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Day 2 - Santiago to Valenca, Tuesday 12th September

Our bus to Valenca was not until 10 so we had a lie-in until 8 (although the Spanish group next door got up at 6 and were noisy enough to wake me up).

Before we had set off I had made us a banana loaf which we had brought with us so we ate that in our room for breakfast as well as some yogurts we had bought the day before.


It was raining as we set off so we got  little wet and I felt a little bit sorry for the Pilgrims just arriving who we saw on our way in - so far I have never arrived at the Cathedral in rain and I hoped that these people wouldn't be disappointed at the end of their journey although hopefully the joy of arrival was not dampened.

There were a lot of people waiting at the bus station and they all seemed to be waiting for our bus as there was a sudden surge forward as soon as it arrived.

The bus was due to stop at Pontevedra, Vigo, Tui and then Valenca at 11:05 (Portugal is an hour behind Spain so the journey was just over two hours) but when 20 minutes after our stop at Vigo we say old city walls we realise that the bus was not going to stop at Tui at all. I watched carefully as we drew up to the bus station and was able to see an arrow and so when we were off the bus we were able to pick up the Camino.

Valenca is a beautiful mediaeval walled city and so we took out time walking through it and stopped at a café (although this was partially to shelter from the rain and also to get a sello to show that we had started from Valenca).

When we set off again the rain had stopped but the weather had left the stones slippery as we headed down to cross the river into Spain.

Before the bridge (a metal one which was apparently inspired by the work of Gustave Eiffel) there are the remains of the old custom buildings and similar ones exist on the Spanish side (although these are in a bit more of a disrepaired state). It feels strange knowing that everyone used to have to stop at both of these and now to just be able to walk straight through them.

After the bridge it is another couple of kilometres before you get to Tui city. We stopped off at the Parador hotel and got a sello from there and arrived at our albergue at about 3.

The albergue was a new one - last year when Mum and Becky walked they had eaten at the café there which had had Gluten Free food for mum so we ate there again - I had a seaweed empanada and Mum had sardine and cheese sarnies.

We went to the Cathedral to get a sello but didn't pay to go in.

Today's walk was only 5km but the other days of our CAmino would be longer.





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