Where did you stay?

Where did you stay?

In the past few weeks I wrote about the different types of accommodation where you can stay along the Camino (¿Dónde vas a dormir?, El albergue and ¿Dónde vas a dormir? (II)). And for this post I wanted to get the stories of people who have already done the Camino about places where they stayed. So I asked the question: where did you stay?

Which Camino?

Although we talk about the Camino de Santiago or the Way of Saint James as if there is just one Camino, the truth is that there are many routes leading to Santiago. There’s the very popular Camino francés, but you could also decide to do the Camino primitivo, Camino del norte, Camino inglés or Camino portugués, to mention just a few.

Let’s just look at the Camino portugués today. As the name suggests, it goes from Portugal to Santiago de Compostela. If you start your pilgrimage from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon (Lisboa in Spanish), you will have to cover a distance of around 600 km. If you walk 25 km per day on average, you will need 25 days to complete it.

Many people start from Porto; in that case, you will need around diez (10) days to walk the 240 km to Santiago. If you don’t have so much time, you can do the Spanish section of this Camino, from Tui. It’s 119 km (enough to get a compostela) and you can do it in cinco (5) or seis (6) days.

In Padrón

All the places these pilgrims tell us about are along the Camino portugués. Scott Prunty has a recommendation for you:

You must visit the monastery (monasterio) in Padrón before pushing on to Santiago. It was the highlight of my walk. We were given a tour by the friars that still study there. Then we were joined by local villagers for a beautiful mass (misa) together.

After a communal dinner (cena) with other pilgrims, we slept in the original cells that friars have lived in for centuries. The whole experience just made a connection to the Camino spirit.

According to the information in the following link, http://www.alberguescaminosantiago.com/albergues-camino-portugues/hospital-de-peregrinos-san-antonio-de-herbon-herbon-la-coruna/ there are 30 beds in this albergue. You cannot book in advance and you must produce your stamped credencial if you wish to spend the night. Apart from la cena that Scott mentioned, you can also have your desayuno (breakfast) here. They take donativo (voluntary donation).

Two places on the coast

Vera Wallström would like to recommend two places:

Pazo Pías in Ramallosa was a great place to sleep at! Single room (habitación individual).

And Camping Mougás, after Mougás. They have a saltwater swimming pool (piscina) with a view, lovely after walking 30km!

In this link you can find pictures and more information about Pazo Pías: http://pazopias.org/contenidos/peregrino 

In Porriño

And Tess Bouds had a nice experience at the albergue municipal in Porriño:

It is clean & quiet, even though it’s right next to a very large road. I forgot my glasses when I left and had to visit the policía, who called the cleaning lady. Twenty minutes later, I had them and was off. FYI amazing kitchen which you can use if you carry pots, plates, & utensils.

Do you have an “accommodation story” that you would like to share? Just leave a comment!

Today’s Spanish words

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¡Buen Camino!