We finished our Camino (220kM or 136.7 miles) from Esposende, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain as planned today. Mom, WE did it! Thank you for your strength, encouragement and resilience!
Just sending a quick update. I will add more (pics and commentary) tomorrow. Tomorrow consists of a travel afternoon (AND NO, not on a bike—LOL) back to Porto, Portugal from Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
More tomorrow…I am exhausted tonight.
We started our day a few minutes early as we knew the weather forecast was 100% chance of rain around noon for the Padron area. And the forecast was pretty accurate. We arrived at our hotel, A Casa Antiga Do Monte, around 12:30pm. We rode in the rain for the last 20 minutes. That was ok!!
And I will say: A Casa Antiga Do Monte is a wonderful stay so far!! Our room is absolutely lovely! Dinner was delicious and the atmosphere was zen.
We met more really nice folks on our journey today-everyone helps everyone, everyone is everyone’s best cheerleader—-love these people!
We also saw many more wonderful sights today. There were a lot of grape vineyards on our route today. I could smell the grapes…divine! Reminder: Stop and smell the grapes.
We stopped a few times as usual on the trail to get our Camino passports stamped. One of the vendors gave away a surprise gift that was bagged…so they did not know what they were giving you. I waited until we were here to look at mine. Oh my, mine was a shell with a Tree of Life wax stamped in it. I got cold chills…checked on line and found this:
Tomorrow will be our last day on the Camino…we end in Santiago de Compostelo. Our route tomorrow is shortest but does say “Steep hill”. Come on e-bike!
Off we go to Lestrove, Spain from Pontevedra, Spain.
Holy hills! We rode up some hills today! A few were almost straight up! YAY for e-bikes. You still have to pedal as they do not have a throttle. They are pedal assist. We saw more beautiful coastline, a few goats, and met some more really nice people.
The streets of Baiona, Spain were very quiet at 7:30 this morning
Started in Caminha, Portugal at Hotel Del Sol (our overnight accommodation). Rode our e-bikes to the ferry (very small boat…lol) pickup that took us and our bikes over to Spain. We then rode onto Baiona, Spain for the evening. The Atlantic coastline of Spain is absolutely gorgeous! Today was a gorgeous day also! We thoroughly enjoyed our ride today.
Tomorrow we e-bike to Pontevedra, Spain. Stay tuned!
We met some incredibly nice people today. From breakfast to on the Camino. One lady along the trail gave us plums (delicious!). Folks helped each other out along the trail—-good people!
Our dinner was amazing at our hotel this evening. Even had a bit of a view of the sunset over the Minho River. We are tired. Hoping for a good nights rest.
Tomorrow we Head out to Baiona, Spain. Enjoy our pics from along the Camino.
Almost Camino time! We departed from Porto today. We are now in an apartment in Fao, Portugal. We will begin our e-bike Camino pilgrimage tomorrow morning. We checked out our e-bikes and made some seat adjustments so we have a good staring point for our ride. Also took some time to figure out how to load the panniers and add some of the gear we brought with us.
We are staying at Parque Do Rio Hotel Apartments. It has a nice restaurant. We enjoyed a nice dinner there.
Before dinner we took a brief walk on the beach. It looks like a nice beach with boardwalks and bars and grills.
So with this, we are calling it an evening and chilling. We will awake at 6am Portugal time (1am EST) to get moving and have breakfast. We plan to roll out around 9 or 9:30am Portugal time.
LET’S ROLL MOM!
Our day started out with espresso in our apartment. Then we walked to a local bakery and purchased a ham croissant for breakfast. We sat outdoors and people and pigeon watched while we ate. Then off to the Manteigaria for pastel de Nata. Then we walked around exploring the city. We walked 5 miles yesterday and 5 miles today. It was 87 degrees F in Porto today. We had sweaty walks.
We walked to the riverfront and had a nice, late lunch at Chez Lapin. I had a vegetable pasta dish and Mary had sea bass. We were not disappointed. It was good.
We walked the lower pedestrian walk of the Dom Luis bridge over to the other side of the Douro River. Strolled along the waterfront there. Had a nice walk. Then back across the bridge for a break from the heat. Then we walked more to find a restaurant with outdoor seating and tapas. We had tapas at Pestana Pousada Porto Historic hotel. It was very good. Breads, olives, olive oil, herb butter, cottage cheese with figs and ham. Delicious! So good we forgot to take a picture before we finished it!
Started our day out with wonderful coffee and a Pastel de Nata on our patio. Had an easy, slow morning after our travel days. Headed out around noon and had a fantastic lunch at IMPAR. Outdoor seating and was just a beautiful day…low 80’s (F). From there we grocery shopped a bit. Walking around Porto is a task in itself: there are many hills. We procured an insulated bag. Took cheese, pepperoni, crackers, and wine to the Jardim do Morro ( Garden in Villa de Gaia). To get to the garden we walked across the Dom Luis bridge. Very interesting bridge with 2 pedestrian lanes and 2 train tracks (active). Most people intuitively knew to stay behind the yellow lines to avoid being hit by a train…lol! The trains move very slowly across the bridge…all were safe! The park is a primo place to watch the sunset in Porto. And added bonus: there is live music at the garden. Folks hangout and hear the music and watch a fabulous sunset. We enjoyed the low key evening. The garden was crowded with people, yet a wonderful, cool atmosphere. And of course, we had a small gelato before heading to our apartment.
So far: I LOVE PORTO!
We took a 2 hr power nap and headed back out! Enjoyed the view of the Douro River, the people, the sounds. We ate dinner at A Taverna on the water front. Not rated highly on Trip Advisor, but our service was good, the pizza and wine was delicious. The view was wonderful. The music was wonderful as well.
Crowds of people crossing the Dom Luis for the views of sunset. We chose to wait for another evening to venture up. Maybe today (Sept 2)? Stay tuned.
Oh and last but not least: we enjoyed a scoop of Gelato on our way back to the apartment.
Gelato-delicious at nearby Boutique do gelato Ferreira Borges. Located under our Apartment! (Oh my).
It’s lovely here! Sunny and 74 degrees F. Our hotel is near the river-in the middle of the city. We love our apartment and location-thank you Amanda!
We are worn out. Got settled in, showered and went out for food. And we located Pastel de nata! DELICIOUS!
Now we have hit a wall…time for a power nap then back at it later today. Neither of us got more than 1 hour of sleep in the last 24 hrs. I almost fell asleep 5 times at the restaurant. POWER NAP.
