Feb 2010 05
This morning we had someone take our picture in front of the Santiago Cathedral, at our third major milestone on our Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The first milestone was Woodstock and the second New York. The next will be Rome. So here we are at the cathedral six and a half years and more since we first visited on our separate pilgrimages.
Morning in Santiago.
A closer view.
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Feb 2010 04
The other day we had an extended and difficult encounter with a long section of path submerged in water. We ended up having to carry our backpacks on our back and our hand cart in our hands. We walked through the bushes beside the camino on a makeshift path created by necessity. At the end we sat resting on a stone watching a stream that was the seeming destination of all that water in the path.
I thought about the excess water we have been putting up with, all the rain that has been producing floods in Portugal and the rest of Europe. Then I had an Aha! Moment. I thought about old lessons and old tales that have told us to learn from Nature and the order in nature. But it doesn’t exist! It’s not there! Nature does most everything in excess. Too much! Too little! It rains till floods overflow rivers carrying the excess to the next river and the sea. Snow storms close down big sections of the country. Storms tear down trees and buildings. No rain and too much sun make deserts. Volcanoes and earthquakes devastate vast areas. Oh, there are some calm times, some ‘balanced’ days, but not that many. Trees produce thousands of more seeds than will ever produce trees. Animals and man produce huge quantities of seed, most which can and never will be used to father new animals or men. Nature’s norm is excess, not order. So all those old school things that told us to learn from nature turn out to be telling us to be a little excessive rather than orderly and conservative….
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Feb 2010 04
I just added a map of our route through Portugal to Santiago. You can see it on our Route East Graphics page. You can find it under the heading Actual Western Europe on that page after the planned route.
On Saturday we begin walking to Finisterra, five days to the Atlantic coast. When we return we will fly to Germany for Petra’s Mom’s birthday later in the month. After some time off we should be back on the road by mid-March. Or…
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Feb 2010 02
We made it to Santiago this evening! We have arrived at one of our milestone stops. The weather has been great for several days and the walking fine. Except for a few rough places with water and steep climbs and descents the path has been a joy. We also did our share of avioding some known heavy sections. Walking on the highways, though not the best, was also quite acceptable where we had to do so. More later.
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Jan 2010 27
One month after beginning our pilgrimage walk in Portugal we sit in Valencia ready to walk our of Portugal and into Spain. We left Lisbon on 27 December after resting ten days there.
Portugal has not been totally friendly. It has often been a test of our wills to continue. Rain, mud, water, cold hotel rooms, mildew permeated our passage north. Only in the past week has the sun forced its way through the clouds to give us a warmer welcome. We suffered various minor sicknesses and I thought of quitting after our first day of walking when the rain was so heavy and our hotel room was frigid and its ceramic walls were wet from condensation. So many hotel and pension rooms were unheated before we arrived and only heated with a space heater as we occupied them; they never really warmed up.
The cold and dampness taught us to go slowly and choose our steps well, to take our time, to rest, to take a bus or train now and then, to observe and walk with the weather. We have done so and now sit on the Spanish border. Like Missouri last June, Portugal has tested our wills to continue. We have passed the test and are moving forward. We feel great.
Even more than before, we walk in the Now. We appreciate Now. We celebrate each step and breath as if it were our firs–or last. Life is what we have No–not tomorrow, not yesterday.
Santiago is only a week to the north. Tomorrow we take our first steps that way. Here we come Spain.
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Jan 2010 25
Our alberge director last night advised us not to try the low-lying portions of the Camino today because they likely would have too much water for us to navigate with our cart. He told us about an alternate road path. We took it but decided to try the Camino early on only to get bogged down. Back to the road.
On N308, a lazy country road, we wound our way up into the mountains. When the path for switching back to the Camino came, we skipped it thinking it was too soon. After a while we realized our mistake but had come a couple kilometers beyond the branch. We opted to continue up our path. In the end we walked over a 400 or 500-meter (1200-1650 foot) pass with some wonderful views in the process. We ate lunch in a small restaurant with a broad panorama just below the pass.
The sun was bright and the wind cool and delightful. Water ran in the ditches everywhere.
Close to the end of the day we passed a goose chasing a pig across the field. For whatever reason he herded him into his home!
Today was indeed a delightful mistake.
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Jan 2010 24
We are six days out of Porto. They have been short days of 15 and less kilometers (9 mi). Until today most days have included a little rain here and there. But today was a gem. The sun was bright, the sky deep blue, and the wind light out of the north. And the forecast called for eight more like it this morning (haven’t checked yet tonight–it could be a lot different now).
