Day 11, May 8, 2017, Barros to Pontecesures

San Roque statue in Pedron

Even though we were packed and ready to go before 7:00 this morning, we are still among the last to leave. Everyone else is in the kitchen getting the breakfast they'd purchased on the honour system for 3€ apiece. We'd saved our sandwiches that we were going to eat last night. We figured we'd stop to eat them at a café with coffee along the road. The day is hot and we have little in mind but the completion of our journey, just three days away. We're excited because it will mean that we've achieved our goal, disappointed because it'll be over. 

In Caldas de Reis, we stop at the parish church where we admire a statue of the town’s patron saint, San Roque. Significant for me is the fact that he’s also the patron saint of pilgrims and dogs which I believe has symbolic significance. After all, what other creature has the ability to walk for long distances on two legs and what animal likes more to be taken for a walk?

We pass a number of autocafes where we could have purchased coffee from a machine with seating area in attractive surroundings. They all would have provided a more appealing locale than the supermarket with attached café where we finally stopped for breakfast. To our amusement and pleasure, the young, solitary German woman we’d seen off and on since Arcade is seated in the same café. 

Factory

We choose at a table by the window in the spartan room with one long bar, tables and little else. An older Spanish lady, the only other restaurant patron, has asked  the German lady why she'd embarked on the Camino for a second time. She replies that she needed time to think. Her pithy and complete response leaves a deep impression on me. What other other activity allows for vast amounts of time for contemplation? 

For me, walking is about the thinking but it's also about the not thinking. At the beginning of the day, the walk feels liberating but, by the end, it can begin to hurt thoughts become a simple counting. One step after the other. I'll put on my earphones and listen to music or an audiobook or a podcast and I won't think of anything else. If I can put my concentration on what I'm listening to and not my pain, then the only other thought that will be going through my head is how far it is. If you've been plagued by concerns that feel like they're going to overwhelm you, then the pain of the walk can be liberating. And, unlike injury or disease, it stops when you stop walking. As Bruce Chatwin says, "Mans' real home is not a house, but the Road, and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot."

The road past café provides constant views of Pontecesures, our destination, in the distance. We just watch it get closer and closer. A factory is the most prominent landmark of the city and is located just across the river from the hotel where we're staying. Unfortunately, the room we're given does not afford a view of that river and the medieval bridge just down the road. 

Our Hotel with the potted plants

After putting our bags in the room, showering and changing our clothes, we take a short walk along the river with a view completely dominated by the factory. Interestingly, the only information I can find about a factory in the town is for Nestle condensed milk so maybe that was it.

Dinner turns out to be a complete disappointment. We wanted tapas and the girl, who also booked us into our hotel has no idea what we're talking about. We end up with a very boring hot potato plate and two giant plates of fish, neither of which has been prepared in a manner that made what can be termed a culinary delight. 

We retire to our room early that night and start the movie, “Night Train to Lisbon” starring Jeremy Irons. I’d read some of the novel.  It's about an older teacher who stops a girl he meets on a bridge from committing suicide. She comes back to his classroom and then disappears leaving behind a book that begins the mystery of the story. Where's the girl who left this book? The teacher travels to Lisbon to learn about the author of the book the girl has left and the identity of the girl. From his research, we learn about Portugal and the uprising under Antonio Salazar. 

Nicola likes the movie. I fall asleep. 

Ponte Cesures