CaminoPortuguese2013

Pulpo - we ended up back in Santiago after Muxía to get ready to go to Portugal. One of the food delicacies in Santiago is pulpo (octopus) - boiied, fried or flambéed. Yum!

Santiago's (St. James') tomb, in a chamber under the main alter at the Santiago Cathedral.

A great staircase in a bookstore in Porto - Livraria Lello.

Under the floor in the catacombs of Igreja de São Francisco, Porto.

Hand-painted tiles on the walls of the cloisters of Cathedral Sé, Porto.

Fado (fate) music - traditional music, where women whose husbands had gone to sea would lament their fado (fate). "Singers of fado traditionally dress in black and sing mournful tunes of lost love, uncertainty, and the famous feelings of saudade (to translate saudade as 'loneliness' would be a gruesome understatement.)"

We're walking again. There are several pilgrimage routes in Portugal, some going to Santiago, Spain and some going to Fatima, Portugal. We're walking from Porto to Santiago.

Walking through Portugal...

Goat crossing.

Local hunter assuring Roxanne that it was quail season, not perigrino season.

Trumpet lilies.

Lizard perigrinos.

Wet Way.

Water, water everywhere... Guess we shouldn't be too surprised - it's very wet in Portugal in November!

Ambra's come in grey!

On the way to Pontevedra, we stopped part way up a hill to rest on a stone bench. A little Spanish man came out and was very excited - he had just put that bench out, and he wanted us to know that we were the first people to sit on it!

Spent last night in Pontevedra. This was the view out of our window. It turns out that we were the first peregrinos that ever stopped in this hostel - a day of firsts!

We found a hot spring in Caldas de Ria. Note the fashionable perigrino tan.

Sangria sunset. We finally got around to trying Spanish sangria.

"Standing imposingly above the Rio Sar in Padrón is Monte Santiaguiño, where legend tells us Saint James (Santiago) first preached the gospel message. "

Shrines, chapels and cemeteries: All through the backroads there are shrines, chapels and cemeteries - we passed at least two or three of each every day.

Shrines, chapels and cemeteries 2: the cemeteries are visited regularly - in this one, almost every grave had at least one bouquet of fresh flowers. This photo shows about a quarter of the cemetery, which wraps around the church.

Shrines, chapels and cemeteries 3: often they run out of room around the chapels and churches, and start making cemetery high-rises. Part of the real estate problem is that some of the crypts are big enough to nicely serve as garages for Ambras.

We arrived back in Santiago on November 15. We've walked about 1200 km now on the camino francés and the camino portgués over the last two months, and the weather is now starting to get colder. Tomorrow, we're heading down to Valencia on the Spanish coast of the Mediterranean to warm up a bit and to start to wind down this journey.

Nicer view than old boots... Please see the next page: "Valencia, Mallorca".