A Ponte (Pontevedra)
I am now 3 days away from Santiago, to the south with my amigo peregrino suizo Jonas. We follow the 'camino portugues' (= the Portuguese road of St. James) in the opposite direction, downwards. It is more difficult than normal, because the yellow arrows are pointed at the other way towards Santiago, so it is now and then searching. Occasionally there is a blue arrow that points in the direction of Fatima (also a place of pilgrimage, but in Portugal, between Lisbon and Oporto).
me and a blue arrow/
There are several roads of St. James in Portugal, we are planning to follow the route that goes through Ponte de Lima, Barcelos, Porto, Lisbon and Fatima. In Lisbon we go to the right, and follow a route more inland, on the Alentejo to Évora. For me this will be also new because the new route I hiked in 2005 (vice versa) was from the north to the south along the Atlantic coast.
camino portugues
The camino portugues is very cool, you see many traces of the old pilgrims, we actually walk the whole time on an old Roman via nr. XIX that connected Braga through Iria Flavia, Lugo with Asturica (Astorga).
Via romana XIX
This illustrious 'via' has almost completely disappeared because those Spanish morons have put their 'nacionals' on it (= tar roads with heavy traffic + homies who all think they are the F1 driver Fernando Alonso). Very occasionally you still see pieces of old Calzada Romana ', awesome!
´via XIX´
... Iria Flavia, Padrón, an important place in the myth around the saint James/,
What is also nice is that there hot water wells here. At Caldas de Reis you first cross an impressive reconstructed Roman bridge, and then you have such a hot spring, unfortunately you can ly in it, but a tired pilgrim can take a footbath. First it is brutally hot, but then very pleasant.
... me on a roman bridge (Caldas das Reis)/
... Caldas das Reis, hot water well/
After Caldas das Reis on the road to Pontevedra we passed a fountain from which came out a kind of warm mineral water. Funny was that a Gallego came out of his house, saying to me: "vies weer man!" (It was raining, but he said it in Dutch. He had 17 years worked in Holanda and had had a good time over there ).
... me in my extreme sexy poncho, at a mineral water fontaine/
... countryside near Padron/
... countryside between Caldas en Pontevedra/
The albergues on the camino portugues are practically empty. Last night when I played my divine flamenco music I had one fan, a gringo from New York who had started hiking in Barcelona and recognized what I played.
albergue Padrón
Monasterio, Padrón
... market, Padron/
Yesterday we met several groups (it was weekend, the majority of those groups is touregrino / pilgrim-tourist), many Portuguese. That alone makes it highly motivating to go to the south to Portugal! Plus the fact that the weather kinda sucks although it is not cold, the temperature fluctuates between 14 and 19 degrees Celsius, very different from the weather in the Netherlands where at this time of the year it is so cold with this cutting-like-a-knife-wind that you do not have here hamdoelila`h!.
In Santiago is a nice pilgrim museum, "the museo Peregrino `` that gives you a good background of the pilgrimage in general, not only the pilgrimage to Santiago but also other places of pilgrimage in the world, including from other religions, such as Tao'isme, Buddhism and sacred places in India but also in North America, South America. There was information about the 'Shikoku Henro`, the route of the 88 temples.
Shikoku Henro
Of course, the focus was on the Camino de Santiago. To be seen was a funny painting of a dragon (?) Allthough no further explanation was given.
... a painting of a little dragon (on the drink becket/
little dragon
What I also found fascinating where the various diaries written over the centuries, for example the one of an Italian pilgrim of the 17th century, a German of the 15th century, and of course the most famous of all: the "Codex Calixtinus" written by Aimery Picaud from the Xe century!
Codex Calixtinus
... Arabic pilgrim diary/
What is also funny is that one of those guys from the 17th century has added sketches to his diary that give you a good idea how they dressed at that time, what shoes they wore, what difficulties they encountered on their way (like a pilgrim with his stick who chases a bandit away), and how the environment at that time must have been look like.
... a pilgrim against a bandit/
... Pilgrim, 18th century, watch the shell, stick, calebas/
... Pilgrim, 17th century/
... lady offering food to a pilgrim, Pontevedra albergue/
Camino Portugués, albergue Pontevedra
Also shows such a diary from the past that the priorities of an old pilgrim (sleeping, eating, sleeping, snoring fellow pilgrims in the dormitory, taking the easiest route, diseases etc.) are not essentially different from what a modern hardened pilgrim encounters on his / her way (I'm not talking about the "pilgrim-tourists" who at a setback call a cab, sleap in hotels or let their backpack carry/ transport by third parties because they are too lame to carry their own backpack, a practice that you unfortunately see too often nowadays).
... `Pilgrims` that let transport their backpacks with a van .. caught!/
... sleeping dorm, Samos/
This was kinda funny: japanese monks had at the beginning of the camino Frances woven reed sandals on which they hiked the 750 km to Santiago.
.. Japanese straw sandals /
Tomorrow a very nice stage, to Redondela, along the `ria de Vigo`. A 'ria' is a cove, it looks a bit like a Norwegian fjord, and is (if I understand it correctly) the point where river and sea meet.
Ria de Vigo
At Ponte Sampao is an impressious huge Roman bridge with a beach, in the summer you can swim there!.
... before Ponte Sampao/
Ponte Sampao
A lot of history can be found here, an important Roman bridge on the Via XIX , in 1808 a battle between Napoleon troops and Galician militia troops in the "guerra de Independencia" (war for independence ) that was lost by the French. Here they are quite proud of it, because they have put a sign that tells the heroic deeds of the Galician brothers in 5 (!) languages: Spanish, English, French, Gallego and German.
Ria de Vigo
Antes Redondela
Especially the watermanagement of those guys here is great: if it rains a bit like today, the road becomes a river. Above you see the water on all sides coming from the estate on the road . For a a simple pilgrim that wants to keep his feet dry and hikes on sandals it is then quite difficult to achieve that. The shadow above is not a figure who salutes but me taking a picture :)
Albergue Redondela
The albergues on the camino portugues are really great, they are all monumental buildings, spacious (not like the barracks on the camino frances, where everyone is stacked together in a cramped dormitory). The albergue above contains a library, kitchen, and dates from the 17th century. At the moment there are about 10 peregrinos in the albergue, not bad right?
... Santiago the Moor-killer, Santiago church, Redondela/
The last picture shows a "Santiago Matamoros" (a Saint James- killing- Moors trying to suppress those damned Arabs). I think he is not really succeeding because those guys with their turbans are grinning like crazy, haha.
Mañana Tui! La frontera pues! (= finally the border), Ich bin gespannt! (I`m excited!) At the other side of the river `Miño', the fortress town of Valenca, with their guns aimed at Spain. The cathedral of Tui must be very beautiful, Gothic, such as the Chartres Cathedral in France ...
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Did it occur to you that some people are just not physically able to carry their own luggage.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI think everybody who walks the camino has the right to do it in his/her own way. That s why
it is called the Camino.