In the last few days we’ve gone from Barcelos to Vitorino onto Ponte de Lima then to Tui and to Porriño. A lot has happened in that time, and it’s been a little chaotic.
We left Barcelos in the morning with rain falling gently and a forecast for more all day, it was a soggy trek trough beautiful farmland, little villages, and then up a windy road through a small community. I’ve said before that I’m slow on hills and this was no exception, but we kept to our usual plan of everyone keeping their own pace and meeting together at the top before setting out again. Carrie and Jo’l had moved ahead and gone around a corner and a bicyclist came up parallel to me on the opposite side of the road. That’s when a car came down the hill going what felt like way too fast. The driver didn’t see the bicyclist until the last second and swerved to avoid him, unfortunately she overcorrected and hit me as she continued downward and I fell to the ground. She didn’t stop, and the cyclist came over to help me up. I was fine, and continued up the hill to meet Carrie and Jo’l before we all walked several more soggy miles to our albergue. That night we stayed at Casa da Fernanda, which was a delight. Animals ran through the yard, pilgrims chatted together as we sipped tea in Fernandas kitchen to warm up, and dinner was amazing. A real salad, soup, braised pork, octopus, and potatoes with garbanzo beans all went with her homemade wine. Stories were told, there was singing, and everyone went to bed happy and full, but also cold because it was freezing outside and there was no heat.
The next morning we got up early just as the sun was rising and left for Rubiães, but after getting caught in a hailstorm we had to reasses our plan for the mountain. If we were home we wouldn’t set out for this climb in a thunderstorm, and it seemed unwise to do it in these conditions. We made a decision to continue on to Ponte de Lima which was beautiful and we wandered the town there for a bit taking advantage of the break in the rain. This also meant that it was time for frantic photo hour. Jo’l took out her camera and darted from place to place taking as many photos as she could before the rain returned. The pace really picked up when it got cloudy again, and we were given instructions like “stand there” and “trudge now”. I took the opportunity to drop in to the pharmacy to see about a cough that had shown up and a runny nose that was getting to be a problem. Armed with medication I went back outside, and Pretty soon the rain was back, and we took a taxi past the mountain to Tui.
After being cold and wet for two straight days we elected to stay in the parador and get properly dry and warm before our next stage. It was great except for only Jo’l being able to figure out how to open her door. Somehow the door handle didn’t actually do anything and you had to turn the key a ridiculous number of times. At some point a maid took pity on us and came over to let us in, but our door opening skills didn’t improve and Jo’l had to coach us through basic room entry several times.
Leaving Tui we headed for Porriño and walked in a steady but soft rain most of the day. I made the mistake of leaving my rain jacket unzipped and it elected not to keep water out after that, but walking in a sauna is hard too. Most of our walk was forests and the quiet streets of neighborhoods. We were treated to another round of frantic photo hour as there was a break in the downpour and we crossed ancient Roman bridges in the woods, but the rain came back to keep us in check as we entered Porriño. Our albergue is busy with little pods made up of bunk beds with curtains. It smells like feet, nobody cares about wearing pants, and Jo’l isn’t a fan after our previous accommodations. Unfortunately there isn’t a Eurostars location in Redondela, so we’ve already booked our next pod experience with hopes that it smells more like cleaning product. I snuck an entire roll of toilet paper into my pack from the parador and have been blowing my nose at an alarming rate since I woke up from a nap so I think that will be this evenings activity. Fingers crossed for a miraculous recovery in the morning! The healing fountain isn’t for several more miles.
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