Pilgrim Passport

(Friday, October 4) - We began our day back at the Mercado for a breakfast of heavenly almond croissant and coffee. From there we headed toward the river. 

Leave it to me to fail to pack the one thing necessary to commemorate the end of this journey - my Pilgrim Passport. This little booklet is to be stamped throughout the walk to prove you made passage by foot to the end of the Camino in Santiago de Compestela. Presenting it at the cathedral in Santiago rewards you with a certified document stating such. I left my passport in Iowa. 

Thus a walk downhill to the Catedral do Porto to get another one. The gentlemen there couldn’t have been more helpful in providing advice for the journey. 

This evening we walked back to the riverfront for dinner at Ode. . I love the small, quaint restaurants where the service is spectacular. I had the day’s market fish - grouper - which was blackened with a side of turnip leaf and cornmeal. I could have done without the cornmeal which was a little like mush with some tiny chunks of fish in it. Eva ordered salted cod with chickpea stew. Don’t let the entree name fool you. Sounds drab, but it was delicious. Cod is very popular here. Somewhere along my way, I plan to try cod cheeks and cod tongue.

Why is it that Google Maps gives you one route to get someplace and then another to get you back to where you started? And the return is twice as far. It did that twice today. It must know that I’m still in training for a very long walk. We walked almost 9 km. 

Although our days on the Camino will be longer than 9 km, I believe I am ready. But am I ready for the rain? The forecast calls for rain every day for the next ten days. Yikes.