Yes, I am back from my Camino Portugués. All the way from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela. I am somewhat tardy reporting in – after three nights in Santiago, I took a bus to Lisbon. Tony, my guy, joined me there. We were tourists for a few days, then we went to England for two weeks to visit family and friends. Then, of course, I came down with a cold or flu or something horrible that happens when you travel on a plane. I have crawled out of that, written Christmas cards, and am finally putting fingers to the computer keys.
I am still digesting my Camino experience. Wise folk say that you really start your Camino when you get home. Well, maybe the comfort of home and sleeping in your own bed leads to wise understanding, but I am not feeling that yet. I would say that my Camino keeps going. I have dreams and flashbacks of a place or a sequence of walking, not quite knowing where it is or which day…somewhere, sometime in Portugal or Spain.
My Camino chum and I walked 640 km, so there seems to be quite a bit of place muddle. My previous Caminos were done in chunks; I have never done such a continuous distance. In fact, after my first Camino outing on the main trail – Camino Francés – though it is through Spain – I could visualize and recreate the whole trail in my mind after I got back. That was from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Logrono, just a mere 137km.
Though I pass myself off as an old Camino hand, in fact, I had only been to the city of Santiago once before. I had done some of the trail through France, I had done a chunk of the Aragone trail and been a volunteer at a hostel, I had co-founded our Edmonton branch of the Canadian Company of Pilgrims, heavens above, I have even written a novel set on the Camino (Pardon my Camino, great fun read, like walking the Camino from the comfort of home), but only made it to Santiago once and that back in 2007.
So, going back this time for my second visit was fun, getting to hang out and get lost in the city. Of course, the cathedral has not changed. But it is reorganized for access. In one door and out another. And to see the Portico de Gloria, the main entrance with its wonderful carving, you now need to buy a ticket. A bit sad. But they do need revenue to maintain that enormous building. Compared to all those years ago, the crowds are far larger – hence the new arrangements. We went to the pilgrims’ Mass. We even saw the mighty Botofumeiro, the giant incense burner, being hoisted up and swinging over us. (Usually only done on a Sunday, but you can sponsor a weekday event. People saying ‘must be an American.)
We took the bus back to Lisbon. In my mind, we would be driving through the green countryside with the sheep grazing, and I would be amazed at how quickly, in one day, in the bus, we covered all those kilometres. This, compared to the 40 days – yes, 40 days and nights – we took to walk it. (including some rest days and a tourist day off the trail to Braga). Well, first of all, getting the bus was very stressful, then it started to rain, we were on motorways, then it got dark, then there were no passenger breaks (no washroom on board) – oh, we changed drivers, but it all kept going, and we had a 90-minute traffic jam just north of Porto. In fact, the bus trip was miserable. It went on forever, and I could not believe we had walked that far! We ditched the bus at the Lisbon airport. It was 11pm, the airport was all lit up, we knew they had washrooms, and we could probably get something to eat, and it was a short taxi ride to our accommodation.
I see I have written more about the bus trip than the walking part. The trail from Lisbon is a mixture – roads with narrow sidewalks, great fields of tomatoes, forests, wonderful villages and small towns, historic cities, such lovely people and great Vino Verde.
In a future post, I promise to talk about accommodation, getting emergency refreshments, my wandering along long corridors in monasteries at night to washrooms and more!