Camino Portuguese. Day 11-14. Spiritual way to santiago de Compostela. Spain. 01. – 04 of May 2019

Дата 24 May 2019

1.05.2019 – Poio Monastery – Armenteira
Morning in the monastery of Poio. Birds sing songs. Sun blinks on the trees and on the ground.

Time to take a breakfast.

It was really ascetic. For us. Coffee, tea, water-melon and cakes. We had our own cheese and oranges.

To Combarro only 2,5 km. This small fishing village must be near the ocean bay.

We passed sleeping streets and get into the bay.

It was low tide and sunny.

Combarro is ancient village. It has very narrow quay fully occupied by restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops and charming old horreos.

This horreos, used for storage of mais (corn) are very picturesque. Of course, now they are only decoration in Combarro .

We are so early, that everything is closed. Only preparations for the long day.

We walked forward and back and decided to eat something. With big difficult we found one restaurant and ordered paella with seafood. Because it was 1st of May, all supermarkets ( by the fact it was only one) were closed. So, no breakfast for tomorrow, no meal in the evening in Albergue. And that’s why we ordered the meal for evening take away.

Lunch with paella was tasty and expensive.

Before ascending to the Armenteira monastery, we observed Combarro. Beautiful stone village with narrow curving streets.

And ascending 10-12 km.

Ascending starts from the first steps. By the road through the forest. Then we turned to the trail for mountain bikes. And up, up, up. It was hot.

On the top of the mountain i turned into the forest and we get to the monastery by shadow passes. Last 50 m were by Water and Stone old trail.

Unfortunately, inside the monastery it was big tent and we cannot saw the main church.

Near the monastery there were two overcrowded restaurants. And new, extremely expensive hotel.

Albergue was in one km ahead.

We were lucky, because when we arrived to albergue, no one registrated. In 10 min crowd of people arrived. We received second floor brenches in big room, where at least 50 people must sleep.

Our problems started in one hour. As we ate paella with seafood ( shells, claims, scallops) three of us were poisoned. We had temperature, vomiting and diarrhea. In the evening we asked for taxi and got to the nearest municipal hospital. It was very hard night. As we returned, it was clear that we cannot sleep in the common room. We were sick, we need to go to the toilet very often and the air in the room was not fresh.
So, we put mattresses on the floor in the kitchen.
It was our night in Albergue. Very spiritual night.

2.05.2019. Armenteira – Vilanova de Arousa

In the morning desire to eat had only two of us. We were weak. We had heavy stomach ache and headache. We think a lot and decided to go to Vilanova de Arousa by taxi. We hadnt extra time to stay in Albergue. We hadn’t any strength to make 25 km today.

Sick and weak peregrine can eat and use transport. It was proclaimed by Mykola Mirlikeysky who is the protector of all walking people.

Taxi brought us to the local hospital in Vilanova de Arousa. We had insurances, so all treatment was free for us.

For overnight i booked apartment little bit aside of center but on the first line with ocean view.
I bought vegetables, fresh fish, potatoes and made light soup and boiled potatoes as a main dish.

View from the window was excellent.

We need to decide the question with the boat for tomorrow.
We made few calls before but didn’t receive exactly time. Its officially allowed take the boat from Arousa to Padron because of the myth that the body of St.Jakob was totally cowered with scallops and was delivered by boat to Padron

Only one boat operates from Vilanova de Arousa to Padron. Ferry boat. As its mentioned in advertisement.

After many calls we made reservation. 6am. It will be cold and completely dark.

Vilanova is small nice village. It has few fish factories. They had unpleasant smell of fish. We tried to avoid this placed. After poisoning this smells were ugly for us.

3.05.2019. Vilanova do Arousa –Padron – Miladoiro

Early in the morning i made breakfast , we closed the door and escaped into the windy cold street. It was really cold. And completely dark.
As we get to the ferry point we saw 10 more people, waiting for boat. Near the pier it was big boat with one open and one inner desk. It seems not so bad.

But at 5-45 everything became clear. Rubber Zodiac for 20 persons…. Open. With one long row of sitting places back to back … Like for diving.

First – money. 19€ pp. Then boarding. I put on all warm clothes i had. And all goretex. And rain cover on backpack. Then small snacks and hot tea without tea) were proposed.

We sat in front part of the boat.

It was long journey for us because it was extremely cold. First 30 min we saw nothing. Only sometimes big mussels farm appears near the boat for 1 second.

It is some information that Vilanova de Arousa produced 70% of all mussels in the world. I didn’t investigate this question yet)

Then dusk starts and we saw green river banks. Here are also religious points but they were behind me and i had no possibility to turn back.

Soon metallic tubes of Nestlé appears. It was Pontesecures. Small village before Padron. Our finish point for boat trip.

I was still very cold.

As we follow the arrows to Padron, we found Albergue. It was just in time – coffee, toilet and warm place.

In Padron we didn’t visit monastery of Carmelites. We visited local cafe for cup of cappuccino.

My plan was to make 15-17 km and stay somewhere in the village for overnight. I saw that in one place had been couple of hostels, albergues and two or three casas. Only one casa had penthouse for reservation but i thought that we can rent it when we will be there.

It was a mistake. Everything was fully booked.

The only possibility not to go to Santiago today was pass more 6 km and stay in the Hotel Milladoiro. Its only 5,5 km to the main cathedral in Santiago.

This hotel was pretty expensive. 35 € per room. Possibility make reservation through Booking. No triple. Big beds! And we were forced to buy 3 rooms! Awful!

We ate in small restaurant near the hotel. It was very ordinary with unpleasant waiter. She forgot half of the order and was very disaffected.

This city before Santiago has nothing to see, nowhere to go.

4.05.2019 – Miladoiro – Santiago

Morning.
Breakfast. In the room. Big common room on the first floor is closed. Why? Strange people. They have only Peregrine and firmly close the room with tables, ext

Its SO COLD!!!!
Locals are in dawn jackets.

We are only 5,5 km from Cathedral.

One hour and we are in the park with the best view on Cathedral!

We did it!!
We are here!!

What the first – cathedral or Compostela?

I made decision – Compostela.
And we follow to the Pilgrims Office.

So, I didn’t know, that group of people is 3+ persons. And they must start all from the one point.
We are five. For group its ok. But we started from Porto and children from Valenca! They are group and we need to stay in awful long queue….

Children fulfill the form and will receive Compostelas at midday.

And we spent 1,5 hours waiting …

I saw people whom we met during the Way. I saw old and young. Someone study their credentials. And I understood, that my personal pass completely disordered – all seals are randomly stamped. And mostly, people made special places for each stamp for every day….

So, after 1,5 hours was my turn. As i approach i saw smiling person who asked about my starting point, asked my official name and asked if i want also certificate of distance. Yes. I wanted everything.
My name in Latin now was Annam.
I paid 3 Euro for certificate, received papers and Game Over!

We were happy!

In one hour children received their papers.