The first two days out of Porto to Matosinhos and Vila do Conde we waked along the Atlantic Coast with its huge Pacific-like waves. Each night we returned by Metro to the Pensao Grande Hotel Paris, our hotel in Porto. It was a good place to stay and it relieved us of looking for a place to stay those nights. We just returned to the new starting point by Metro the next morning.
The next night we stayed in Sao Pedro de Rates at our first alberge (pilgrim’s hostel) here in Portugal. We met four other pilgrims, also our first on this walk in Portugal. Two were a couple from Brazil bicycling from Porto to Santiago. The other two were Koreans walking. The latter walked all the way from Porto when they couldn’t find the alberge in the last town. They arrived late in the middle of a downpour with neither umbrella nor rain cloths. They desperately banged on the door to be let in. They are 18 and 23, youngsters out for an adventure to find out what to do with their lives. They even had no map.
We went shopping at the store across the street Petra made a large pot of pasta in the kitchen. When the Brazilians arrived we shared it with them. They shared their wine and other food they bought at the store. As we finished the Koreans yelled at the door. We were out of food. But they went to the store also. We all had a fine evening talking before settling into our sleeping bags on beds in rooms with more than a little mildew created by the cold and damp Portuguese winter. A lot of other places suffer from the same problem including some hotels and pensions.
Last night we stayed in a private alberge, Casa Fernanda in Lugar do Cargo. Fernanda and her husband Jocanito were wonderful hosts. He cooked a fine chicken stew for dinner and served breakfast this morning. We really enjoyed our stay.
Today’s walk was a real joy even though we had to forgo walking a couple sections of the Camino due to mud and deteriorated surface (read: rocky, washout ruts). The weather was so clear we could see far in the distance and the road we ended up walking on was not overly heavy with traffic. And now we are in the alberge in Ponte de Lima, a wonderful little town on the Lima river. It was full of people walking around and enjoying the plazas and walking on the medieval and roman bridges over the river. And this is a wonderful, clean, new alberge–no heat but otherwise a delight to be in.
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Jan 2010 18
We arrived here in the late afternoon of 15 January by way of a curious route. We started out early enough. It was raining lightly with its consequent heavy overcast. We followed our yellow arrows faithfully for around an hour and then they disappeared. Well, we didn’t see them any more for a while. We missed one on some unknown corner. We asked a couple women for directions. “You have to go this way up to the National then turn left.”
the “National” (like a US highway: ex. US 30) is a highway with much traffic. We went that way but refused before getting there. We don’t like the traffic when there is an alternative. Deciding we could find our own way back to the arrows, we took a road to Sta. Maria do Feira, a town according to the guide, on the path.
After another hour we found ourselves at a bar (café) just outside Sta. Maria. By then we realized that the path was three kilometers (2 mi.) from Sta. Maria. The waiter spoke good English and gave us directions to get to Malaposta which was clearly on our path. I should have known from the name (”Malaposta”=”bad place”) it wasn’t going to be easy.
We lost ourselves in a coup-de-sac before 15 minutes. So we crossed a ditch and walked along the National for another kilometer or so—it does have a wide shoulder making the traffic somewhat tolerable. Finally we stopped an another bar and then a hotel to get more directions. In the hotel I realized we had walked the last kilometer southwest, the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. It is almost impossible to tell directions when the sun is not out and the roads are constantly turning. As you can guess by now we had no detailed map.
As we talked, I spotted the clock. It was 12:54. We had been walking for more than four hours and we were less than 4 kilometers along our way to our destination in Grijo, 20 kilometers from our start, still 14 km (8 mi) from Porto. We had been walking in circles.
As we came out of the hotel, Petra spotted a woman at a bus stop across the National, the opposite direction from where we were to go. She lead me over and asked her where a bus is going. “To Porto, express.” She says. The labyrinth we had been walking lead us here just in time for the next bus when the chances of making the original destination without a lot of effort were few. The rain and wind were once again heavy. We decided to celebrate my birthday and the first birthday of this pilgrimage in Porto instead of on the way walking there.
The bus came. We tied the cart in the baggage room under the seats. On the way to the autostrada we passed a sign, “O Porto 30 [kilometers - 19 mi, a long walking day.]” In an hour we were checked into the Quality Inn in Porto. We didn’t arrive walking, but in the way of our pilgrimage on this particular rainy day.
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Jan 2010 14
It seems that the last post was so big that it doesn’t allow comments. Thanks, Cork and Helga, for your emailed comments and for letting me know about the problem Anyone who wants to leave a comment for the last post can leave it here. Thanks for your patience. After working more than 30 years with computers I know there is always some way around their shortcomings.
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Jan 2010 12
[We are in Oliveira de Azemeis today as we wait out rain and get our cart fixed: it broke an axle. I have often told of things in broad generalizations. Today I want to give you a verbal snapshot of the evening two nights along our walk through Portugal.]
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