This was a neat day. It was the last stretch in Portugal, crossing from Valenca into Tui across the river Mino or Minho depending on whose flag you salute.
Lovely Ana
The night before had been memorable – Ana, the owner of the guesthouse, was a star, doing the washing and drying for three of us pilgrims (me, Joe and Dagmar) for the price of one. She was very excited as Antonio, her husband, had presented her with a pair of lovebirds who were chirping merrily. They were her new guesthouse pet – the terrier had apparently been banished for persistent yapping and these were a replacement. She hadn’t yet named them so I suggested a nice name for the male – Nick.
Not-very-Roman on Roman bridge
Two Roman bridges followed as the Camino takes the path of an old Roman military road. Amazing testament to their engineering skill that these are still standing. Quite a long walk during which Dagmar and I managed somehow to lose Joe for the rest of the day.
Looking North to Spain
One of the glorious things about walking is that sense of achievement one has when one looks at something that seems to be impossibly far away but, nonetheless, you reach it. That happened today; looking down from a mountain pass at Spain in the distance to be followed a few hours with saying goodbye to Portugal and hello to Spain. The border is a bridge with run-down disused customs houses at each end.
Bye-bye Portugal
Tui itself was a delight. It is a mini-Santiago with a Romanesque cathedral. Being a Saturday night, the place was jumping, quite literally in the case of the folk dancers.
A very Galician Tui
We sat in the cathedral square for some hours, greeting newcomers who passed the table. Eventually we could drink no more so we rolled 10 yards into the nearest restaurant and had a menu peregrino. And after that we rolled back to the bar. It was a very late night – still only 35 km tomorrow.
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