Some minor info on Porto/SDC

[Caminando]

Hi from sunny, warm Porto, on the way to SDC.

I came by Ryanair, the brutal company. They don't seem to like their customers, and their customers generally don't like Ryanair. They obliged me to book online, which I have to pay extra for, and obliged me to print the boarding card. When I tried to print the return boarding card here in Porto, I find I cant, as my return date is over 15 days away. They don't allow that. Thanks.

When you leave the airport, the bus stance is just in front of the arrivals door, and there is a panel telling you the times of arrival; you need the bus to Cordoaria, either the 610 or the 602. It costs 1.50, as does any bus fare in Porto, unless you buy more than one ticket, with various deals. Then walk downhill to the main rail station, tourist office etc.

The credencial costs 50centimes in the cathedral.

The inet caff I'm in now is opposite the main rail station.

The bus to the Youth Hostel is the 207, get off at Paulo Gama. The hostel (50metres from bus stop) costs 12.60 with credencial reduction. It has a great verandah overlooking the Duoro estuary. There is a good supermarket 100 metres away with a pungent dried fish counter! Quite exotic/attractive.

If I come across an Inet caff on the way (unlikely) till SDC, I'll post more odds and ends if I have any.....but I'll spare you the details of my walk!!!!

Off we go!!!!

 

[bactman]

Caminando,

Internet connections are available at the albergues in Tamel and Valenca. There is an internet cafe in Santiago not far from the cathedral (towards the Badalada Pension).

I actually like Ryanair - I fly a lot for my work. It is very refreshing to actually see an airline regulate the baggage weight as well as carry-on size luggage as stringently as they do. The whole printing off boarding passes within 15 days is a pain; hopefully, there will be ample time to print everything off during and right after your walk.

Sunny and warm - well, I would have taken that in early September. The three days of rain dampened my spirits a bit, but it made for some interesting adventures.

Regards

 

[Una]

Would love to hear about your walk!
Una

 

[Caminando]

Thanks Bac and Una.

I'm in the albergue of Tamel and what a place it is! AND with internet! I want to tell you that in my young day we had to use carrier pigeons, none of your luxury internet. And it was hard to find string to tie the message to the struggling bird's leg.

I'll say a few things of this Caminho................


In Vilarinho, (4beds) two young women from Latvia arrived late, on the tough first stage of the walk here, being city\town roads all the way. They wore high fashionboots, clothes to match and crap rucsacs. I thought they'd have problems, but I saw their names in Barcelos pilgrim book, and they didnt stop here in Tamel, so theyre going strong! So much for my hesitation. Bom Caminho. I reflected though, that the Bombeiros will love them to bits :|

In Rates there were four Christian......well, I'll carefully call them "enthusiasts", coming from Finland, to inflict Christian Pentecostal leaflets on the innocent Portugese in their homes - all the way to SDC. As a bonus, they enjoyed loud conversations and noisy packing (familiar?) in the early morning when others who had walked there tried to sleep. I forgot to say they came by car +trailer with bicis. They did not take part in the wonderful welcome offered unexpectedly by the hosp.,his wife and friends. It was some kind of chestnut feast and all were invited to the table for eats, drinks and laughs in this lovely albergue of Rates. Two of the friends were such nice women, doing hospitalera training. I will find my notes with their names later.


Next night in Barcelos albergue, I and the only other pilgrim were joined at 22.00 by a clearly disturbed pilgrim (if he was a pilg ). He wandered around nearly naked for a couple of hours in a cold albergue, then stretched out uncovered. I was under three blankets. In the half light of dawn, through one open eye, I watched him as he tried to exit the room via the ceiling, some of whose ceiling panels he had removed. I called out "No tocar!" (yes I know that's Spanish! )and I'm glad to say he stopped! In the morning, we fed him on what we had, which gave him the energy to do scores of frantic, rapid pressups - this guy was fit! Then, producing a football from his pack, he went to the yard and did lots of footballish things at a fast rate. There was a steady drizzle out there, which soaked my drying stuff from the night before. :shock: Oh yes, this guy then asked for a cigarette and a euro. Unlucky in this, he went out and begged some bread at the paderia, and was good enough to offer it round.
Such unexpected events! what will the next alb. hold? :shock: :wink: Life's rich tapestry innit?

So then I'm off in the slanting, soaking rain, over the bridge and away. I forgot to say that in Barcelos, the Bombeiros have shifted to the medieval bridge and the Alb. is the Casa Cultura 50 metres away. The Bombeiros and the Casa are a few metres to the left just before the med. bridge....Then I squelch past the square where last night a group of locals danced under the stars to an accordeon. I pass the offices of the Communist Party of Portugal and reflect that for them the tide has ebbed, leaving the way clear for a flood of ruthless capitalism whose greatest exponent is now on a crusade of murder and mayhem across the planet. The rain hammers down and I see myself in a shop window, with the familiar rucsac hump under the poncho. The Hunchback of Notre Dame can't beat a pilgrim hump. I also see my face reflected and I dont like what I see :shock: It's an old guy (what?, me, old?) looking back - where is that Paul Newmanesque face of yesterday? OK I exaggerate the Newman bit - but this age business - well I dont like it. :shock: Am I the young guy who enjoyed The Who singing "I hope I die before I get old" - no thanks. :roll:

I meet a Portugese guy and we talk in French - he has stopped work because of "
head problems". Hey! it's as common as a cold nowadays. We wish each other "no crappy job" and drink to that. I stagger out onto the sodden caminho, cursing those charming, but wobbly underfoot, Portugese cobblestones. Eucalyptus forests conspire to drip on me. And they do. How do te know I'm here? This is not hubris, but wonder. Why don't they drip on all the Portugese builders who dump rubble in every woodland clearing?

