If Spanish historian allows the historical facts to shed light on the historical figure, then the novelist allows the historical figure to shed light on the smallest facts. The result is fiction where the shadowy figures of history are revealed in living flesh …
I was told by B C that if you're looking to explore the beauty of Portugal and Spain, you love stunning beaches, seaside towns and fishing villages then the Portuguese Coastal Camino is for us …
For most pilgrims, the Portuguese Coastal Camino starts in the historic and vibrant city of Porto in Portugal and follows the Douro River to the sea.
Considered the most spiritually connected pilgrimage route, following the path St James' body took to its resting place at the site of Santiago de Compostela, this quiet inland stage offers a wealth of history.
"Someone with a very powerful estate ... has settled a tax debt worth millions of euros, … partly by donating more than 200 engravings by Francisco de Goya as well as 87 other works of art — among them, Aurelio Arteta’s outstanding anti-war manifesto Triptych of War." - El País in English
From the lively city of Porto, set on the banks of the Douro River and famous for its port wine production, the journey north travels through small hamlets, past eucalyptus and pine woods, over ancient bridges and through larger market towns dating back to Roman times.
Throughout the journey there are ample reminders of past pilgrims and the route offers many insights into the religious significance of the Camino. Visually stunning in parts, there are many advantages in walking the Portugués route with the ascent to the highest point on the trail at Alto da Portela Grande (405m) rewarded with sweeping views of the Lima Valley below.
Crossing the Spanish border and walking the last 100km through Galicia to the holy city of Santiago ensures you qualify for the Compostela certificate upon your arrival at the cathedral.
Camino de Santiago: Here's my itinerary from two weeks walking the Portuguese Way
Some pilgrims do the 800km Camino de Santiago carrying their own gear, others take guided tours, this route is a more gentle approach and involves lots of local food and wine.
Some days on the road are so perfect I wish they might never end. When the sun is soft, and the path fringed with wildflowers and grasses shoulder high. When all around flaxen fields of wheat are embroidered with poppies like vermilion threads.
When in the distance an ancient church floats like a marooned ship and the only sounds are the wing beats of startled birds and your own footfall.
With fellow travellers, I am in northwest Spain, congregating in the ruins of an 11th-century monastery, welcomed by a friendly dog with a small scallop-shell motif, emblem of the Camino de Santiago, attached to its collar.
An albergue, or hostel, slots into the towering ruins, cafe tables are set in the roofless nave and transept beneath a peerless blue sky. Full disclosure. I am not walking the Camino. Not properly. Not yet. But I am making a quick reconnaissance, dipping in and out, walking a few kilometres here and there, sampling the mood, the food, the road and beauteous landscapes of Spain. Meeting the pilgrims.
Easy Does it - Camino - The cheat’s way to do the most famous walk in the world
Tales from Camino: As I set off on my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, I was in a tetchy mood. The sky was blue, the sun was blazing but, for piffling reasons, my brain felt as angry as the Atlantic by my side. I beat myself up further; this was wholly inappropriate for the “spiritual journey” that lay ahead. But then I realised: actually, I’d come to just the right place.
Because as I left the Portuguese town of Viana do Castelo, passing the gulls and the terns, the windmills and the seaweed-pickers, my funk frittered out with every step; lifted by the sea breeze, swallowed by the dunes. My only task was to put one foot before the other, like a moving meditation. It was impossible to remain cross. When, a few hours in, a stranger gave me my first “Bom Caminho!” I realised: yes, I was already having a “good way”.
The Camino de Santiago is a fascinating walk. Not least because it’s barely a walk at all. Technically, you’re hiking. But the Camino is so much more: a challenge, a ritual, an adventure, a calling; a cleanse, a slog, a step closer to God. It’s a journey as individual as the pilgrim who makes it.
Also, it’s not one walk. While most pilgrims follow the Camino Frances, which starts in the south of France, there are numerous “ways of St James”. I was tracing a small part of the Coastal Camino Portugués, which begins in Porto. Only recognised as an official route to Santiago in 2016, it hugs the Atlantic before joining the traditional inland Camino Portugués. This means seaside days of relative solitude, then a home straight shared with many other pilgrims.
