We started around 8 AM and began walking on beautiful ocean boardwalks. The boardwalks then went inland a little bit with a golf course on the left-hand side right next to the ocean. The boardwalks, then continued through some very green foliage and wetlands, and also passed a lot of farm fields with greenhouses and a lot of productive farmland.

It was a long hotter day so we stopped at Nortada cafe for iced tea and then hiked along the ocean further.

We ended up getting into Apulia around  1 o’clock and were hot and ready to stop so we went to the Fam house restaurant and had a nice lunch. 

We went through Esposende next , which was a fairly good size town/small city. They had beautiful beaches and paved paths and parks along the beaches through town. They were packed with people as it was the national Labor Day of May 1. 

We went north from Esposende and went through a couple other small hamlets and were hot and tired and so stopped at the Casa Praia-Mar for some iced tea before the final couple miles walking on a main highway with narrow shoulders to get to Marinhas bed-and-breakfast.

We had a room on the second floor with a little balcony that looked out across a green farm field with the ocean in the background. It was beautiful and we had a nice sunset over the ocean.

We had a nice basic breakfast at the hotel and were chatting with the young people who prepared breakfast about what route we would take to go north. The one Pilgrim map I had showed going up through the center of the valley, but they said that most people who came to their hotel were interested in going along the ocean, which was only a few hundred meters from their hotel. We did not see that on any of our maps, but took their word for it so we went 600 m up the road to a Catholic Church and turn left on the road that did go all the way to the ocean.

When we got there, there was a monument with a large cross on it right next to the ocean and signs for a governmental organization who was developing trails called literal Norte so we started following the trails, which were mainly a series of dirt farm roads that led along the ocean on one side and lots of small farm plots on the other side. It was really cool to see the contrast between the beautiful ocean and the simple farm plots and houses on the other side.

There were not any real boardwalks in this area, even though it had been signed out by this association, so most of our walking was across Sand dunes or down rural farm roads with hardly any other Camino pilgrims around. It was very peaceful and pleasant as it was a sunny day.

We eventually walked into a little hamlet, called Castelo de Neiva And the path led us past some ancient windmills and past a cute white stone church next to the river. We crossed the river on a new bridge which had interesting tile artwork on its supporting columns and was pretty.

We eventually had to go into town and walk for a couple miles on the side of a busy highway before crossing the long bridge into Viana  de Costello. It ended up being the cutest charming old town that we had seen to that point. Our Airbnb was just above a shop in the main old historic town Square.

We basically walked along the coast for most of the day. The initial walkway along the ocean coming out of town was a paved walking trail along the ocean, which was smooth and very pleasant.

We stopped at Praia Norte Café for a quick breakfast.

The route also included a few beautiful boardwalks along the ocean farther north. The ocean was beautiful with many waves crashing, and the coastline was very rugged with many rocks.

It rained a little and we had to put on our rain gear and then it would stop later so we would take it off because it got hot and so we juggled  back-and-forth with that.

The trail was a little tricky to follow at times as there were various offshoots that looked like the right trail and we took one down a sand path to the ocean, but then realized we couldn’t cross a little stream down there through some wetlands so we backtracked up into town and Walked along some farm roads and cobblestone roads.

We finally found one nice paved road that went north for about 2 miles and then we had to do some walking through some sand dunes and actually a few hundred yards of going down onto the beach before we went back up onto the dunes and found a pedestrian bridge Into Villa Praia de Ancora, which was a very cute Oceanside village

We walked 7 miles today to get to Caminha to take the water taxi for the 10 minute ride across a river to get to Spain!

The route was relatively flat and easy with paved paths along the beach and through small towns.

We had a great lunch at Os Ramos restaurant, which had a great pilgrims menu including a wonderful swordfish dinner we enjoyed.

We stayed in a renovated apartment in an old historic building up a side alleyway in town. We went out to a Mediterranean place for dinner and got kebabs.

Walking from a garden to Spain to Oia Spain today mainly involved some gorgeous sandy trails which overlooked the ocean. We passed small villages and many old buildings, including one or two small chapels that we stopped in. The views of the ocean and the rugged coastline were beautiful and the weather was sunny so it was a very pleasant walk. We did do a little bit of road walking, , but generally dipped back down to the ocean for most of the trip.

 We stopped at a great restaurant just before getting into the village of Oia and had a great lunch.

We ended up the day at a small Airbnb unit that was part of a duplex with the owner living in the other half of the duplex. There were a few gardens and houses in front of us, but the views to the ocean were spectacular and there was a gorgeous sunset.

 The owner was super friendly and just a pleasure to talk to and get to know better. The unit was very clean and nicely set up and we had a very enjoyable time there.

Leaving the nice duplex that had a gorgeous view of the ocean, we hiked along dirt paths along the ocean for a few miles before the trail went up to the main road and walked along the road for a little while. We still had views of the ocean, but it wasn’t as pleasant with the cars whizzing by.

