Thomas journals

  We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river.  At one point it served as a customs house.  The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland.  We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2.  Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore.  They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat! 

  I had a fu n serendipitous occasion   yesterday -- I chanced to buy a different newspaper on Monday, and in that paper a small article caught my eye: "European Championship of Sushi tomorrow at Quinta do Jordão" ... I had never heard of either, but I looked up the Quinta, and just see a simple webpage advertising a wedding venue.  hmm. I was free yesterday afternoon and not far from the Quinta, so I took a couple of bus rides and a 10-minute google-maps-directed walk to find a small dirt road with a small sign to the Quinta (it's in the middle of the city!).  No human being in sight.  I walk several minutes down this narrow dirt road which then opens up to a rough garden area, then a large dirt parking lot filled with cars.  Still no people in sight.  I walk through the parking lot, up into a manicured garden, down an allée, finally see a large tent with some guys hanging out at the entrance.  Nobody pays attention to me.  I walk in to find...

 Every few days I download the podcast from Radio France International, their daily news in Français facile ...easier in that they speak more slowly and clearly.  It's my way of keeping some ability in the language, and keeping in touch with that world.  Indeed.  Today as I walked home from the nearby Reservatório Museum (closed--they're on strike!), I heard the RFI report about the newly-released book of Astérix & Obélix, the famous comic-book characters of ancient Gaul.  The new book is titled Astérix en Lusitanie -- the Roman name for Portugal!   And, my walk home would pass by our neighborhood French bookstore, Ma Petite Librairie (really geared to children's books).  And indeed they had the new book prominently displayed, so I had to go in and purchase it, and then read it, cover-to-cover.  Great practice, and great fun as it plays with the language and the stereotypical Portuguese -- and French, and Roman -- characteristics, using th...

  Monday the 6th of October: we all gathered in the lobby of the B&B Hotel Milladoiro for our final 7km walk to the Cathedral.  Down hill through a beautiful woodland, then along asphalt side roads under and over highways, through the suburbs – when faced with an alternate (more level, less built–up) route, we chose the shorter route through the city streets.  Father Colin split off at one point because his lodging was booked nearby and he wanted to drop off his backpack there.  The remaining five of us soldiered on, occasionally wondering about this turn or that turn; but by this time the cathedral was generally in sight.  We chose less-trafficked streets, along old colonnaded market roads, to the grand plaza of the cathedral where we posed for the requisite celebratory selfie photos; then we sought the Pilgrim Office.  Wandering around trying to follow obscure GPS directions, we finally found it and waited in the blessedly-short queues to get our off...

  October 5th we met at 9am, walked an hour for breakfast at Hotel Ascot, along the road.  Then a long varied hike, beautiful sunny weather with birdsong, heavy dew, many pilgrims on foot and on bicycles.  Really varied trail, with many forks in the road. We stopped at Casa dos Amigos for coffee and croissant, but they had no wi-fi!   The remainder of the walk seemed even longer, as our destination was now in sight!  We scheduled a stay at a nice hotel in the suburbs purposely, as the downtown lodging is full, and we wanted to arrive at Santiago in the morning, in good time for the daily noon pilgrim mass.  B&BHotel Milladoiro is very nice.   Barb joined us, having taken the train from Porto!  But again, we were in suburbs with few nearby dining options on a Sunday.   We caught a burger across the street at La Central , then walked a ways to La Trastienda del 7 for a group dinner in a crowded restaurant. 

  October 4th we are walking along the final portion of all the southern camino routes, so there's a constant stream of pilgrims.  There is also a variety of pathways, mostly well-flattened and cared for, with few services along the way, quite out of normal highways.  In the photo I am pointing out the sign indicating that this route follows the old Roman road-- Via Romana XIX. We often passed, or were passed by, the same sets of pilgrims.  The few cafés along the way were crowded, especially because it rained lightly the entire day.  But we did find respite with some typical Spanish egg&potato torta . We walked through Pontecesures, the Roman port at the uppermost navigable portion of the river, where the body of St.James reportedly arrived by boat.  One alternate "spiritual” route for the Camino involves a boatride up the river to retrace those hallowed ways.   We walked into Padrón with its chemical factories, and several old abandoned factory ...