When we walked the Camino Norte in 2022, we met a very experienced Italian pilgrim who had walked more than 20 pilgrim walks, among others a walk from Rome to Santiago!
He highly recommended Camino Portugues Costa and we started planning to walk this route during the summer of 2023.
We decided to start just north of Porto to be able to make reach Santiago within 12 days. So in late June 2023, we took of from Villa do Conde just outside Porto, this time walking in a trio with Karinas dad who was walking his first Camino at the age of 77!
Taking off from Villa do Conde
The first week, we walked along the beautiful shoreline passing the coastal cities Marinhas, Castelo, Caminha, Mougas, Valenca and Tai before crossing the Spanish border. It was an enjoyable walk along seemingly endless sandy beaches mixed with coastal wilderness.
The landscape was gradually getting wilder as were heading north, but nowhere near the difficulty level of Camino Norte which is much more challenging and with longer distances between the villages
As we were getting closer to Spain, we entered more mountainous and forestry areas. We enjoyed the tranquility and the more temperated climate, as shadows from the trees made it more enjoyable.
The last day before the Spanish border was a very hot yet beautiful one. The walk along the shore towards Tui was stunning with its wilderness, goats and sheep running freely
Inspite of his high age and shoes that were not really meant for long distance walking, Henryk never complained. More than often, he was the one setting the pace, sometimes even disappearing in the distance for some minutes before realising we were left behind
Henryk in the horizon
We entered Spain by speedboat between Caminha and A Pasaxe. It was an energetic and fun ride when we arrived on the Spanish side, I realised that we had lost a small waistbag with passports and money when leaving the boat. Fortunately, we managed to call the boat service firm and they brought the bag with them on the next trip only 30 minutes later.
From A Pasaxe we had roughly one hour to walk to A Guarda. It wasn’t a particularly hard trip, but it was quite hot and we were tired from the long walk along the shore on the Portuguese side
A Guarda is another nice seaside village with a mix of old and newer houses and seafood restaurants.
In the following days we walked along the Galician cost towards Vigo and from there through Redondela, Pontevedra, Caldas del Reis and Nigran until reaching our final sleepover at Padron.
One noteworthy experience on the way was our stay at the old Monastery Ramallosa outside Nigrán
Approaching the end of our Camino walk, I think we were all looking forward to packing down the hiking equipment and enjoying city life of a while
The last stop in Padrón didn’t come with a lot of expectations as we were already excited about the final walk into Santiago. But we were pleasantly surprised by Padrón
Padron has a special place in the history of Christianity. According to tradition, it was in this region that St. James the Greater preached in the years following the death and uprising of Christ. Due to this, after St. James died in Jaffa, his body was brought here by two of his disciples, Theodore and Athanasius.
After a long voyage accompanying the Apostle’s body, they came to the Port of Murgadán, Iria Flava, where they moored their boat to a Roman altar stone in the Sar River. The stone, which is called the “Pedrón,” is now located under the main altar of the Church of Santiago, in the municipality of Padrón. Padrón thereby became the “Cradle of the Way of St. James,” as demonstrated by the existence of several heritage sites in the municipal district.
And in deed Padrón feels very special. There is a special energy in the air that we experienced first hand after having walked up the 100 steps to the hill above the city called Santiagueño Do Monte, only to find out later that according to tradition, it was on this hill that St James the Greater had preached the gospel
What we thought would be just another stop on the way ended up becoming the highlight of the trip before coming back to Santiago
