CAMINHO PORTUGUÊS – Pontevedra
(48,501 STEPS – 37.27 KMS – 23.14 MILES)
A Note About Clothing
The gift of a comfortable hotel room didn’t turn out quite like I wanted. The hotel itself was comfortable and clean. My top-floor, private room was nice, even had a private terrace overlooking the rainy city. What it didn’t have was a way to do laundry. My clothes, the same set worn three wet days in a row, were dank. The others inside my pack were not much better off. When I looked at pictures of the hotel before I booked, I noticed a radiator heater in the bedroom and a heated towel-drying rack in the bathroom. With these, I could wash in the sink and dry on the heaters.
After the rainy walk in yesterday, the first thing I did upon entering the room was to turn on the heater. It didn’t work. No problem, the towel-drying rack in the bathroom was better suited anyway. I turned it on, it didn’t work. Plan C – empty my backpack of all contents and drape all my clothing (except one set for dinner*) on every available surface in the room. I put my soaked shoes, the most important item, optimistically on the towel-drying rack in case it decided to work.
My minimalist, hip hotel room looked like an explosion at a thrift store.
*Author’s note: There’s a full spectrum of pilgrim fashion on the Camino. From the color-coordinated, quick-dry, REI crowd on one end and the Franciscans in their brown wool robes on the other. Not being a slave to fashion, I fall somewhere in between. Two pairs of Patagonia hemp shorts, quick-drying and good for the environment. One pair of REI hiking shorts, quick drying with convenient zippered pockets. All my shorts were awesome, except for colors. I buy everything on closeout, which means the traditional hiking colors (khaki, black, charcoal gray) are long gone, mine are all a little brighter. I have one pair of khaki hiking pants for the cold, rainy days. For the upper body:
- Quick dry REI shirt (great for hiking, but again, an REI closeout special, very bright)
- A pearl-snap, western shirt from Tractor Supply (atypical Camino wear but quick-dry polyester and easy on/easy off with the pearl snaps)
- A tattered but comfy t-shirt from my favorite Brew Pub in Corpus Christi, Texas.
- A warm surfing hoodie I bought at a tourist stand in Nazaré. The weather on the Iberian Peninsula was cooler than expected. I keep this item dry at all costs.
The reason I go into such detail is for you to understand I can’t just wake up, throw on an outfit and walk out the door looking like an LL Bean model. Careful attention must be paid to color and pattern coordination, so I don’t look like a kindergartner dressed by his mom on the first day of school.
Nearness, again
Plan C for cleaning and drying my clothes didn’t work, so I stuffed all the swampy gear back into my backpack, chose the driest, best color-coordinated outfit I could, and then took the elevator down to the lobby. Today was going to be a long (over 20 miles) and smelly day, but fortunately, there was no rain in the forecast.
Coming out of the elevator, I caught two quick glimpses of the goodness of life! First, though it was early, the hotel’s breakfast bar was open! And two, my Austrian friend Rosa was sitting there having coffee! Doug and I had met her early on in Calvinos, walked with her for a few days, lost her in Coimbra, reconnected with her outside of Agueda, and then lost her again after that. She was the only remnant of those early days in Portugal. She introduced me to her new friend, Miguel, and we all enjoyed breakfast together.
Out of Vigo
After breakfast, we loaded up and walked out of the hotel together. I turned right, they turned left, asking:
“Where are you going?”
“The official path is along the coastline out of Vigo, and then up into the hills above. I’m going this way.”
“There’s another way out of town that’s easier, it’s this way.”
“That’s okay, I’m going along the coast. See you at the next coffee shop.”
The shoreline in Vigo, as are all shorelines in the world, are at sea level. The city of Vigo is built on the side of the mountains that tumble into the sea. I had forgotten that I had walked steep uphill streets to get to my hotel. I remembered as I walk these same streets down to the “official” path, wishing I wasn’t giving up the hard-earned elevation. I stubbornly walked at sea level according to plan.
A few kilometers through the city, the Way turns steeply uphill, so steep that even the cars whined and groaned as they slowly ascended. Not only was it steep, but it also carried on this way for a few kilometers. When I finally crested the last hill, I stopped for a quick look at Vigo far below. It was quite a view.
As I gazed and wheezed, Miguel (Rosa’s friend) strolled into view from the path they had taken. He was not wheezing. He and I walked the long stretch to Redondela together. I found him to be a kind and interesting guy – born in Portugal, university/marriage/career in Heidelberg, Germany, and retired in the mountains up the coast from Barcelona. As we walked, we caught up to the two Frenchmen of my recent past and walked with them. Michel and Gerard were very good guys, and we lamented that we had walked together so much yet had not interacted at all (except at the Intersection of Decision in Sabarís).
Lunch in Redondela
After the town-less, 13 kilometer stretch out of Vigo, we stopped for an early lunch in Redondela. There were two things of note at the café we stopped at:
- It was at the convergence of the Portugues Coastal and Central routes. The Central is the more common.
- We watched wave after wave of pilgrims coming into town from the Central path. Gone were our days of quiet isolation on the Coastline.
As we rested and ate, we were joined by my two Dutch friends that I hadn’t seen in days. Not longer after they sat down, Rosa ambled into town and she joined, too. It was a nice meal and the most socialization I’d had since the night of the leitões dinner in the suckling pig capital of Portugal, Sernadelo. A distant memory.
Ultreia et Suseia, farther on and up
My original plan was a long, 23-mile walk to Pontevedra today. During the good lunch, I learned that all my companions were stopping in Arcade, the normal ending of today’s stage. The temptation to stay at lunch with them and casually walk to the normal end was strong. But once again, I chose willful solitude, strapped on my pack, bid adieu to the crowd, and set out on the remaining 20 kilometers of my day.
The reason I chose to continue on the long way was that I still wanted to connect with the friend I was supposed to meet in Porto. He had lagged behind, then got ahead of me while he was on the Central, and I on the Coastal. If I had any hope of catching up, it would require a long day of walking. Today.
Pontevedra
I drudged into town in the mid-afternoon and found a fine albergue on the entry side of town, minimal effort on days like this is always good. The Albergue Aloxa* was another well-designed pilgrim refuge, but what attracted me most was their machine-washed laundry capability!
Apparently, this was a draw for all the other pilgrims, as well. There was a long line waiting for the machines.
Plan B – change into my cleanest, most minimal outfit possible and find a lavanderia. I found one a few blocks from the hostel, and there was a nearby kebab restaurant. Clean clothes and good food!
I stopped by the market on the way “home” for some fruit and IPAs. Then back at home, I settled into a corner in the common area and caught up with my journal.
*Author’s note: If you want a taste of albergue life, watch the YouTube video on Aloxa’s website, it’s the best representation I’ve seen.
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