Day 20 Rubiaes to Tui 19km

Lots of nice photos today, so we'll start with a few of them.

Early morning Rubiaes

Swollen river near Rubiaes

On the road for 7.45 on a beautiful dry morning, with a mist in the valley as we left Rubiaes. The walk was largely off road and did not require too many hill climbs. We arrived at Valenca on the Portuguese side of the border. The route now goes through the old city, so we had a light lunch in the small central square.

Stream walk near Sao Bento

Near Fontoura Fuente

After Valenca, we walked a kilometre or so, crossed a river bridge, and we were in Spain, in Tui. Again a lovely old town. We are staying at Villa San Clemente, an older house a little way from the centre.

Waltraud, Kieran, Mary, Carlo and Fleur at Pacos

Wahooooooo!!

In case I didn't say it, the paths and countryside for the past few days have been beautiful - it was hard to appreciate it at times due to the rain. Also, the towns have all been a bit special. Sometimes you arrive in a town so tired that you don't walk too far from your accommodation once you are showered and settled. Then the following morning you see a lot more of the town as you leave it and you realise what you've missed.

Near the fort in Valenca

This blog is a cooperative effort. Mary set it up and structured it before we left Ireland and she is our tech support. Fleur takes all the photos and loads them from her camera to my iPad. Sometimes we use photos taken from our phones. I write the text and caption the photos (yes, I missed one yesterday).  The photo sizing and captioning has to be done on Mary's Nexus 7 as that function is unstable on the iPad. Then we all take a quick look at the finished post and publish it. It's a bit of fun!

Cathedral Tui

The crops in the fields are fairly constant at this stage: maize, vines, cabbage, tomatoes, oranges, lemons, kiwis, apples, and chestnuts. In the past day or so we have encountered walnuts. We hadn't seen a pomegranate tree for weeks but came across one again today.