Change of blogspot

Hi, unfortunately blogpress no longer works for us. Google made some changes and I’m blowed if I can use it anymore ,so we are now posting on a new site called Wordpress
Our site is. urovelo.wordpress.com
Feel free to share the link on the page
Cheers
Don and Christine

Location:River Street,Katikati,New Zealand

Internet problems

There seems to be problems uploading blogs here. I'll post them all later in Lisbon


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Espinho

Porto's a lovely city and well worth a good look around


Lucky for us a group of bikers off a cruise ship invited us to follow them for a bit. Makes it easier !





We'll cross the river over the King Luiz bridge. Trains go on the top span and cars and bikes on the bottom one






We are now following Eurovello 1 down the Portuguese coast to Lisbon





Love the old boats. This is a repair yard for them





Clear of the river now and leaving Porto behind as we head down the coast. It's the first time we've seen the sea since arriving in Europe.
Love it. 😎


It's biking HEAVEN !
Running beside beautiful beaches with the breeze slightly behind us. Oh boy!


And a hotel with a pool. PHEW 😜

Portugal

We've all day to fill in before our train leaves for Portugal so we'll go searching for some books in English and a bit more sightseeing


The people on horses we saw a few days back have just arrived


The chap that seemed to be standing in mid air is under there setting up his 'secret'
It was a show in itself !


I've mentioned it before but there's a great feeling of friendship amongst those that have 'endured' the Camino


Now this is the Spanish train south to Vigo


Where we changed to the Portuguese train to Porto



We met three more guys who had biked the Portuguese Camino and they've convinced us to bike south from Porto to Lisbon
We'll see 😏😳

We're THERE 🤗

By 6am most of our hostel had gone. We hung around with lots of others hoping for somewhere to open for breakfast. 7.15 and still too dark to ride.


We had to ride on that road for the first 5 kms and then the pilgrims route followed a quiet road so we joined them.


Ring RINGG !!! Move please !


Finally !! It's been a long time coming.



This is a very nice city . There was a pilgrims mass at mid day which Christine wanted to attend. It was PACKED and the singing was exquisite


It was pleasing to see the sheriffs office is getting help


Then it was down to the pilgrims office to get the official STAMP 😇
The line went for about 50 metres and never seemed to get shorter. The volunteers can handle 3000 a day ?





I love the buskers! The witch was making the most money . For 2€ you could sit behind her on the broom for a photo shot.
Well, it's been a good ride. I think the Camino part of it although not the best part ,was a wonderful experience and we wouldn't have missed it.
And ,, we did get a certificate


Tomorrow evening we catch the train to Porto ,Portugal

O Pedrouzo

There was no need for an early start today as we only plan to cover 50 kms . There's a lot more bikes starting now carrying a minimum of gear so they race past us in their Lycra outfits. We in turn race past the foot soldiers.( I know now how the camper vans must feel when they race past us muttering " silly buggers" )


Beats me why they all want to do this final stretch. It's the most boring and we all share the road with constant traffic. I guess Its that final STAMP !


A quick comfort stop at Melide and a snapshot of probably the most interesting thing I saw today.
She put the donut mix in the machine and wound down the handle. Out squeezed what looked like 3 perfectly shaped dog turds into the fat. A few minutes later , sprinkled with sugar, I bought a bag of 5. YUM 😋






O Pedrouzo. A real nothing of a town but because it's 20 kms from Santiago, an important stop. Dozens of Albergues, hostels, bars and hundreds of hot and footsore pilgrims looking for a place to stay. We're in a pension sharing a bathroom with 3 other rooms and grateful for that ! ( see the wrist bands, there's so many in some of the Albergues , they need to keep a check on them )


These guys couldn't find a bed so they're crashing in the town square.
We just clicked over 2500 kms today since leaving Belgium so this route is just under 5000 from Trondheim.
Looking forward to arriving tomorrow

Palas de Rei

After a big day yesterday we decided to have a short day and just ride the 20kms to the huge hydro lake at Portomarin. Get a lakeside hotel, swim, perhaps hire a sailboat....


It was a steady climb to Pacios, the half way point and coffee stop. Boy was I going to enjoy that swim😅


WELL ! The damn dam was at a record low


When they built it they submerged an entire village and the remains of this Roman bridge.


No not this one, but you can see where the water should be. What a let down. Oh well push on. There's only 2 more major hills before Santiago.





Gonzar. Only an Alburge here so we've decided to push on again . It's lunch time so we order a bolognase and use their wifi to follow the all Blacks/ Aussie match
Oooooh life is good👍


At Ligonde, a tiny village 10kms out of Palas de Rei, we came across the greatest bulk of Camino tourists. This van was carrying their gear and taxis were bringing them out from Santiago by the dozen...





They get their stamp at the little church to prove they've walked it.( the priest was blind)


Then walk in the middle of the road. !The locals must get frustrated. I've never rung my bell so much😤
We were more concerned that they would get all the good accomodation as we don't book ahead.


2 pm and we were in first so got the room with the balcony. Not a pretty town but the rooms were nice