Today is St James day so Santiago’s main festival is in full swing, with a lot of people arriving late yesterday when the main part of the festival started. Many concerts and vans and events are taking place, and a big highlight will be Belle and Sebastian playing next to the Cathedral on Monday night, 28th July.

A nice place to dine in Santiago is http://petiscos.es/ and is next to the “Porto do Camino”, the gateway to the old area where the main French camino comes in. Host Antonio is polite and professional and his food is very good value for the quality it is.

The first half of this year has been noted by the rain and storms along the caminos, interspersed with some short periods of dry hot weather. The rain has caused damage and erosion to various parts of the camino frances and other caminos, making walking and cycling more difficult. I was on the Portugues camino in June and mostly we managed to dodge the rain which at times was torrential. But the sun came out a bit as well, and it wasn’t as hot as the same time last year. I find it easier walking in cooler weather.

Big news on the camino this year is the claim by some historians that a cup held in the Museum of San Isidoro in Leon is in fact the holy grail, which has rapidly increased the numbers of pilgrims heading to that museum.

In Santiago, midday mass at the Cathedral continues to be crowded but there are other masses to go to as well, including a 10.30am mass in English. Several new albergues, hotels and pensions have opened in Santiago giving more options on places to stay. Restaurants and cafes appear to be busy in the old area around the Cathedral, with Cafe Casino a great place for a drink. For a good value meal near the Cathedral one of my favourite places is Casa Manolo. It opens for lunch at 1300, no reservations so if you arrive to late you will often need to queue.

I had a pleasant morning tea a few days ago with self guided clients Linda and Colleen at one of my favourite smaller cafes Cafeteria Belke, where friendly Isabel does great tea, coffee, natural orange juice, chocolate con churos and a good variety of toasts and sandwiches. The Belke was a pleasant place to hear about Linda and Colleen’s experiences on the camino. Today I ran into Linda at the Post Office and we had a coffee at the small café in the local market, Mercado de Abastos, great for fresh fruit, vegetables, fish & seafood. If you buy seafood or fish the cafe will cook it for you for a few euros. I hope Linda and Colleen will come back again!

Buen camino to all!

Garry

A few times I have done the coastal route from Porto, walking 4 ½ days on beaches before swinging right at Caminha along the Minho valley and joining the main camino at Valenca do Minho.

Walking on the beach sounds lovely but can be hard going. I mostly walked in the harder sand in the swash zone where the waves break but then I had to sometimes run up to avoid getting wet. It was easier in the wet sand than the soft sand or on the dunes above the beach, which can be hard going.

I work old sports shoes with no socks, these proved for me to be the best option, though I did sometimes walk barefooted and in “flip-flops”. In those 4 ½ days I only saw 1 other pilgrim, an adventurous American lady who had a pack bigger than mine and looked quite prepared.

There were locals around in the villages, as usual with good advice of places for lunch or snacks. I once walked when it was high tide. This wasn’t a great idea, when squalls (showers) lashed in from the Atlantic the beach disappeared in places and I was pushed up to the sand dunes. This became a problem where there was a high fence on the first dune, surrounding a golf course and I had very little room to get through between the waves breaking and splashing up the dune. I was glad to get through that section!

So now when I do the coastal route I keep a close eye on the weather forecast and also the tide times, for instance  for Viana do Castelo.

In 2013 I was twice on the Camino Portugues, deviating at Barcelos to visit beautiful Braga and the nearby hill top church, Bom Xesus.

The portugues camino is not as well walked as the “French” route, so walking is a lot quieter. There are lovely rural sections in Portugal on the main route and I was lucky to be in Ponte de Lima at festival time. I always love the view over the Minho valley and into Galicia from the Fortaleza, the old area in Valaenco do Minho.

The camino doesn’t go up to the Fortaleza, but its not a hard deviation, go up diagonal left towards an open car park next to the walls.. and once up there follow the cobbled entrance left and right into the old area.. full of tourist shops that specialize in local made textiles. You don’t need to retrace your steps to get back on the camino.. contine to the far (eastern) end of the Fortaleza, taking a downward narrow street just to the right of the modern Pousada. This street goes through an arch tunnel and town some steps to rejoin the camino on the old main road, crossing the bridge to Spain and entering Tui. Tui is worth some time to look around as well.

Futher on the camino portugues the views over the Vigo Estuary to the Isles Cies are outstanding.

I was on the Camino Frances 5 times during 2013, and surprised to see patches of snow around O Cebreiro in mid May, extending to the hamlet of Fonfria.

In June I had a lovely but cool walk from St Jean to Roncesvalles in y, as we were sitting having lunch the wind shifted and roared in from the north, dropping significantly the temperature. We quickly finished lunch and hurried on, soon reaching the Col de Leopeder and dropping down the direct route through the forest to Roncesvalles. This route can be very slippery when wet and whilst better marked now it is best only walked by more experienced walkers and not by lone walkers – it is easy to slip and twist and ankle and for most of it there is no mobile phone coverage. There is a confusing sign just at the bottom of the ridge when one emerges from the forest to a quite small clearing.

The sign points both right and left to Roncesvalles (which can’t be seen at this point), take the right branch (signed Roncesvalles 5′ = 5 minutes walk), the left branch goes on a local path and back around some 3kms to Roncesvalles, though some people get lost on it and end up at Burgette hence missing Roncesvalles.