A rebel without a clue.

Needed to leave the warmth of Ideas Peregrinas Albergue for the warmth of the Cafe attached below and a large mug of Tilla tea, oat biscuit and chestnut cake. Three substances I know provoke sleepiness. I was a bit restless even in the comfortable bottom bunk in room 204. Hops also do that don't they. A hop pillow ... My only concern is whether my boots will have dried by the morning. The rain was running rivers everywhere. Newspaper... In the 21st century these are less common than the ubiquity they were prior to the digital age? Annoyed with the weather. Tui is a nice city, perched on the top of a hill, overlooking the Minho river...but I didn't make it all the way on foot! I feel a bit of 'guilt' because I caught a train. But I am not a fool. I recall the downpour which kept me in Óbidos in 2021 - around about the same time of year too. The gentleman behind the counter in the Eco-Café suggests tomorrow will same. Perhaps I stay put, chill out and then catch the bus o...

Full blown cold! Makes me even more weary. 7:30am for breakfast, but I am not coping well this morning. It's also tanking it down. Walking? Good question... Second coffee across the street and it's not working. I feel dry as a bone too. Hasty breakfast and catching the train to Valença... The weather abysmal. Torrential and wind. With a cold I'd be making things much worse? *** Soaked by the time I reached Ideas Albergue in Tui. Showered and went next door for a hasty lunch. Unlikely to leave the warm and dry. The Páramo Halcon coat is wet out! Nothing stays dry on a day like today unless it's a poncho, but I don't like how they make me sweat beneath! This albergue has a tumble dryer so I should chuck the coat in the bring it back to repellent? Later later: siesta? Well almost! In stumbles a Russian who lives in NYC. Just as I was getting a little warmer too. Hastily made a brew from a solitary Chamomile bag. I think I will go find a cash machine and read a book? Th...

On the way with waves crashing and Amazona making me tearful: oh Roxy Music - that was probably too loud for the tranquility of the Caminho coming out of Viana, below the Santuário de Santa Luzia, and find my way again?! For the second day running I'd found bliss in the morning, but I just wish I could have it in the afternoon when I am just too fatigued to care for the cobble stones I bounced along without any consideration prior to lunch. And after lunch I thought about catching a train rather than follow the litoral - along the decking and dunes. And I saw only two other pilgrims, apart from the other one who was up with me around 6am in the cold damp albergue. Tom from Melbourne, Australia, who I briefly exchanged pleasantries with before I went to being in the 'now' surrounded by the glory of nature and just now, prior to the turn to Âncora, coming south from Spain a fraulein heading to Porto from Santiago. She'd only spent a night in Santiago, as it wa...

At Saõ Roque, in Póvoa de Varzim, with his loyal companion, is my saint of 'choice': at least he probably existed, is the only church I've set foot in so far on the journey. And to see him showing the same wound on his leg as Jesus's ... He wears the attributes of a pilgrim, with the scallop shell adornments, but was he a pilgrim? Today the only pilgrim I saw until Viana del Castelo was going to Fatima. He had a dog. It was in Esposende - perhaps he was Saint Roch? Seems ages ago since I left the coast for inland, and, after an enjoyable meander alongside the river, it's up through the eucalyptus tree plantation until, in some desperation and a little fatigued, I've stopped opposite Saõ Sebastião(Pão Quente) for lunch around one. Now it's a little over 8 Kms to finish the day? Chafé. As I run out of energy I do get stupidly hungry! Wednesday already: day 5. Yesterday I was 'seeing' very clearly for the first time, but this morning I a...

Last night I went to the sack early (just as the hostess was preparing ribs for supper (the divine smells of garlic wafting upstairs)) because I was feeling something in my head, nose and throat (and a slight ache in my bones), but I can't imagine where I have caught another ague from?!? Recently, on the Camino Frances, I had a wee sniffle - but there I was in mainly Municipal Albergues where there wasn't much separate between bodies... Something was going around, but it was'nee the Plague. ... Back in late February of 2020 I was heading out to the Jakobsweg between Fulda and Metz, just as COVID19 was rearing it's head. After flying late to Köln and then heading to Frankfurt on a packed Flixbus, where I had to share with some very unhealthy sounding people who were returning from a ski trip in Italy, my film maker friend Michael (The Walk) took me to Bad Vibel for a couple of nights. After I had set out from Fulda (3 days after the coach trip) I was already ...

The only pilgrim I saw today was on the opposite side of the track and heading to Fatima... Stopped for lunch, but my first objection is the music is all cover versions ... Just now Lithium ... It shouldn't be done. The soup was too salty so I worry about the fayre to come! And the faces of the other diners are well 'crispy' - I smiled loads but they di'nee - is this just Portugues? However the wine, Malvasia I feel, has that gentle salinity in that Vinho Verde fashion (with its subtle petilliance too) and was wonderful. But the best thing to about the current song is it is 'not' Guns and Roses ((a very overrated 'rock' band) and please give me AC/DC before Bon Scott's demise!)) and the cover version is more tolerable than the sickening original. And I am left wondering what makes the owner tick as it just makes me tick tick boom... The last few steps were fatigued indeed. So any port in a storm. Manjar de Praia: the olives are lovely, so is the brea...

Monday morning... And there is no feeling better than being heckled by someone in the Santiago group on FB? Of course it's fine... They don't actually know anything about the Camino if they thinks it's meant to be a smiley happy thing. I repeat it: it's never a smiley happy thing! But obviously it also a smiley happy thing! This morning the news is featuring on the snow in Northern Europe, slightly less stressful than Gaza or Ukraine! My mum sent me a photo of the snow: it made me laugh as it looked like pretend snow. Some places it must be more widespread? And obviously the kids are off school and out on their sledges and toboggans; constructing snow persons? I recall we used a black polythene bag if we were caught with snow and no sledge. Last night a thought came to me: walk to Valença and then back to Porto, via Braga... Am I really interested in reaching Santiago so soon after the previous visit? And now I have to return to Porto to get back for young A...