Stage 13. Sao Joao to Porto - 25kms, sunny and mild

Unexpectedly, we are in Porto this evening, waiting under a huge statue of Don Pedro IV to meet Ilja for a final cerveja. How did that happen? Herein lies today's tale!

Our plan today was to sleep in a little, breakfast at our pension and then walk in a more relaxed manner to Grijo, a mere 20 kms from Sao Joao. This we did, and though the scenery wasn't incredibly inspiring and involved many roads and tired, even crumbling, built environments, we enjoyed the pace and found interesting things to see.

Karina, this one is for you. This church was all done in purple tiles.

A typical simple tiled house - this one in a green theme.

Pruning the corn so that all the growing energy goes to the cob.

These chooks were really noisy as we walked by.

We were aware, as we have been on so much of this caminho, of the juxtaposition of old and new, of peasant and more sophisticated worlds, which seem to coexist with ease. One moment we are walking past an older woman washing clothes in a public pool and the next a shiny black BMW flies past us - symbols of such different ways of life.

Which brings us to haiku time ...

Old women, old ways

Hand washing in house coats

Remnants of lost time.

We continued to be struck also by the number of abandoned houses, and the poverty of some of the living spaces.

Sometimes weeds and blackberries grow among the ruins.

Blackberry grows from 

inside out. Life seeks light

as pilgrims our way.

We passed a shop which sold the kinds of garden ornaments we wrote of yesterday. Alex, this one is for you!

And continued on past pampas grass and industrial sky lines.

We arrived at the albergue in Grijo by 12.30, and discovered it to be simple (which was ok) and not very clean feeling (less ok). We were also only 14km from Porto, by all accounts a wonderful city, and it seemed a pity to while away the afternoon on the outskirts when such a historic place was so close. However, we knew that the walk from Grijo would be all on hard pavement and we hadn't been mentally prepared for a 35km day. In the end, we decided to take the bus and save our legs and feet for exploring Porto. On our first Camino, it had felt important to walk every stage to the extent we could ... this time, this seemed less necessary. In this moment, we gave ourselves a break!

We got off the bus just near the (extremely high) bridge, and enjoyed our first glimpse of the spectacular Douro River and Porto.

Note the old port barrels on this boat.

On the other side, Morning Glory was making a spirited bid to reclaim some ruined  buildings.

Karina, this one is also for you ...

We went first to the Cathedral to get our credentials stamped...

And to our delight, who should be emerging from the Cathedral as we arrived?? Ilja! He'd come mid-afternoon, just on the off chance we might come in around then. Our bus taking decision was wonderfully rewarded!

And so, here we are, in one of Europe's lovely old cities. And with some extra time to explore it. We look forward to discovering and sharing more tomorrow. Meanwhile this evening, Ilja did arrive at the monument, along with Mie and Mary who he had met on his way to us. We enjoyed a last talk together and then returned to our little apartment where Annemarie and Geoff had kindly prepared a wonderful simple dinner. O, the pilgrim life, what a pleasure it has been today.

With our warmest

Sarah and Neil