For the past two weeks I have been walking through two northern regions of Spain — Asturias and Galicia. Asturias is the wilder of the two. The Camino Primitivo passes through alpine moorlands and remote villages where farming and pilgrims seem to be the only economic drivers. Wayfinding in Asturias was at times haphazard. On […]
Why?
My friend Tim Latter says walking the Camino makes you a better person. He might be right. Certainly it teaches perseverance. (You could also call this stubbornness.) But, at the risk of sounding like Pollyanna or Brené Brown, it also encourages empathy and curiosity. Meals on the Camino are a veritable mini-United Nations. At last […]
The green hills of Asturias
For the past week on the Camino Primitivo, I have been immersed in green! Even Ireland would envy these hills. The Camino Primitivo is the original Santiago pilgrimage route, established by King Alfonso II of Asturias in 824. It was Alfonso who ordered that a church be erected in what eventually became Santiago de Compostela, […]
Carved in Stone
On Sunday, I arrived in Santiago de Compostela and like hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before me, I was awed by the granite facade of the Cathedral. This is where Saint James is buried, and since 814 it has been a destination for pilgrims. The existing church was completed the 13th century. This impressive and […]
The Sacred and the Profane
Hello from day seven of the Camino Portuguese. It has taken me a little while to settle into this walk, and to find the energy to write a blog post. First off, I needed to get used to 25+-kilometre days carrying a pack. Ouch! And secondly, I needed to adjust my expectations after last year’s […]
The real end of the trail
The photo Diane took of me in Porto Covo marked the end of my backpacking trip. But the official end of the Fisherman’s Trail is 10 k north of Porto Covo. So Thursday, carrying just a daypack, I walked this final section. After 230 k of protected seascape in Southwest Alentejo and Vicentina Coast Natural […]
Sign sign. Everywhere a sign.
Is everyone humming along to the Five Man Electrical Band? I know Kevin is! Below, a collection of some of my favourite signs from the past month: Barry Hatton contends that there is a shard of anarchy in the heart of all Portuguese. A recent Portugal president complained that his countryman treated laws as rough […]
On Portuguese cats
It seems to me that, on the whole, cats in Portugal work hard for a living. Most of the cats I see here seems to be feral or semi-feral, and highly suspicious of humans. Either that or my cat whispering skills have entirely vanished! The cats I encounter slink down alleyways, pressed against the edge […]
Cafes and slave markets
I’ve experienced a change of pace over the last few days. On Monday, I reached Lagos, a city of 30,000 and the beginning of Algarve’s developed southern coast. Suddenly, there are more apartment buildings, more construction cranes, more traffic, and way more British accents. And fewer (read no) cows and goats. What Lagos lacks in […]
Yesterday I walked to the end of the world
When Prince Henry the Navigator launched Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery in 1415, Cabo de Sao Vicente marked the end of the known world — the limit of the charted seas. Yesterday I arrived in Cabo de Sao Vicente, marking the end of my journey on the Historical Way, and discovered a parking lot and […]