Portomarin – KEVIN CRAIG

Camino de Santiago – Day 10 – Portomarin to Palas de Rei

We made it! I am so tired, this is going to be a short post.

We left our albergue in Portomarin at 7:12am. The second photo below is the big hill we climbed after leaving Portomarin. In 2014, our group didn’t stay in Portomarin, but just walked through it. We went to a supermarcado and bought all the fixings for a picnic. We had an excellent picnic of meats and cheeses and crackers and treats at the top of that hill just outside of Portomarín. It was pure perfection! Thanks to our fearless leader, Sue Kenney!

Here we are at the picnic at the top of the hill in May, 2014.

As the sunrise happened this morning, we realized it might just be an iffy day, weather-wise. It would look really nice one minute, and close to rain the next. The mist was everywhere and the sun was not burning it off. The heat of the sun was just not there today.

Before the rain came, though, I was able to visit the incredible ruins at Castromaior. They really take your breath away. They were developed in the Iron Age, and it was inhabited between the 4th century BC and 1AD. Absolutely amazing! The first photo, we took at the top of the hill in Castromaior. Once we crested the hill, there’s a milemarker. If you follow the little path through the brush from that marker, you will find the ruins about 100 feet in.

The milemarker after the hill. You can go straight back from this marker to the ruins. Just up over a little hill. Two minutes away from this marker…not far at all, and well worth it!

Soon after leaving the ruins, we hit our first period of rain. Out came the rain ponchos.

Then the sun came out and our ponchos dried up… right before the second downpour. The last 5kms or so was all rain. The ponchos kept us mostly dry, though. We are now in our hostel, Pensión Santirso. It’s about three minutes from the centre of town… not that bad. We went into town for a nice Pilgrim meal. Now, we are ready for bed!!

That’s it for today! Onward to Arzua tomorrow! Buen Camino, peregrinos/peregrinas!

Click here to jump to DAY 11 – Palas de Rei to Arzua!

If you’ve found this post helpful and would like to support this page, you can do so by buying me a coffee! KevinCraig-BuyMeACoffee

While you’re here, I wrote a novel set on the Camino Frances route. You can check it out at Amazon here: THE CAMINO CLUB

O Mirador – A Jewel on the Camino de Santiago! A Must Visit Restaurant in Portomarin!

We just returned to our albergue from an evening at O Mirador. What a lovely dining experience we had!

We had a lovely view of the Rio Miño, and the most excellent of meals. Our server was most gracious about taking our photo, too. There really are no bad tables at O Mirador. The restaurant seating is a semi-circle, with most tables facing the beautiful river.

We had a variety of dishes from the menu. And each and every one was delectable.

We started with a Rioja wine, because when in Spain! It was so nice.

We started with the Homemade croquettes. They were absolutely melt in your mouth goodness. Pure magic! Melty cheese and ham. SO GOOD!

We could not NOT order the cheese board. We love our cheese and this selection was SO DELICIOUS.

How can bread even BE next level! YUM. It went so well with the cheeses! Say yes to bread!

You’re never going to guess what we had next. Padrón peppers. Again! And not a single hot one. I was afraid after yesterday, but these were all tame and delicious.

With the Padrón peppers came our shared main. With all the starters, we only had the one main between us… no issues.

It was delicious. I’m not one for beef, but it was really tender and tasty. You could taste the charcoal. Nicely medium rare.

Then came the delectable dessert! Again, we shared. We each picked something that piqued our interest and tastebuds, and we were both thrilled with the result.

I chose the Stones of Portomarín (Ancano). Michael chose the brownie. We were so spoiled! Absolutely delicious!

I’m so happy we reserved for O Mirador in advance. It was such a lovely experience! Our special treat for breaking the 100km milemarker today. Why not? You only live once. There’s no one else in the world I would have wanted to experience it with. A lovely night!

If you are planning your Camino Frances Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, make sure to book O Mirador for your meal in Portomarin. After all those kilometres, you deserve it!

It was a lovely walk back to our albergue.

The receipt, to satiate your curiosity. 😊

Buen Camino, peregrinos/peregrinas! Tomorrow we walk to Palas de Rei!

Camino de Santiago – Day 9 – Sarria to Portomarin

We made it to Portomarin today!

It was a fairly easy way, with a couple big uphills and quite a downhill at the end of the day. A mix of ups and downs, as usual. Nothing murderous.

It was the first day for lots of peregrinos/peregrinas. In order to get the Compostela (certificate of completion) at the end of the journey, you must walk at least 100 kms. The closest town to that number is Sarria… so it’s the most popular place for people to begin the journey. Not everyone has the luxury of taking a month or more to do the full walk from St. Jean Pied de Port.

If you start from Sarria, you really get a good feel for what the Camino is.

We left our albergue at 6:53am and we walked for several kms in darkness.

We were almost never fully alone today. A slightly different feel, but nothing drastically different. The new pilgrims most likely left after daybreak. All of those walking in the dark were pilgrims we recognized from previous days.

We stopped for breakfast relatively early. It was still dark. We stopped because we didn’t know when the next place would appear.

We soon came upon the spot where we found horses on our last Camino in 2019. Guess what!? They were still there. These horses know exactly how to work a crowd. They stay by the fence right along The Way, in order to get pets and apples and admiration!

Of course I fed this beauty an apple…

I love fences and gates and stone walls. There are a lot of them on this part of the Camino.

It didn’t take us long to get to the 100km milemarker today. They changed it! The one we saw in 2019 was so covered in graffiti and knick knacks, you could hardly see the numbers on it. It was smothered. This one looks relatively new.

It was right after the milemarker when we saw this Ninja dog…

We came across our first Hórreo of this Camino. Soon after we saw them everywhere…

Into every life, a little rain must fall. Today, there was a bit of rain. Not too much. Enough to pull out our ponchos. It was Misty and spitty for a couple of hours.

Just before you get to Portomarin, you have a choice to make. LEFT OR RIGHT. I went right in 2014. It is mostly road all the way DOWN into town. And down almost all the way. In 2019, Michael and I chose the left way. It was a hellscape of rocks and dirt. It was like a drainage ditch with walls of dirt closing in on both sides and almost too narrow for one person. That means no passing. If you’re behind a slow person, you have to go at their pace. If you’re the slow person, you’ll feel like you’re holding everyone up. It’s a nightmare.

WE WENT RIGHT THIS YEAR! The right way is the right way. Pro tip for you!

Seeing that lovely bridge tells you you’re almost there! Just cross the bridge and climb the stairway and you’re there!

We are relaxing in our albergue room. We booked a special dinner tonight. I think I’ll make a new post just for that. For now, it’s Buen Camino, pilgrims! We need to find a bar in town to have pre-dinner drinks! We’ve earned them.

Just a couple more photos first! This church was down by the river (the whole town was). They were going to flood the valley to make the river larger, so they disassembled what they wanted to keep and brought it up the hill. The church was taken apart, brick by brick. They numbered each brick, carried them up the hill, and put the whole building back together again at the loftier height.

This was my third time coming into Portomarin, and only the first time I got to go inside the church. The first time, there was a wedding happening, and the second time it was closed.

Buen Camino!

Click here to jump to our dinner in Portomarin at O Mirador! Don’t miss this restaurant when you’re passing through!

Click here to jump to DAY 10 – Portomarin to Palas de Rei!

If you’ve found this post helpful and would like to support this page, you can do so by buying me a coffee! KevinCraig-BuyMeACoffee

While you’re here, I wrote a novel set on the Camino Frances route. You can check it out at Amazon here: THE CAMINO CLUB