Yesterday was a horrible, no good, very bad day … we had to walk along beach after beautiful beach and enjoy endless sunshine here on the west coast of Spain. Tough, right?

We started what could be considered our fourth Camino yesterday, the Portuguese Way. We are not doing to full route which is from Lisbon to Santiago. But rather the costal portion only and in reverse. Walking from Vigo to Porto. As we get closer to Porto the weather will get warmer making our post Camino tourists days in Portugal that much better. We will be celebrating our Camino adventures with some days in Porto, Lagos and Lisbon before heading home to reality at the end of the month. Again, tough right?

The morning starting as usual – up around 7 and out the door of our home, Hotel Aquila, around 8. Leaving our extra duffel of the heavy stuff for transport. On this Camino we will be using Santiago Backpack Express and so far the owner of the company has just been so great helping is out!

Our Hotel was a real gem – super old but clean and had all the amazing original features. Check it out:

For breakfast we stopped at the Hotel Bafia Cafe right on the waterfront where the Camino begins. They didn’t really offer a hot breakfast but the waiter asked what we would want and said he could try and make it happen. He did! Cafe con leche; bacon and eggs and bread; and for breakfast dessert (yes that is a thing) chocolate and churros. This has been on my list to try while here in Spain – it’s a pretty standard breakfast here and I can see why. Delicious! Too much chocolate and not enough sugar and cinnamon, if you can believe that! I was pumped with sugar and ready to walk!

Oddly, once we did start out at around 10am, we couldn’t find any way markers for the route We decided we will just keep the water to our right side and stay as close to it as possible and eventually we will find the Camino arrows. We knew the little towns and milestones we needed to hit as per our very high level guide book, so that helped give us something to aim for. We are walking in reverse so do have to look back to find arrows and then do the opposite thing – but there was not an arrow to be found in The city of Vigo.

Our first hour was spent walking through the industrial, port area of Vigo which left much to be desired really. We powered through it as quick as we could to get it over with. Thumbs down for this section.

At about the 6th kilometer we came out of Vigo and into a little town called Bouzas and that is where the beauty of the Coastal route started to really show it self. Thumbs up!

Here are some highlights of our amazing, sunny, beachside or directly on the beach walk yesterday. I would say 15 of the 22kms was basically a dream!

We took a brief break mid-afternoon for some fruit and nuts from our pack. But by about 3pm a craving for a sea side cold one overcame us. You can only walk by that much beauty on your right and amazing cafes on your left before you give in to a ‘sit and sip by the sea’ moment.

That out of our system (for the day anyway), we made our way the final 4-5km into Nigran our new village for the night.

We are staying at the Albergue Pazo Pias which is an 1600s monastery of sorts refurbished into a type of hostel. Wow, amazing, maybe it’s haunted, how awesome, and cool! Check out the hallway and all me the first two words that come to mind? Starts with a colour and ends with an alcohol. Ha ha

We did our usual feet up for a bit and check in with the family on our safe arrival. Then out for a couple of drinks and some eats. Here in Spain during certain hours of the day, you get a wee tapa when you order a drink. Yesterday’s were super yummy!

We were back at the room for 900 to journal, social media and wind down for the night. Oh and full disclosure – this is a bit of a confessional. We were (ok I was) too hungry for the kitchens to open to get dinner. Here in Spain you cannot get a cooked meal between usually 3 and 8 sometimes even 9pm. The kitchen staff are off on siesta. So you either eat early or wait, which after walking all day can be tough to do. So we, no joke, had a pizza from Pizza Hut – yup Pizza Hut in Spain, first one we ever saw. It was so good! The crust and sauce are very different than home and way yummier (more fluffy and way more oregano and the cheese is so good). If it makes it any better, I did wash it down with a a Spanish red wine!?

Well that was yesterday and we loved it. Today we are up and at it for a 20km day walking from Nigran to Villadesuso. It is not as sunny today but this blondie is secretly happy for a little cloud cover once in a while (don’t tell Lana – she loves all out, hot hot hot sun).

Buen Camino!
Brande

PS We finally found some way marker arrows about 15km into our 22km day – let’s see if today is a little better!