The morning walk was a gentle affair through shady forests along dirt tracks and winding country roads. The sun was shining and as usual I walked in shorts – I love winter in Spain, or is it Spring? March has arrived. The flowers along the way, and the calves and lambs and excitable kid goats suggest Spring, but the sun is Summer and kicking through the crisp, golden leaves is distinctly Autumnal – I seem to have the best of all Seasons!
I met up with the girls (Anna and Lucille) and the older German man, Wolfram, who we met yesterday, at a cafe about 4.5km in and stopped for a coffee and our last experience of the famous Portuguese bacalao! Then off we all headed at our different speeds, on through the countryside, past hamlets and through forests. Anna and I found each other for lunch,spotting a little bench on the side of a country road.
Today we would hit Spain! I am excited to be back in the world of tortilla stops and happy to say farewell to the tosta misto. I love Spain and want to get practising my Spanish again! We arrived in to the last town in Portugal, Valenca, and a young Austrian called David joined us. He had walked from Porto and was on his 3rd day! We have walked from Porto and we are on our 8th day! David must be mega fast!! I suspect we will never see him again!
Valenca is impressive with it’s ancient city walls and stunning views out to the hills and campo.
Soon we see the bridge that will lead us to Spain and the city of Tui! Crossing it is a little scary – seeing the huge drop down in to the swirling river to one side and the road for the cars to the other.
The small winding streets lead us up to Tui Cathedral and a celebratory vino tinto on the plaza where we are reunited with Lucille.
David is on a tight budget and heads to the public albergue just below the Cathedral and we head to a very cute looking hostel called Santo Domingo. I know from walking the Camino Frances that municipal albergues in Galicia generally have kitchens that are all but useless as they contain not one single piece of equipment, not even a spork! We have been carrying pasta, courgettes and onions between us since the day we did our shopping but were invited for rice marinara with our Portuguese friends, and so we are determined to find a kitchen and Santo Domingo has one, with actual pans and all that malarkey! The municipal albergues are just 6 euros a bed and the privates around here around 12 euros but we figure it works out similar when you consider you can cook there. Anyways, we go down and down the many old city steps to find Santo Domingo is closed, reopening tomorrow for the season, and so we limp up and up the old city steps and back to the Cathedral. Anna and Lucille decide to try a funky hostel close by called Idea Hostel but as it doesn’t have a kitchen anyway I decide to save my money and head to the public one which is predictably dull and minimal inside with plastic coated mattresses and a depressing lounge area with a few plastic seats…
On the plus side it’s in a great location right next to the Cathedral, there’s not many people there, there’s good internet, it’s heated and the showers are decent and warm, (the girl’s showers are communal but I’m the only one there so it’s just a super, big shower!) On the negative side, I learn I have to be in at 9pm and as we have gone forward an hour on arriving in Spain it is almost 8pm now! I scurry to the supermarket and grab some very unhealthy chicken pasties and eat them in my depressing lounge. Anna and Lucille message to say their hostel is great and DOES have a kitchen! Grrrrrrr. All my fellow pilgrims are in bed and it’s only 9pm! I do my blog until all the lights in the whole ancient place suddenly go off -they must be automatic. It is about 11pm. I am alone, in the dark, and forced to head up to bed…
Camino Tribe 