It was another beautiful 10 mile day! Dad insists that this is the first real “Camino day” because we were finally out of the Porto metro area, and I can’t exactly disagree.
After a filling breakfast at our beach side hotel, we hit the boardwalk. And kept on the boardwalk for around 4 miles. We ran parallel to sand dunes, old windmills, a kids sports complex, and a golf course, before popping out on some back roads flanked by houses and farms. Then we kept walking. It was a refreshing change from the more urban areas of the last few days.
At one point we were walking through a wooded nature area and came across a curious sign by a local Pilgrim and sailor named Miguel. He had a lovely spread of shells behind the tree. We chose one each, dropped a few Euros into the tin, and tied our new shells to our backpacks. It made my heart happy to finally have a shell tied to my bag.
The main symbol found a long the Camino de Santiago is Scallop shells. They’re used as direction points to help guide pilgrims, and can be found everywhere along the way. The shell can also be seen as a depiction of the Camino itself: many paths leading to a single point, Santiago de Compostela. It seems like an arbitrary choice for a long walk’s symbol, but the shell has it’s origin traced to the myths surrounding St James and his body’s journey on a ship to Santiago for burial. There are several myths that I won’t get into, but one of the myths states that the ship carrying St James was lost and his body washed ashore covered in scallop shells that protected him from the elements. Some pilgrims would also continue 70km past Santiago to Finisterre on the coast to collect a scallop shell. So vendors started selling the shells to pilgrims. Which is likely how it has become common for pilgrims to tie shells to their packs.
Okay, enough history. We kept walking until the beautiful town of Fão where we stopped for lunch. Dad got chicken, and I got an unidentified sausage which I later learned was Alheira which is a sausage made with meat and bread. It was pretty delicious.
Not much longer to go, but we still took our little 15 minute break to air out of feet (which is working! No more blisters yet). before crossing the bridge over the Cávado River. The bridge crossing was a bit nerve-wracking mostly because I have a terrible fear of heights and since the bridge was under construction, there was a part for pedestrians made out of scaffolding that was far to narrow and though perfectly safe, had me speed walking and trying my best not to look down.
The last 2 miles was spent on the sidewalks in Esposende until we got to our lovely hotel for the night. Best hotel of the lot. But I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. I’m exhausted and going to take a nap. See you tomorrow!
STATS – Total Today (Total Camino):
Steps taken by me: 27,103 (104,125)
My mileage:10.47 (40.53)
Dad’s steps: 24,926 (94,820)
Dad’s mileage: 10.52 (40.38)
Number of blisters: 0 (3)
Pasteis de natas consumed by both of us: 3 (15)
Wandering with Marvin 
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