A new day and a new landscape. For the first three + hours today we walked along a mostly rural path in the hinterland following the coast north to Vigo. It was lovely. We saw three peregrinos this morning as we left the albergue - the last walkers we saw on the Way today.
Vigo is by far the largest town we've seen since Porto. As is often the case with large towns on the Caminos - and most places in the world - the approach through the outskirts before reaching the old town is a soulless urban sprawl - in this case around 7-8 kms. Yuk! Luckily for us our guide book showed a 'green' alternative which took us along a riverside path that avoided all but about 2 kms of the concrete jungle. Had it not been for this green alternative in our guide book, I would not have hesitated to find the nearest bus stop or hail a cab. It wasn't always this way. I used to be a proud and pure pilgrim when it came to walking every step of the Way.
I was thinking about this today as we walked, gratefully, along the river. From memory I retained my pilgrim's integrity for my first five Caminos, walking every step except in two extreme circumstances. The first was the second day of the Camino Finisterre when my German camino friend Nina and I walked for hours through unrelenting rain and a fierce electrical storm. We finally arrived at a small cafe, drenched and shivering. The cafe owner kindly arranged for a friend / relative to drive us to the nearest town. The second occasion was on the Camino Le Puy when I was walking with the Irish pilgrim, Sive. We became hopelessly lost for hours in a forest of two way GR signs. When we finally found our way out and to a road, out of the blue a car appeared and a delightful French couple offered to drive us to our destination. Initially we both felt a mixture of disappointment and pilgrim's guilt. But when we worked out that we'd walked many more kilometres extra than we'd skipped, the guilt soon fell away, though the disappointment remained. Other than those two occasions, it was always - every step, every step.
But by the time the French and I were walking my sixth (Domi's fifth) camino - the Arles Way - we well and truly went to the dark side - reluctantly at first and later quite easily - jumping on public transport to avoid kilometres of hard road and ugliness, in and out of some of the largest towns - a bus into Montpelier, a train out of Toulouse. And then on the Camino del Norte, a bus through the outskirts of Bilbao. And most recently, the metro out of Porto.
Maybe it's an age thing or maybe I no longer feel need to prove anything to myself. Or maybe it's just that I don't want to walk on bitumen roads through urban sprawl - and that's ok. After all, the French and I (like many who walk The Way) are not actually pilgrims! We just like to walk and we like the traditions of the Camino and the kindness of the hospitaleros and locals and the sense of sharing something with other walkers even if your only interaction is hola, ola or bonjour, buen camino, bom caminho or bon chemin. And we like that we can walk with all that we need in our backpacks and make our plans as we go knowing there will be a small village or a large town within a day's walk. And we can find a bed in an albergue, a casa, a gite, a hotel, a hostel, a pensione or a Parador. Still, I would always rather walk than take a ride and was happy that I didn't have to make the choice today. I thought about all of this as we walked our green way through the outskirts of Vigo.
Vigo is the last town on the Coastal Way. Tomorrow we head east and inland to meet the Central Way at the town of Redondela, then pretty much due north to Santiago. We expect it will be quite a change after the relative solitude of the Camino Portuguese de Costa. The Central Way from Porto to Santiago is said to be the second most walked camino after the famous Camino Frances, so we expect to see many more walkers - and a higher percentage of the path on or adjacent to busy roads (the main reason we took the coastal option as far as we could). Still, we're looking forward to this next stage on the road to Santiago. The Way always surprises and these next few days are sure to be no exception.
J x
PS. Our surprise today was arriving at our hotel to find that our 39 euro room is a lovely apartment with a sunny terrace. It says a lot about daily life and priorities on the Camino - we took one look at the terrace and The French and I both had the same thought. This will be perfect for drying our washing.
PPS if anyone is reading this and wondering - I haven't suddenly become more patient with the tech issues which had me abandon writing all but a few sentences in my dairy. Blogger seems to be working better for time being - maybe google had a lot of complaints. So, carpe diem.
Vigo is by far the largest town we've seen since Porto. As is often the case with large towns on the Caminos - and most places in the world - the approach through the outskirts before reaching the old town is a soulless urban sprawl - in this case around 7-8 kms. Yuk! Luckily for us our guide book showed a 'green' alternative which took us along a riverside path that avoided all but about 2 kms of the concrete jungle. Had it not been for this green alternative in our guide book, I would not have hesitated to find the nearest bus stop or hail a cab. It wasn't always this way. I used to be a proud and pure pilgrim when it came to walking every step of the Way.
I was thinking about this today as we walked, gratefully, along the river. From memory I retained my pilgrim's integrity for my first five Caminos, walking every step except in two extreme circumstances. The first was the second day of the Camino Finisterre when my German camino friend Nina and I walked for hours through unrelenting rain and a fierce electrical storm. We finally arrived at a small cafe, drenched and shivering. The cafe owner kindly arranged for a friend / relative to drive us to the nearest town. The second occasion was on the Camino Le Puy when I was walking with the Irish pilgrim, Sive. We became hopelessly lost for hours in a forest of two way GR signs. When we finally found our way out and to a road, out of the blue a car appeared and a delightful French couple offered to drive us to our destination. Initially we both felt a mixture of disappointment and pilgrim's guilt. But when we worked out that we'd walked many more kilometres extra than we'd skipped, the guilt soon fell away, though the disappointment remained. Other than those two occasions, it was always - every step, every step.
But by the time the French and I were walking my sixth (Domi's fifth) camino - the Arles Way - we well and truly went to the dark side - reluctantly at first and later quite easily - jumping on public transport to avoid kilometres of hard road and ugliness, in and out of some of the largest towns - a bus into Montpelier, a train out of Toulouse. And then on the Camino del Norte, a bus through the outskirts of Bilbao. And most recently, the metro out of Porto.
Maybe it's an age thing or maybe I no longer feel need to prove anything to myself. Or maybe it's just that I don't want to walk on bitumen roads through urban sprawl - and that's ok. After all, the French and I (like many who walk The Way) are not actually pilgrims! We just like to walk and we like the traditions of the Camino and the kindness of the hospitaleros and locals and the sense of sharing something with other walkers even if your only interaction is hola, ola or bonjour, buen camino, bom caminho or bon chemin. And we like that we can walk with all that we need in our backpacks and make our plans as we go knowing there will be a small village or a large town within a day's walk. And we can find a bed in an albergue, a casa, a gite, a hotel, a hostel, a pensione or a Parador. Still, I would always rather walk than take a ride and was happy that I didn't have to make the choice today. I thought about all of this as we walked our green way through the outskirts of Vigo.
Vigo is the last town on the Coastal Way. Tomorrow we head east and inland to meet the Central Way at the town of Redondela, then pretty much due north to Santiago. We expect it will be quite a change after the relative solitude of the Camino Portuguese de Costa. The Central Way from Porto to Santiago is said to be the second most walked camino after the famous Camino Frances, so we expect to see many more walkers - and a higher percentage of the path on or adjacent to busy roads (the main reason we took the coastal option as far as we could). Still, we're looking forward to this next stage on the road to Santiago. The Way always surprises and these next few days are sure to be no exception.
J x
PS. Our surprise today was arriving at our hotel to find that our 39 euro room is a lovely apartment with a sunny terrace. It says a lot about daily life and priorities on the Camino - we took one look at the terrace and The French and I both had the same thought. This will be perfect for drying our washing.
PPS if anyone is reading this and wondering - I haven't suddenly become more patient with the tech issues which had me abandon writing all but a few sentences in my dairy. Blogger seems to be working better for time being - maybe google had a lot of complaints. So, carpe diem.
