Viana do Castelo to Viladesuso
Four forms of transport get us to our first destination in Spain
By train, boat, on foot and by bus... that's how we covered the 47km between our last stop in Portugal and our first stop on Spain.
We had previously decided to avoid some wet weather, by taking a cab to Viana do Castelo. We got to our hotel checked in and found a launderette.
Ah, the glamour of international travel.
After playing roulette with the Portugese instructions. We emerged with everythig clean AND the same size as when it went in. This is a result.
The walking buddy was complaining of splinters in a finger, so we got some Portugese-strength antiseptic and had a go at removing the offending articles.
We awoke the next morning to the sound of the piano – this was a classier joint than we realised! – played at breakfast in the hotel atrium.
All the women were given carnations along with breakfast. As I said, a classy joint.
This would have been lovely if the splinters had not turned into a finger that wouldn't bend and was rather warm.
After an abortive trip to a local clinic, we found an online doctor at
Euro25 later, we had an online consultation and a further Euro 10 more we had antibiotics and anti-inflamatories.
We spent most of the day in our room, untill the sun emerged in late afternoon. Then we had a look at the fort before heading back to the room. Most of the fort's defences lie to the landward after it was strengthened in the Peninsular War.
We had already planned to get the train to Caminha today, and then walking from the ferry to Spain onwards to Viladeuseo. But what with the antibiotics, the new plan was little effort as possible.
Today we walked for 10 min to the station in Viana, 10 min to the ferry and in Caminha and then 30 min to Aguarda, the first proper town in Spain on the Portugese Camino.
Our luck was in at Aguarda and we walked straight onto a bus to Viladuseo. Two tickets for 20k in 30 min for Euro3.10. The train to Caminah was Eur4.20 for the pair of us.
We're just back from lunch at the Restaurante Lorena, chicken and chips for one of us, Bacalhau for the other...
Tomorrow should be a short, relatively easy day, just beyond Baiona. We eould have stayed in the town, but it is very full. There are a lot of people on the Camino route at the moment.
