yesterday so we were carrying the max we could – that means heavy.

Add to the fact that you had no idea if you were walking to something or would have to turn back and Retrace those hard earned steps. It was beautiful in an eerie, desolate way to be honest but starting to get on our confidence. You couldn’t see the water most of the time, just hear it crashing.

(I have a short video up on my Instagram account @brandedavison if you want to see the fog and water as we saw it.)

After a couple hours of this pea soup, guessing game intermixed with some weird forest paths which maybe weren’t even paths of the Camino but rather some random dirt roads filled with flies buzzing about and all over our faces – we were done. We headed absolutely perpendicular from the beach inland to just find a damn road to walk on. Done! Done! Done!

Well again the Camino provides. As we were walking away from the coast walk to find a new way, we came across some very old markers and again found our Way. No joke! And the fog started to clear making it possible to see the ocean and find the next marker with a heck of a lot more ease.

Our afternoon ….

Wow what a night and day difference or should I say morning and afternoon difference!

At about the 30km mark we came into Viana waterfront area. We were up against the clock a little now as we needed to meet the reception person at our place to stay at 5pm and it was after 4. We still had 3+ km to cover, hadn’t seen a way marker in ages and again the map in the guidebook was not helpful. We thought we could cover the distance in the time and set out following the coast as best as the book suggested. Well turns out we walked a dead end, break water. There is another 2+km we didn’t need to walk. Doh!

So back to where we first came into Viana, a quick call to the reception lady to say we would be a little late, and we literally followed Apple Map Directions to find our home for the night. Still a couple of kilometers away but that’s nothing compared to the 30+ we clocked already. Also, who cares if I was eating our international data plan up to use Maps – we needed to get there before the smiles on our faces were totally gone for the day!

We got close. I ended up having to ask a wee grandpa for help. Now here is amazing …instead of giving us directions, he closed his shop (literally locked the front door) and walked us the block to the Zimborio Guest House. Wow! He did make a comment about it taking more time to explain the directions than to walk us. Ha ha. Maybe it was my Portuguese or maybe he sensed we had been directionally challenged all day!?

Finally in our new home for the night, we were greeted by the most lovely lady and shown around. There were other rooms for rent but no one else had rented – so we had this amazing little home to ourselves for the night! It was across from cafes and a plaza and more. Also within 20mins of arriving the ‘friend of the travel agent’ dropped off or bag so we got to thank him personally for the favour.

We took a couple hours to have showers, put our aching feet up, enjoy not having to walk or be lost, and overall recover from a tough day physically and mentally.

We then headed out to grab some much needed eats (we didn’t have lunch today – just an apple and some candy as we walked). Directly across the wee skinny European style street from us we found Caffe Liz which had amazing wine and sangria and these so tasty open toasted sandwiches and fries. Wow!!

An awesome finish to a hard won day! We talked though the challenges of the day with some laughs and the start of being able to laugh at what a gong show it was.

Now what do we do today after yesterday’s challenges? So we walk the 24km that is all inland and not on the coast at all to Esponsende our next destination? Or give these feet and our brains a break and enjoy this amazing Viana city we didn’t even get to see yesterday and then bus to Esponsende? Hmmm

Buen Camino!
Brande

Portuguese Camino now in Portugal

September 19, 2017March 11, 2018 / runningforthegate / 2 Comments

We are officially, for real, finally, super excited to now be in Portugal! We walked from Villadesuso to A Guarda and then we hopped a ferry to Caminha, the port city of Portugal.

We arrived yesterday after a 20km walk on mostly amazing trails or forest tracks along the coast line. Only a few kms on the highway path overall, an awesome change from the day prior. Here are some highlights:

We powered through the day in hours – likely because of our lazy, more than one coffee, amazing breakfast that was included in our hotel room cost the night prior.

We have been at this ‘walking / pilgrimage’ thing now for a while and 20km is peanuts to these legs and feet! So much so our pilgrimage spirt animal the snail may now just be an ironic mascot. Nonetheless, he was out cheering us on big time yesterday!

We hit A Guarda in about 3hours. Once there, we decided to head straight for the ferry port to meet our water taxi when he arrived in a couple hours. We were sure there was a pub or cafe at the port and we had pre-made some yummy cheese sandwiches (mine where cheese and jam) for our lunch. While walking though town we snapped a few pics of the good stuff. The first pic below is their public library – wow!

Our plan to go to Caminha, Portugal on a Monday was rather not well timed. Turns out the only day the ferry between A Guarda in Spain and Caminha in Portugal does NOT run is Mondays. Come on! What are the chances!

So the night prior I had posted a plea on a Camino de Santiago form I belong to on Facebook called Camigas. Basically women helping other women plan, pack, walk, and reminisce about their pilgrimages. Within minutes of posting ‘help’, I had a host of replies from these awesome ladies. One even had a picture of a poster from an Albergue that advertised who you could call if the ferry was not running to get a water taxi of sorts.

So I called some guy named Mario in Caminha who had a boat and arranged for a 4pm pick up by his brother, in a red boat, from the dock A Guarda where the ferry usually is. I think I did anyway. He spoke Portuguese. I have learned only the most basic Portuguese which does not include arranging nautical transport to another country. We both spoke only some Spanish. Disaster! Well turns out the plan with Mario was doomed from the get go – Portugal is an hour earlier than we were in Spain. Oops, who knew! So did we arrange for his 4pm or my 4pm?

Down at the dock hoping for the best and that Mario would show up – especially after we came across three other pilgrims who also didn’t know the ferry does not run on Monday’s and needed to cross and invited them with us and Mario’s brother. A troop of cyclists (pedal bike) from a tourist group showed up. A whole host of them, like 25-30 bikes. Turns out they rented the ferry to cross and we could join them if the ferry people agreed. What!? Yahoo!

So we boarded the ferry with the tour group and paid just 1 Euro to cross each. Mario’s brother was charging us 5 Euros each. We were not the only ones to hitch a ride either – the other three pilgrim’s did and a few cars drove on as well. Hilarious! How do you even go about renting a ferry in the first place!? One of the phrases you hear a lot on the Camino is ‘the Camino provides’ … it sure does!

I called Mario once onboard and let him know (I think) that we don’t need him, don’t need boat, have boat, but thank you. Hopefully he got the message and didn’t come across for us. I had talked to the women who works at the bar by the ferry station and she knew Mario. She would have seen us board and maybe called him too. What a place!

Good bye Spain, we had fun:

Hello Portugal, so excited to meet you:

Once docked and we had walked the few short blocks into the old city center we were in love with Portugal! The houses were that classic European style all close together with amazing doors and instead of paint, most homes were tiled on the outside. Amazing. We went crazy photographing the houses, the tile, the doors!

We settled into our new home for the night Arca Nova, did some laundry (you do this a lot when you only have a few items each) and then ventured the town for the evening! We enjoyed those sandwiches we had made for lunch for dinner instead.