Thomas journals

Tuesday the 30th,  we all walked to Muffins Café for a quiet breakfast, then on the trail at 9:20 along city roads with small sidewalks for an hour or more before descending to the coast by Coruxo, along the corniche of the bay.  Then again up a long hill into Vigo.  At the outskirts of town Lisa's feet were hurting badly, so I found wi-fi and called an Uber to take the two of us the remaining three miles to Hotel Atlantico, the best hotel of the trip.  I sought out a barber for a shave, and Lisa went to a doctor to diagnose her blisters–the doctor bandaged both feet, prescribed antibiotics and gave her a stop-hiking order!  She decided, sadly, to remain on the camino, but to Uber between our remaining hotels, then possibly walk our last 10km in to Santiago.  Unfortunately, this disqualifies her from the official compostela awarded to pilgrims who walk the last 100km to the church.   That night I ate dinner on my own at Ramen Shifu – unpleasant...

 Monday September 29:  I met up with the others, walking along a highway with occasional bypass to local paths.  Then up the old Roman Road for beautiful views of the coast and headlands along the woodland path that showed the ruts of generations of cartwheels and sledges.  Then downhill sharply, through suburban houses to the wealthy town of Baiona.    By this time Lisa was increasingly suffering from blisters, stopping hourly to nurse them.  My feet were also feeling the strain, with a few calluses threatening to blisterize, and a sensitive achilles tendon in my right foot along with sensitive metatarsal bones there – but as long as I simply walked simply, not running or jumping, it went okay.   September 29th, Monday noon, the Baiona Tourist Office was closed, but I found the post office and mailed the card to Porto (it arrived two days later!).  Lunch at Cafeteria Monterrey, for excellent mussels and a Fanta Limón.  We walk...

Sunday September 28:  w e walked up the coast through very pleasant trails with coastal views.   At a particularly beautiful seashore lavadouro, Fr.Colin officiated an informal morning prayer service for this Sunday morning.   On up the coast, to a rest stop near the Monastery of Oia, Church of San Salvador, where they were celebrating the festival of Virxe de Libertamento, with a procession passing us along the corniche!   We noticed the town's finest walking over to the fancy seaside restaurant, while the normal folks hung out along the corniche.  We hiked on to Viladesuso, where I stayed separately at Hotel Costa Verde.  We met for dinner, where I finally tried the famous local scallops, Zamborinhas , and Pimentos Padrón .

September 27th, Saturday: a lighter walking day as we hiked a few kilometers up to Caminha along the coast.  We walked through the beachtown of Praia da Ancora, to the boardwalk.  We see clouds gathering, the wind coming up–rain is on the way.  We walked through a long straight flat woodland trail to the Caminha shoreline and corniche.  Seeking a post office, I realized that they are closed on the weekend!  We passed up the first touts offering a boat ride across the river, as Father Colin pointed out that they landed at the beach on the Spanish side, far from the pathway, so we walked on and found a roadside salesperson – Popeye the Sailor Man – with a carimbo and 6-euro tickets to ride across the river to the quay at A Pasaxe, Spain!  We sped across the river, over choppy water, rain spritzing, life jackets on, in 5 minutes.  He let us off at the concrete quay, and we hiked up the hill another 45 minutes in to the port town of A Guarda, known in Span...

  The breakfast-included in the morning helped us fuel up for the walk through town uphill, then through forest trails, with lots of side roads of vacation homes and quintas, evidence of money from outside (emigrés).  We stopped for lunch at a food-truck, Rolete do Vitor!  Then on to Âncora, and Vivenda Atlantico, a three-bedroom home in a compound with other dwellings, again a bit of a walk to grocery store–as we had a kitchen, PJ and Lisa and I walked to the store for dinner items.  At the (French) Intermarché supermarket, I found a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau! (generic, tastes like good homemade wine) And I purchased a card to send to Barb, planning to find a post office the next morning. I collected some of our photos in a google-photo-album 2025CaminoDeSantiago.  For reference sake, here's a link to the previous year's 2024Camino album.  We took the same basic route both times.

Today  was perhaps the longest scheduled hike, up to Viana do Castelo.  The final mile or so was a drudge, along a straight busy highway then narrow highway bridge (cough cough).  But Hotel Jardim do Viana was fine.  We all noted the wear and tear on our feet by this time.  I knew the shopping mall in Viana, so I went up there, pleaded with two different phone shops to no avail – they'd never seen such an error message, they can't do anything about it, I will need to reset my phone completely.   I updated the phone to iOS26, but the eSIMs still did not work.  I dared not do anything more radical on the road, as other functions (maps and email and whatsapp) worked fine on wi-fi.  This increased my reliance on the others, as I could not use google-maps while hiking!  An enforced detox from our always-connected life! We ate dinner at Felipe Pizza near the hotel.  I collected some of our photos in a google-photo-album 2025CaminoDeSantiago....

  This morning I took the metro; we met at the northern extent of the metro–Póvoa do Varzim.  We waited for the tourist office to open, to avail of their carimbo .  Then we walked through some busy streets west to the coast, then north along the beach, north through some small villages and seaside vacation apartments, to Esposende's outskirts where we booked into Grandma's Place, a strangely-renovated old house with individual lodging rooms and kitchens, actually nice and clean, but far far removed from any restaurants or shops.  We walked twenty minutes along a busy highway, past two closed restaurants, to arrive at Bem Estar2 Restaurant, which turned out to be quite good.  After attempting in vain to find an Uber, we walked back on country roads, quite pleasant.  This day I realized that my iPhone no longer functioned as a "phone”-- the eSIM files no longer worked!  So I had no cell-data; only wi-fi.  I decided that I would ask for help at the p...

  This is my second time to walk the Portuguese Coastal Route of the Camino , though this time will be more complete, as last year I skipped a few days due to Barb's illness and our suddenly-required visa appointment.  A fine pilgrimage, led by Fr. Colin Jones , a very experienced pilgrim and longtime member of the Confraternity of St.James .  He leads loosely, in that he advertised and held several informational meetings beforehand, and sent us his list of locations and lodgings that he had reserved – thus marking the dates and stages that we would walk.  On the route, he usually led the way, particularly in uncertain locales or when he knew of shortcuts or alternate preferable paths – that is, one or two percent of the time we did not follow the officially-designated Camino route.  He knew generally of availability of coffee shops along the way, and preferred certain stops.  He was intent on photographing all the chapels, churches and wayside crosses alon...