El Camino Portuguese Arcade to Pontevedra

El Camino Portuguese 

Arcade to Pontevedra 

Now that we were in Galicia, there would be many of these granaries to be seen along the route. This was an old granite built granary sitting on six stone staples or mushroom shaped columns to prevent vermin from raiding the larder.

Perhaps yesterdays large arrow was not so unique after all when I found this particular bench down by the water's edge...

...and a more traditional triangular shaped marker with a scallop shell carved near the top...

...all overlooking the Ponte Sampaio bridge over the Rio Verdugo. It was rebuilt in 1795 using the exiting foundations.

It was here, remembered by a plaque on the far side of the river that the Portuguese militia successfully opposed French troops in their plan to recapture Pontevedra and Vigo in June 1809 and forced Marshall Ney to retreat from Galicia.

There was a variation on a theme and the way markers were made of wood, cut into an arrow shape and painted yellow and nailed to trees. This particular one also had a scallop shell painted yellow and nailed to the tree.

Another location where an El Camino tradition lives on. A fence around a factory had had multiple crosses weaved through its wires using sticks to create crosses.

It was a peaceful walk through forest, although mainly up steep slopes but spoiled by a major engineering project cutting a motorway through the hills.

A view of the road as it comes up the hill.

It must have been my lucky day to see four black cats together. There are four cats but it was difficult to see the view finder with the sun over my shoulder and the fourth was just out of shot sniffing the wall to the right.

La Sanataria da Peregrina, an 18th century pilgrim chapel designed by Arturo south with a floor plan in the shape of a scallop and the window above the door also in the shape of a scallop..

The main Plaza de Ourense with the name of the city in case you forgot where you were.

The Convento de San Francisco.

The council offices and tourist information centre and in red ear the bottom centre of the photo in the name of the city just in you had forgotten since walking a couple of hundred metres from the last sign.

I recognised the architectural style immediately as art nouveau although there was no date plaque to be seen but unmistakeable and similar to the facade of the Malmaison Hotel in Newcastle.

The bridge over the Rio Lerez which I would be taking in the morning to escape the city.

In the middle of a pedestrian street was a number...the distance in metres to Santiago de Compostela.

The basilica of Santa Maria A Grande.

A well renowned five way cross roads in the old city called Praza das Cinco Ruas.

El Camino Portuguese O Porcino to Arcade

 El Camino Portuguese 

O Porrino  to Arcade

The Galician granite pylon that would adorn the sides of El Camino all through the region with the scallop shell at the top, the yellow arrow in the middle and the distance in kilometres to three decimal places to the end of this Camino in Santiago de Compostel..

Most people walk and the next most common form of transport is by bicycle. Some ride horses and I have ridden the last 260 kilometres into Santiago on a horse along El Camino Frances. But there are always a few eccentrics and this one didn't want to be photographed but he was walking with a donkey to carry his belongings.

After long slog up a hill, there was a pleasant walk through forest and past a Roman milestone. Then the  track joined a steep road down the side of the valley with marvellous views off into the distance across Redondela which is on the coast nut there were too many mountains in the way to actually see the sea.

Down in the valley, I passed under part of the AVE railway network. It stands for Alta Velocidad Espanola, the Spanish High Speed network whose trains can reach speeds up to 350km/h.

                                          
I walked through the centre of Redondela, which sits in a deep and steep sided valley. The railway has to cross the valley and does so on a viaduct that cuts across the centre of the town.

The bad thing about a steep walk down in to the town, it also means a long slog up the valley side to out of town. But leaving the urban fringe, the trail passes through some tranquil forest and then through the trees I caught glimpses of the Ria de Vigo, which is also the estuary of the Rio Verdugo on which Arcade sits.

Glimpses of Ria de Vigo through the trees as the track descends.

But I wouldn't get a good view of the water until I was virtually at sea level.

I went for a walk to check out the route for the morning. I had found that trying to find yellow arrows in the dark before dawn was difficult and might lead to taking long turnings so when I might be leaving early through an urban area, I would check out the route on the ground in the afternoon.

This particular yellow arrow was unmissable.

And I got to add another photo to my collection of photos of old Land Rovers.

El Camino Portuguese Tui to O Porrino

 El Camino Portuguese 

Tui to O Porring 

I walked my way out of Tui in the dark.

I passed the Roman bridge over theRio Louro, a tributary of the Rio Mino although El Can=mino takes a different route to avoid some railway tracts. 

A sign detailing the the route follows the Roman road.

A granite pylon showing the route to follow and underneath the yellow arrow was the distance to Santiago, 114.140 kilometres accurate to three decimal places. It had a few stones on the top but also this was the first time that there was something other than stones left by pilgrims, in this case it was a pair of worn out walking boots. 

I reached the Cruceiro San Telmo and El Ponte des Febres, the Bridge of Fevers where San Telmo became so ill with fever on his way back from visiting Santiago de Compostela that he made his way to Tui where he died in 1251. A photo of the cross erected on the spot...

