10/5 – this morning we crossed the bridge over the Rio Minho in Portugal, or the Rio Miño, as the Spanish spell it, into España. (I just figured out how to make little squiggles over my ‘n’s, and am very proud of myself!)

I adjusted my greeting from Bom Dia to Buenos Dias, and on we went, 12 miles. On this side of the border, the Camino signs also count down the number of kilometers left to Santiago:

We read in the blogs about this Camino that the route in this area was recently moved away from a busy road to a wooded walk, much to the chagrin of the cafe owners on the old route who now get less traffic. Every night, the yellow waymarks are painted over with black paint by the bad guys, and every day they are repainted by the good guys. We laughed at a new arrow that was placed high on a pole – presumably the vandals are short people!

On our lovely nature walk we saw some geese, and a very friendly horse that took a liking to Jim:

Once we got to O Porriño, we could see that it was not just any Sunday. There was a town festival, and everybody was out; kids playing games, and everyone else drinking beer and eating…chickpeas! A chickpea festival?? There was music, lights and much cavorting in the streets until the wee hours. O Porriño!