After crossing the border from Portugal into Spain on our fifth day of the Camino Portuguese, we began our sixth day with a goal of walking from Tui to Redondela. The stretch of trail out of Tui leaves on highway 342 before passing through a major industrial zone. There is a new scenic route that avoids this, but we decided to take a cab and skip ahead by 11 miles to Porriño. I walked more than my share of summer’s dog days on the Meseta while walking the Frances, and knew my two year old wouldn’t be a fan. The route from Porriño climbs a few steep asphalt roads before descending into the beautiful town of Redondela.
Stage Map And Overview
- Distance: 10 miles from Porriño to Redondela (11 from Tui to Porriño)
- Elevation Gain: 900 ft
- Minimum Elevation: 53 ft
- Maximum Elevation: 760 ft
- Time: 6 hours
- Stage Overview: Lots of asphalt and concrete through an industrial area
Camino Portuguese Day 6: Rubiãs to Tui
After an early morning breakfast at our albergue, we caught a cab to Porriño to escape the industrial zone outside of Tui. We knew from looking at the map that this day of walking would be on asphalt and concrete 80% of the time. Luckily, the massive amounts of road walking would be easy to cover on this short 10 mile day.
We made a quick stop early on at the cafe adjoining Albergue Santa Ana for some coffee after Owen spotted the goats just off of the main Camino path. Part of having an enjoyable Camino experience with a toddler is letting them dictate the pace and stops.
After leaving the cafe of Santa Ana behind, we walked along a few short stretches of dirt path before hitting the long uphill climb towards Parque Alto. After pushing Owen’s stroller up Alto da Portela Grande on day 4, we made quick and easy work of the smooth track of asphalt beneath our feet.
After reaching the peak of our asphalt ascent, we began a short downhill and decided to stop for lunch. To Owen’s (and our) delight, we ran into Marco and Amira once again! We also saw quite a few of our other Camino friends from day’s past.
The final downhill stretch towards Redondela mixes road with dirt path and is very steep. We put Owen on Julia’s back, and I navigated the downhill with the stroller.
Heading into Redondela on N-550 was a bit of a white knuckle experience that required a few unprotected crossings. These are the kinds of things I wouldn’t even mention as a solo pilgrim, but with my son, I was less than excited about it.
We made it to Redondela and decided to grab our first pizza on the Camino Portuguese. We stopped at a place called Portofino Pizzeria and had two really good pies. We got talking with the lady that served us our pizzas, and picked up an American accent when we heard her speak. It turns out she is from Hawaii and is married to a Spaniard.
After eating our lunchtime pizza, we made our way to our accomodation for the night, Albergue A Casa da Herba. We partnered with Pilgrim.es for this Camino, and they booked all of our accomodations along The Way. Their booking for Redondela was probably my favorite along the entire Camino due to our room’s location and view. We had a nice large room with a patio overlooking a courtyard.
After showering and relaxing for a bit, we made our way down to the nearby restaurant called Casa Consejo for a pilgrim’s menu dinner. We got to watch the World Cup while Owen played with his truck toys.
After dinner, we walked around town a bit and prepared ourselves for the next day on our Camino. On day eight, we would be heading from Redondela to Pontevedra.
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Love the pics w/ Julia carrying Owens big yellow truck on top of her backpack! I bet you got a few comments on that! 😉
We did! People were asking about it everywhere we went. Owen had a collection of 7 trucks by the time we made it to Santiago!