Then splashingly on past a stone cross which miraculously appeared in 1843 - isn't that amazing? :wink: I immediately experience an epiphany, in the rain.

I find an orange tree; I select some and with a twisting motion capture those fortunate fruits. I eat two and take three for breakfast. The rain stops -again: I remove my poncho -again. It rains again and it's poncho time again. It's good to whinge. :wink:

As I wait for the Tamel alb to open, three dogs arrive to sneak up and menace me (I dont like groups of dogs). I shake my stick and they all bugger off. I must confess here, that as much as I like a well-cared for dog, I detest these brutes which are so nasty behind fences and walls. I like to rattle my stick there and drive them into a slobbering, snarling, sharp toothed frenzy. This ensures that their careless owners get a bit of disturbance too.

Anyway, I'm soaked to the boots....

Like Schwarzenegger..."I'll be back"!

 

[Caminando]

[quote="bactman"

 

[Artemis]

It may be too soon for you to stop again but there is a wonderful home called Casa Fernanda right before Lugar do Corgo. This amazing family opens their home for pilgrims. They cook a wonderful dinner serving wine from their own vineyard and vegetables from their garden. Also breakfast the next morning. One of the highlights of my Camino in 2009.

 

[Caminando]

It may be too soon for you to stop again but there is a wonderful home called Casa Fernanda right before Lugar do Corgo. This amazing family opens their home for pilgrims. They cook a wonderful dinner serving wine from their own vineyard and vegetables from their garden. Also breakfast the next morning. One of the highlights of my Camino in 2009.

My maps are so crap and my info so minimal (all deliberately so) that if I come across Casa Fernando I will call there. I don't have a clue where it is but I will search it out if poss. I suspect however that however modest their charges, my means are even more modest! No complaints at all - gracias a la vida!

But I really like your info, which is like the support one finds on the camino. I love it!

 

[Artemis]

I am looking at the map in Brierley's guide and it looks like it is a little over 14k before Ponte de Lima. It was donation.

If I remember correctly Ponte de Lima is a fairly new albergue with free internet. Very nice.

 

[Caminando]

I am looking at the map in Brierley's guide and it looks like it is a little over 14k before Ponte de Lima. It was donation.

If I remember correctly Ponte de Lima is a fairly new albergue with free internet. Very nice.

Thank you Art. It's about halfway, then, between Tamel and Ponte de Lima.

We are promised more rain tomorrow and that's...PONCHO TIME! Let's see what the day brings...

:arrow:

 

[camino07]

I walked that way late September and we stayed in Tamel ,the comfortable,new albergue was full so a young couple walked on to Casa Fernanda 10 kms away. I met them next morning and they were singing its praises.
When we were in Ponte de lima the Albergue didn't open until 5 pm and had a very rude,grumpy hospitalero. Very long wait in the hot sun.
Some pilgrims stayed at the Hotel Imperio in town and praised that.
Buen Caminho
Heather

 

[Artemis]

I now remember that the albergue didn't open until 5. A friend and I sat int the park next door and dangled our hot and tired feet in the fountain. The people in charge of the albergue were very nice when we were there.

 

[Caminando]

N.....................

 

[Caminando]

I've just been handed a sheet with albergues I never heard of, from Tui to SDC. Well, some I knew, some I didn't, so here's the list, in order, to SDC-

Tui
Porrino
Mos
Redondela
Soutomaior
Vilaboa
Pontevedra
Barro
Portas
Caldas de Reis
Valga
Pontecesures
Padron
Teo
Ames
SDC

 

[Caminando]

N..........

 

[Caminando]

Just arrived today from Padron. Not a pretty section. I find that the Seminario Menor is closed and I should go to Monte del Gozo. I pass through the archway where the pipers play and am treated to some fine pipe music. My sympathies to those who have a part of their musical alphabet missing and who dont like pipe music :shock: :wink: It's nice hearing the music of home and to think of the connected cultures.

I sit on the steps of the Cath and listen to some jazz guitar, played by a man in a monkey mask. I eat doughnuts and bananas, and a pigeon helps me with that.

I go back to Porto for a flight on 23rd to France. dont know whether to spend the spare time in Galicia or go straight to Porto.

I cant believe its around 5 weeks to Xmas. :shock:

Buen camino to all of you for your next camino :lol: :mrgreen:

 

[Beverley]

I love this thread, and I loved the CP. Fernanda was recommended to me too when I was walking back from Santiago. I missed it, darn!!

 

[Caminando]

Hi Bev

Yes it's a nice caminho isn't it? In Nov it was quiet, and I liked that. I couldn't believe the luxury of some albs. Wonderful, but you know, quite unnecessary! I think a simple bed and simple kitchen is enough. But Tamel was a jewel, I have to say. I could have a lovely home in a place like that.

I met a nice pilg from Germany who'd just done the CF then immediately began the CP, who told me that the CF was fine in November for easy bedfinding. She did the CF and CP back to back because she didnt want to go home to problems she'd run from (her words). I love the CF but I dont want to be involved in the heaving crowds. My CF walks were done when there were less people and less refugios and it was fabulous. But you always hear from old gits about how "it was better in my young day"! :wink: :lol:

Just had a thought that a nice thing would be the CP and Fisterra together.

Bom caminho!

 

[hel&scott]

My maps are so crap and my info so minimal...

Ahhh sounds very similar to our tip - but try doing it backwards! We must have crossed paths somewhere along the line as Fran & I were walking from Ferrol to Lisboa around the same time you were on this trip... knowing us we probably passed in the rain on a section where we where off the way and slogging through some farmers muddy field, or being drenched by the trucks on the road.

The comments about the rain bring the sodden trip back to mind, still a good trip!

Cheers Hel