Thought I would provide a quick trip report now that we are back. We ended up walking the Camino Portugues from Porto, Portugal to the cathedral in Santiago de Compestela, Spain. 150.3 miles in 9 days. Ideally, we would have liked to have taken an easier pace, and a rest day in the middle, but due to my work schedule we had to push pretty hard. (The girl in the pics is my sister)
Flew into Madrid, and then a quick flight over to Porto. It's a beautiful city. Took a few port wine tours and then began the walk the next morning.
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You just follow the yellow arrows. Pretty easy. If you have walked more than 5 minutes without a yellow arrow you are off the path. I think we only had to back track once.
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The path takes all different forms. Sometimes on a highway. Sometimes through the middle of fields. The cobblestone roads in the pic below are brutal on your feet after 5-6 hours of walking.
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Grape orchards everywhere. Almost every house out in the country made their own wine. In the smaller towns you could buy some of the larger operations wine in milk jugs. Funny story about this picture is about 2 minutes after I took there was about a 5 foot snake laying on top of the wall on the left. We both scared the crap out of each other.
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We crossed several mid-evil era bridges. I took a swim in this river because the day was hot, but the water was too cold to stay in for more than a few minutes.
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Barcelo, Portugal. Watched the Portugal Euro cup match at a sports bar on the bank. Reynaldo choked
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We typically ran into 3-4 drinking fountains a day with which to fill your water bottle with. Water was delicious and ice cold.
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We stayed in Algergues most nights. Very much like a hostel. You meet very interesting people, but ear plugs are required as there is always a snorer in the bunch.
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Most albergues had a social area to sit and have drinks at the end of the day. Beer was typically 1 euro, and wine was normally 5 euro a bottle. In this pic, my sister (middle), a guy from Tokyo on the top right, guy on the lower right was from Australia, and the legs on the left was a lady from Holland. By the end of the night there were normally quite a few toasty people. However, because everyone was so exhausted from walking, and everyone got up early to beat the heat, nights rarely lasted past 11pm.
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The walk into Ponte de Lima, Portugal
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Crossing the river. There was no shortage of churches
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Pretty tough climb one day. Has about 2 hours of climbing this hill. All in all, the trail was relatively flat.
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Walking under the grape vine
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Someone made faces in the moss on the trees
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These two women biked the trail. They had a trailer with their two jack russels.
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Upon reaching the cathedral in Santiago de Compestela, most pilgrims just sat or laid down for a while. It was a strange mix of excitement to reach the finish, and sadness that it was over.
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The Santiago de Compestela
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For anyone who has seen The Way, here is the swinging incense ball. It's called a botafumeiro, and the original purpose was to fumigate the pilgrims because of the stink and the bugs they carried.
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Just a couple of pilgrims walking down the trail
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It was a pretty amazing trip. If anyone has any questions or is thinking about doing the walk, feel free to ask.