...and the stone bridge over the river, now protected from too many pilgrims tough boots by a wooden board walk.

I crossed another Roman bridge  over Rio Lour.

Shortly afterwards there was a choice of routes, either a scenic weaving route through forests and back roads or a long slog along a straight road for over four kilometres through an industrial area. You could hear the sounds of heavy industry, movements of trucks and factory machinery, a long before you saw the factories and warehouses. 

Finally I reached the centre of the city with its grand town hall which looks like a castle and although I looked for a date of construction, only the architect is recorded who lived 1876-1945

Just long the main shopping street is the Plaza del Cristo and its cross. I waited for at a cafe overlooking the main thoroughfare just in case I recognised any pilgrims that I knew. I recognised a few that I had passed earlier that morning but none of those that I knew by name.

Then it was time for lunch and afterwards, I walked the four kilometres away from El Camino up into the hills to my accommodation near Mosende.

El Camino Portuguese Penece to Tui, Spain

 El Camino Portuguese 

Penece to Tui, Spain

It rained during the night and it was scheduled to rain all day. I lay in bed as the downpour hit roofs and ran out don pipes and hit drain covers. It was going to be another day in waterproofs getting wet on the outside and the inside.

The camera was moved moved to the inside off my rucksack and I set off in the rain and it remained there until the rain unexpectedly eased off in mid morning. Contrary to the forecast, it stopped raining .

I passed one of those places where distances are given to other famous places but the two important ones for pilgrims here were Fatima 300 kilometres and Santiago de Compostela 135 kilometres.

I walked on and my water proofs were beginning to dry out but my boots and socks were wet through.  I reached a highpoint and beyond the sloping vineyard, the hills in the distance were obscured by low lying cloud.

I reached Valenca, the last town on the route in Portugal. It guards the northern border as defined by the Rio Minho. It is a small town with a large fortress perched on the top of a small hill.

The fortress had been undated several times to provide defence to advances in warfare and the introduction of gunpowder and cannons.

A view of the defences from the inside of the fortress and of one of the entrances into it.

Another entrance.

One of the ditches between the outer and inner defences of the fort.

A view of the railway that skirts the fort before crossing the river.

A view of the box girder bridge with the railway on top, the road underneath and pedestrian walkways on the outer edges. And then it was Spain.

A Spanish post box.

The cathedral in Tui.

El Camino Portuguese Ponte de Lima to Penece

El Camino Portuguese 

Ponte de Lima to Fenece

I couldn't resist taking yet another photo of some pillar boxes in Ponte de Lima. It had taken nearly an hour to get from my golf hotel on the outskirts of the city and back into the centre of the city at the end of the old bridge. I was waiting just in case Oxana and David came past. It wasn't an agreed rendezvous but I waited just on the off chance but at 8.30am and I hadn't seen them, I set off across the old bridge.

Before I left the city, I had a little time to view  some of the other sights of the city. The Torre de Sao Paulo, part of the original defensive structures of the city although much of them have been lost.

The decorative azulejos tile picture on the side of the tower.

And just below the azulejos picture are some recordings of flood river levels and even the1987 level was above my head and the top two markers would have made the old bridge impassable. 

I had a last look down the street for Oxana and David so I set off.

I passed a fish farm and the last chance to buy supplies for the net 15 kilometres.

I was making my way up the Labruja Valley and the river of the same name. It was picturesque but there is a motorway not far away and the ugly structure must have  ruined this houses view up the valley.

It was a long struggle up a steep hill, climbing up to an elevation of 450 metres, a climb of more than 400 metres. En route, I passed Cruz dos Franceses also known as Cruz dos Mortos where invading Napoleonic French troops were ambushed by soldiers, local militia and residents of Labruja just below the summit of the hill as the French were advancing on Lisbon in 1809 during the Peninsula Wars 1808 - 1814. 

Near the summit, there were a whole lot of trees with plastic bags attached to their trunks. These were to collect the resin from the trees. Traditionally the collectors would have been metal or pottery but modern practice uses plastic bags to collect the resin.

A close up of the removal of the bark to get the resin to flow and to ne collected in the plastic bag.

There were alleged stunning views from the top of the mountain but the weather conditions weren't that good when I reached the top.

There was an art installation near the summit but it left me cold. There was a plaque but it was only in Portuguese and whilst I could translate some of it, even if it had all been in English, I would still have had a low opinion of the structure.

There were further views from the summit but the weather was still against those that wanted a spectacular view as described in the guidebook.

 A view of the Roman road covered by vines to provide shelter from the sun.

Just a view of the path, its rough stone surface and she of the countryside through which it crosses.

The photo didn't turn out how I wanted but it was going to be titled..."Does the route go right?" On the concrete pylon on the far left with the scallop shell are two yellow arrows, on a stone to the left of the concrete electricity pylon is another yellow arrow, on the pylon is another arrow and to the right on the wall is yet another arrow, and not to mention just out of shot but can be seen from just a metre stepping back is another concrete electricity pylon with a yellow arrow.