Indeed, I saw few fellow walkers as I hiked out of Portugal, up to the border with Spain; a few more as I traced the Galician coast. Walking from the handsome town of Baiona, where in unpilgrimlike fashion I stayed at the luxurious parador – a medieval fortress-cum-hotel on its own peninsula – I fell in step with a peregrina (pilgrim) from Vladivostok. Marina said she chose the walk because she loves the sea and the variety: “If you walk a long way in Russia it stays the same but the Camino is always changing.” Together we strolled past a chapel attacked by Francis Drake, took a wrong turn along a bird-filled estuary and chatted work, life, Brexit and Putin. We parted ways after an hour or so, when she decided to go for a paddle in the sea.
Shamefully, I was pleased. I didn’t have the energy to decipher Runglish all day, but goodbyes are difficult on the Camino – we were clearly heading in the same direction. I wondered how others coped: was there a polite knack for disentanglement? Or was I just a grump? I juggled this thought for the next several miles, as the Cíes Islands rose offshore and the beaches came thick and fabulous – some sweeping, some secretive. My favourite was the tiny one-café cove of Praia Portiño, worth a pilgrimage in itself.
Later, down a quiet lane, I met an American peregrina coming towards me. Counter to the norm, she’d started in Santiago and was spending six weeks walking to Fátima in central Portugal (the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared there in 1917). Embarrassed, I told her of my own all-too-short journey. She smiled. “You’re doing it your way. Least you’re doing it. Some people put things off forever.” As she continued uphill, I realised I’d have happily chatted for far longer.
Human interaction became unavoidable on my last three days, when the coastal and inland ways merged. Leaving the old riverside town of Pontevedra after breakfast, there was a Pied Piper vibe: dribbles of pilgrims – all toting backpacks hung with scallop shells – started converging from the medieval alleys and archways, from the covered market and the panaderías, from the Sanctuary of the Pilgrim Virgin (patron saint of the Camino Portugués). Slowly we became a single flow, funnelled between a leafy stream and a railway embankment where graffitists for and against homosexuality, feminism and vegans had waged a war of words.
That sun-soaked morning I heard the world. Loud Australians, quiet South Africans, Spaniards, Brazilians and Portuguese, Germans wearing Camino-themed socks, Americans limping on bandaged knees. The café I stopped at midmorning had an atlas of flags strung outside. Inside, I met twinkle-eyed Mañolo who, he said, had spent the past 65 years crafting metal pendants of pilgrims. He spread his wares on the countertop as we drank coffee and he flattered me brazenly. Yes, he made the sale.
I was an easy target, because by now I was in total Camino mode. It’s not the most beautiful walk – some bits are scruffy or close to big roads. I wasn’t even doing it “properly”, eschewing albergues (pilgrim hostels) for sometimes quite spectacular accommodation. But it had me. The sense of shared purpose, the centuries of history tramped into the soil, the rhythm, simplicity and joy of walking day after day – I was sold on it all.
On my final day, having overnighted in Padrón, I made a slow start. It was partly to let the masses walk on ahead, but largely because it was a Sunday, when the town hosts one of the biggest street markets in Galicia. Along the plane-shaded riverside promenade, hundreds of stalls were selling cheap shoes and handbags, queso gallego and xamón, fruit, flowers and hot peppers; vendors deep-fried crisp churros and stirred vats in which octopus boiled to a bright Martian red. Before I knew it I was sipping a bowl of rough vino tinto with a man called Carlos. It wasn’t even 10am.
But Padrón is also the origin of the St James story. Its name derives from the pedrón, the Roman stone to which the boat carrying the apostle’s dead body was allegedly moored, after being guided here from the Holy Land by angels. Fortified and intoxicated by the market, I visited the town’s Church of Santiago, where the pedrón is kept, before keeping my date with the saint.
It was yet another glorious autumn day. I walked along unlovely highways and through vineyards so pungently ripe I felt drunk. I wriggled through twisty-street villages and past locals in Sunday best, chewing the fat outside church. I plucked a peach from a box-full that a farmer had left out for pilgrims and passed a stone cross dating from the 15th century. I saw hórreos, the raised granaries so typical of Galicia. And nearly-there pilgrims replastering their blisters – another classic Galician sight.
