Day 2 Arrival in Portomarin

The 100km sign, just outside Portomarin.

Some pilgrims we met had walked much more than the minimum 100k necessary to get a ‘Compostela’ in Santiago. We came across a jolly group from Beauvais in Picardy in Northern France who had walked for a week every year for the past twelve. They had started in Chartres in Frnace and had covered the Camino Frances. Now they were on their last lap. They walked, talked, chatted, drank and ate in a thoroughly Gallic fashion. We were to meet them finally in the pilgrim reception in Santiago when receiving our own Compostela. Clearly there are many ways of completing the Camino.

 

View across the reservoir of Portomarin built about 60 years ago.

You don’t get to see a lot of water on the Camino and we all agreed this was one of the prettiest stops on our journey. We stayed on the very acceptable hotel Andres in the middle of Portomarin who kindly facilitated us when I lost the details of the hotel we were due to stay in. We eventually tracked ‘Roberto’ down to another hotel and made our apologies. Portomarin was built during the construction of the reservoir to house the residents of the drowning valley. The Church had been relocated stone by stone to the new centre.

We enjoyed a cool beer in the arch lined main square and repaired to a restaurant where we later joined by Rosemarie and June.