 The trail then crossed the road and began some Adirondack style hiking by going steeply up a dirt and rock trail through the forest climbing a hill. We did this for a little over a mile before coming into some streets in a small village.

We kept walking through streets in various suburbs as we approached Baiona, Spain.

The route then lead steeply up some switchback type city streets until we got up on top of the hill with a gorgeous overlook view of the whole bay with Baiona on one end of it and other little suburbs, stretching all the way around a huge circular bay.

We walked through city streets in Baiona before coming to our rental unit, which was right across the street from the Monterreal Fort, which is the most notable historic feature in the city.

This was originally planned to be a rest day for us in Baiona. We certainly were looking forward to a rest day as we had done a lot of long hiking and our feet certainly wanted to rest. However, as we look ahead to the 15+ mile day the following day to go to Vigo, we realized that this might be more challenging than we wished to do because of blisters and soreness at this point.

Based on this, we decided to do some sightseeing in Baiona in the morning and then walk partway up to Vigo in the afternoon to break the trip into two days.

 We looked quickly and were able to find a beautiful looking Airbnb to stay in that turned out to be a gorgeous old Spanish Hacienda right on the ocean.

In the morning we went to do a tour of the Monterreal castle and fort, which overlooked the bay in Baiona. It was a magnificent old stone fort constructed a long time ago and it now houses a high-end hotel.

We also wanted to see some of the other old town buildings, especially the churches in the old quarter of  Baiona. We ended up being able to see and go into three different beautiful churches that were relatively close to each other in the old quarter. This was very meaningful and special. We then went back to our room and ate the rest of the snack type food that we had bought at the food market the previous day for our lunch.

We set out about 1 o’clock and walked along the ocean as much as possible. There were beautiful beaches and high-end homes and resorts all along the ocean going north out of Baiona.

The first area we came to was Playa America, which had gorgeous beaches and high-end restaurants and shops and homes along the coast. We walked farther up the coast through some smaller towns. It was getting hot and sweaty and we were glad to finally reach our accommodations, which was a spectacular historic compound right on the ocean. 

There was one restaurant close by which Google said was open but when we got there the owner in very excited Spanish told us that they were not open and so the only other thing we could find that was open was a community recreation center a little bit farther up the road, which had a snack bar. We got there and the place was jampacked with parents and kids doing sports and fortunately we got two good burgers and some ice cream sandwiches and called it good enough.

We left a beautiful Spanish Hacienda we had enjoyed the previous night and walked along the main road for a few miles. Using the Gaia map app we decided to divert off to a side street to get less traffic going through town and eventually came to a nice little corner café, where we had breakfast.

From there, we walked down to the ocean and were able to follow streets or sand paths that walked along the ocean for quite a few more miles.

There were some beautiful beaches along the way, especially Samil beach, which was very long and had a lot of recreational features such as multiple pools, playgrounds, small restaurants, all on a paved stone promenade that went right along the edge of the ocean for quite a ways.

We followed these different oceanfront paths or sidewalks, most all the way into Vigo. We stopped at As Cunchas restaurant, which had a great pilgrim’s meal of bean soup, big cod, entrée and some nice dessert all for €13 apiece. 

Most of the older major buildings in town were made out of granite because they’re is a lot of granite in the Vigo area.

We went to our hotel at a chain, called the B&B hotel. Our feet were pretty sore and tired from the blisters. We decided to go to a large sports store in the nearby mall called decathlon sports to investigate the option of different shoes to use for the remainder of the trail.

It seemed like our feet had swollen and the current shoes that we previously had were just too small and contributing to blisters probably.

We found a very helpful sales clerk who spent probably half an hour with us discussing issues and agreed that it’s likely that our feet swelled. We ended up buying two pairs of high-end hiking sneakers, which were about 1/3 the price they would be in the US.

We entered the day by having a meal at a Thai restaurant in the mall.

Today was a real contrast in terrain. The first couple miles were walking busy city streets leaving Vigo. We had a good breakfast at the B&B hotel chain in Vigo. After about 2 miles of walking flat city streets, the trail took a right hand turn and went from almost sea level up a few hundred feet. The side streets were pitched very steeply, and there was one after another until we reached well up on the hill and started walking more of a flat road for a little while. We then transitioned into a relatively smooth, flat sand, gravel type of path that was making a big semi circular arc around a mountain heading towards Redondela Spain.

It was beautiful walking through the woods and at points we’d have stunning overlook views down to the bay, and the city surrounding both sides of the bay. We met a number of interesting people from different parts of the world and chatted with some of them for a few minutes.

We eventually started downhill on paved streets that went down as steeply as we had gone up. 

It started to lightly rain as we got to the bottom of the hill and started walking through the city. We put on our rain gear and within about a mile ended up at the Taperia Patri restaurant where we had a good pilgrim's meal of Raxo which I looked up and was a pork and potatoes meal.