Oh, and I also reached Santiago. But, as is so often the case, it wasn’t really the point. Gazing up at the cathedral’s phenomenal facade, I thought back to the Polish banker I’d met earlier that day. He’d started in Porto, 12 days before, and told me all about his journey: his struggles, his motives, the people he’d met en route. He said he didn’t know how he would feel when – in a handful of miles – he reached the end. “The Camino is stories,” he’d added. “And I have a feeling that the walk is the goal itself.”
Sarah Baxter travelled with Follow the Camino (020 3411 0701; followthecamino.com), which offers a wide range of Camino trips, along multiple routes, and of various lengths and comfort levels (premium accommodation is available). A seven-night walk along the Coastal Camino Portugués from Oia to Santiago costs from €660 (£584) per person including B&B accommodation and luggage transfers. Flights cost extra.
Which route to choose
There are numerous “Ways of St James”. It is worth noting that a credencial (pilgrim passport) is required to stay in public albergues (pilgrim hostels). These should be stamped at hostels, cafés and churches en route if you want to receive your compostela (certificate of Camino completion). In order to qualify for a compostela you must walk at least the last 62 miles (100km) to Santiago. Cycling is also possible on some routes.
The most popular… Camino Frances
Start point: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France
Length: 479 miles (772km)
Time required: 35 days plus
Beginning just over the border in France’s Pyrénées-Atlantiques region, it crosses west over the northern part of Spain, via heady Rioja, the Castilian Plateau and rolling hills, before finishing in Santiago. Meeting fellow pilgrims is guaranteed – this route gets very busy in peak season (June-September).
The super second… Camino Portugués
Start point: Lisbon or Porto
Length: 371 miles (598km) or 155 miles (250km)
Time required: At least 26 days (Lisbon) or 12 (Porto)
Though this is the second most popular Camino choice, it’s far quieter than the Frances. Starting in Lisbon, it winds north to Santarem (following the Caminho de Fatima) and then Coimbra to the coastal city of Porto before continuing into Spain and Santiago. It follows roads and is particularly quiet on the earlier stages to Porto – many pilgrims choose to start walking from here, a distance doable in two weeks.
The new kid on the block… Coastal Camino Portugués
Start point: Porto
Length: 110 miles (178km)
Time required: 10 days plus
This seaside route, an alternative to the traditional inland Camino Portugués, was only officially recognised in 2016. Starting in Porto, it hugs the Atlantic shore before veering east to join the inland route at Redondela. Though growing in popularity, it is still little-trodden in comparison and less well waymarked in places.
The cooler camino… Camino del Norte
Start point: San Sebastián
Length: 289 miles (466km)
Time required: 23 days plus
The Northern Way is arguably the most scenic, running along the Bay of Biscay coast from foodie San Sebastián, via Bilbao and Santander and an array of beautiful beaches, to Oviedo; from here you can join the Camino Primitivo to reach Santiago. It’s a hilly route, and quieter than others, but is a cooler option during the summer months.
The original… Camino Primitivo
Start point: Oviedo
Length: 195 miles (315km)
Time required: 16 days plus
The “Original Way” is believed to be the first pilgrimage route to Santiago. Its mountainous terrain, across the Cantabrian range and then the hills of Galicia, makes it a tougher challenge. Pay-offs include big views and ancient history.
The short-n-sweet… Camino Ingles
Start point: Ferrol
Length: 75 miles (121km)
Time required: 5 days plus
No surprise that in our time-poor culture, this concise Camino is an increasingly popular choice. Beginning in the shipbuilding port of Ferrol, the “English Way” was historically used by seafaring pilgrims, who would sail from the likes of England, Ireland and Scandinavia to start their walk to Santiago. This quiet route is predominantly uphill, running via marshland, farmland, forest and rivers.
Remembering Cinque Terre - the Italian Riviera
PS
Gordon in the field of travelling beyond 21 …
Sting with Bruce Springsteen performing "Every Breath You Take".