Camino Portugués in Spain Camino 1st class with Sanne from Tui at the Portuguese/Spanish border to Santiago sanne-vandreture.com I simply love Galicia and to walk here in the footsteps of the pilgrims. This camino have many pilgrims but a lot less than the French Camino. That is one of many reasons why I prefer the Portuguese Camino. Rio Miño is the border between Spain and Portugal with Tui on the Spanish side and Valença on the Portuguese side. You have a great view from the old town of Valença, which goes back to the XVII century, with a fortress overlooking Rio Miño and Tui in Spain.
The old bridge over Rio Miño The yellow arrows and the shells will guide us all the way to Santiago de Compostela where according to the legends, St. James is buried in the cathedral. I will be your guide every day to make sure you have a nice walk, rest, food, drink, and we get our stamps in our credencials in order to get the certificate in Santiago as a proof of our walking. Pilgrim passport and the certificate in latin Stamps (sellos) in the credencial. You get the stamps in churches, bars, hotels, and hostels
We will meet the local people, talk with the animals especially the goats like to talk-, enjoy the beautiful landscapes, eat the local food and taste the famous white wines from Galicia made from the great Albariño grapes. The name of the wine district is Rías Baixas. We stay at hotels/apartments and will have mochilla service (backpack service) if you like. We will make stops around every 2 nd hours where there is a bar or restaurant and in nature where possible. And we will of course meet other pilgrims and talk with them.
Here is an overview of the walking days: 1. Walking day: Valença /Tui - O Porriño about 16 km 10 miles 2. Walking day: O Porriño - Redondela about 16 km 10 miles 3. Walking day: Redondela - Pontevedra about 20 km 12,5 miles 4. Walking day: Pontevedra - Caldas de Reis about 23 km 14,3 miles
5. Walking day: Caldas de Reis - Padrón about 18 km 11 miles 6. Walking day: Padrón - Santiago de Compostela about 24 km 15 miles Two of the days we have hills to climb and descent and two of the days we take alternatives routes in order to avoid industrial areas and the traffic. Every night there is Pilgrim Mass at 19.30 in the Cathedral and on Fridays you will see the botufumeiro (thurible) swinging. You will see a sculpture of St. James standing in the middle of the Cathedral and it is a tradition to go up and give him a hug and see his tomb downstairs. There is often a long queue as there is a lot of tourists coming in buses to Santiago and of course the pilgrims.
The old town of Santiago is full of life, old buildings, tourists, souvenir shops, bars and restaurants with lovely food, bagpipes music because of the Celtic roots, and buskers. If you want to spend more time here I can recommend a daytrip to Finisterre the end of the world (about 90 km). It is a beautiful trip and takes 3 hours by bus winding roads. Information about the trip You can get a price idea on my website under afrejsedatoer (days of departure) After signing up and payment you will receive a fully detailed program for each day, a packing list and other useful information. PLEASE NOTE I do custom made tours if you are a group of four to ten people. Just send me a message. A little about me My name is Sanne Larsen, I am born in 1959 in Denmark, Nykoebing Mors (a small island in the Limfjord) Northern Jutland. My education: correspondent with two languages: English and French, and I have worked as a waiter, receptionist, matron, cleaning lady, and taken a lot of alternative educations. I have started two clubs with belly dance and I am still an active dancer. www.alruna.dk My interest for the camino in Spain started back in 2000 where I read the book of Shirley MacLaine The Camino which is the French camino starting in St. Jean Pied de Port in France and goes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, around 800 km. Ten years later my new partner and I were visiting the North of Spain by car and crossed the French Camino a couple of times and I told him I would like to walk this camino. So in spring 2011 we went to Leon and started from there. Since then we have done other caminos in Spain: Via de la Plata, Camino Sanabrés, other parts of the French Camino, and Camino Portuguese, and we fell in love with the Portuguese Camino which we have now walked a lot of times.
Two times we have walked the wine routes in Alsace in France and crossed pilgrim route St. James there: 2304 km to Compostelle Santiago. In June 2011 I worked as a volunteer hospitalera at an albergue in Astorga on the French Camino. It was a fantastic time where I met pilgrims from all over the world. Here some of them celebrating my birthday singing birthday songs from their own country: South Chorea, Germany, Canada, Greece, England and Spain My partner has an apartment near to Malaga in the South of Spain and we spend half the year here, so it is easy for us to go to the different caminos. I simply love Spain and its many different cultures. Buen Camino! Sanne Larsen Spain: Calle Velazquez 34, apt. 5, 29630 Benalmádena Costa, Malaga Denmark: Solvangsvej 9B, 8400 Ebeltoft sanne@alruna.dk info@sanne-vandreture.com Spain: +34 63 83 42 42 5 Denmark: +45 24 26 36 10