After this, we had another mile walk approximately through the city to our Airbnb for the evening. It is like a good size studio hotel room and is clean and bright and white and nicely furnished in a more American modern style. We got here about 3:30pm and it was nice to have a little more time to relax in the afternoon.

Today gave us a real workout but we saw some neat natural sights as well as some really cool historical buildings, bridges and monuments.

We started on climbing steep city streets up a hill. We then transitioned to steep wooded trails up through the forest, which steadily climbed up the hills in the area. These climbs kept going and going weaving back-and-forth through the woods on what looked like relatively new trails that have recently been built.

We even ended up also hiking up wet streambeds, which made it just like the Adirondacks. We then dropped down fairly deeply into a small hamlet and we had breakfast after walking for a couple hours. 

From there we were lead on dirt paths out into the countryside where we went past some neat little family farms, grapevines, orchards, and other agricultural fields before we started climbing steeply again.

It was definitely a good workout, and thankfully, there was a enterprising guy with a food truck at the top of the final climb before we descended into the next town.

Along the way we saw some really cool old Roman bridges with the Roman arches that we crossed. Walso saw a lot of neat old stone buildings that were still standing in some of the towns right next to more modern structures.

After about five hours of hiking and being pretty tired, we stopped for lunch on the outskirts of Pontevedra and had a very exciting lunch at a Middle Eastern type of restaurant. Details will be left untold.

We then hiked another mile to our hotel, which was near the old historic corridor in the downtown. After dumping our packs, we walk down about a half a mile to this gorgeous Basilica dedicated to Saint Mary as a chapel for pilgrims. It’s the only cathedral in Spain that is round in shape to simulate a scallopshell which is the symbol of pilgrims to Santiago.

We also saw many other beautiful historic buildings in this area, which is supposed to be the largest remaining old town historical area in the province of Galicia.

So a tougher day of Adirondack hiking with 1000 feet up in 1000 feet down but great views and some nice history.

We had a nice breakfast at the Pontevedra hotel. The weather was cloudy and there were intermittent episodes of light rain through the day. We mainly walked on country roads past farm fields with grapevines all over. Many houses had beautiful potted flowers and large vegetable gardens.

The forests resembled rain forests with TONS of moss/greenery covering the rocks walls and tree trunks which created a fairy tale/mythical type of look.

There were lots of pilgrims as both the coastal and central routes were now joined together.

When we got to Caldas de Reis we crossed an old stone bridge over the Umia River. We got a recommendation from the hotel receptionist and had a great meal at As Termas restaurant to celebrate Mother’s Day!!!

It started out raining this morning and we knew that there wouldn’t be many places to stop right away to get food so we had a little breakfast at a café right across the street from our hotel in Caldas de Reis.

We then headed out into the rain and unfortunately it rained virtually all day long on the 13 mile trip. The light to moderate rain eventually soaked us and we were cold and wet, but plugged along. We made a couple stops for food to help fortify us and that was a welcome break from the rain.

The walking was mainly through forest roads/trails with some road walking through small hamlets we went through. We didn’t do a lot of picture taking because the rain dampened our enthusiasm for a lot of photography. It was still neat to be able to do it and see the small towns along the way.

We were glad to get into our room in Padron Spain and cranked up the heat.

We have only one more full day of hiking tomorrow and then the following day we just have a short walk into Santiago and are very excited to complete the trip.

We woke up at 6 AM and were excited to start early to get to Santiago. We didn’t bother with breakfast at the hotel but started right out shortly after seven. It was a cloudy, foggy, cool morning, and not that many people were around yet, so it was nice to hike in the cool stillness.

The route was relatively easy and followed city streets for a while and then went through some wooded parklands with a little bit of up and down. Then, as we entered the city, we followed side streets until we came to the main street in town, which we followed uphill for a mile or so through town until we came to a left turn into the old town historic section where we walked another few hundred yards to get to the cathedral.

There weren’t that many people around yet so we got some nice relatively clear pictures of ourselves and the cathedral which were wonderful. We felt fantastic having been able to make it all the way from Porto. It has been a great trip and we are thrilled that we were able to do it!

After getting our pictures done, we went and found a great little café for breakfast, which was run by a young husband and wife couple who had just started the restaurant six days ago. We had a delicious breakfast and then went down to the pilgrims office to get our official Compostella certificate. I had checked last night and realized that you needed to register online first in order to get your certificate and then they give you a QR code to show when you get there.

We were a little nervous about long lines, but we got to the building and showed the security guard our codes and he gave us other slips showing our number in the waiting line. We had to wait about a total of three minutes in order to get called in to one of the 15 clerks that were reviewing information. They quickly looked at our passport book to see all the stamps that we had gotten each day and then gave us our computer printed certificates and we paid for them and we’re all done!

We spent the rest of the day on our tired legs wandering all over the old section of the city to the different churches and went through the main cathedral and then had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel clerk.

All in all, God has been very good to us to get us here safely and we are just enjoying it thoroughly. Thanks for following along and sharing this adventure with us 💕💕💕