Camino de Portuguese Day 10: Valença to O Porriño
Hiking the Camino de Portuguese from Valença, Portugal to O Porriño, Spain | June 2026
This morning began at the break of dawn, as most of our recent mornings had, but today with renewed excitement because we would be crossing into Spain for our first time! We emerged from the Albergue all ready to go, only to realize that it was lightly raining outside. After finding our rain gear (a rain jacket and backpack cover for Curtis; a poncho for me) we were actually ready to go. Today’s walk started by walking through the Fortaleza de Valença – a 17th century fortification. We walked through the historic walls to find the inside filled with cute shops, restaurants, and churches — all closed since it was only 6am, of course. Unfortunate for us because it would have been cool to get a stamp here, but I guess if we wanted it that badly, we should have gone out yesterday during our afternoon in Valença. It reminded us significantly of walking through the old town in Quebec City. While we weren’t able to do anything, it made the beginning of today’s walk more exciting. We managed to get a little lost on the inside and found ourselves walking on the walls of the fort, which gave us moody views of the river and Spain on the opposite side, with low hanging dreary clouds and mountains peaking out above them.
We found our way out of the fortress, then made our way down to the bridge over the Minho River, and together we walked across the border from Portugal to Spain. There was nothing we needed to do for the crossing which made it easy, though we wished we could have had an opportunity to get a stamp in our passport. Oh well, we snapped some pictures by the sign welcoming us to Spain! This is actually the second time that I personally have entered a new country by foot — back in 2009 when on a trip to Czechia, I walked across the border to Poland just for fun.
After crossing the border, our phones sent us the ‘welcome to Spain’ text, and the time jumped forward an hour. Just when we felt like we had totally adjusted to Portugal’s time zone! Now the sun wouldn’t set until after 10pm and wouldn’t rise until 7 — but if you think that means all the pilgrims adjust their schedule and wake up an hour later, you would be wrong! I think Galicia should declare independence from Spain solely based on these matters. We also felt like we needed to reprogram our brains from trying to understand Portuguese to Spanish. We at least understood Spanish a little bit better, but it still did not come to us easily.
The trail meandered through the city of Tui in a way that didn’t make a lot of sense — it went down towards the river then back up to the Cathedral, which felt like unnecessary elevation loss and gain, but what do we know, it was our first hour in the country. At least we were able to see the grand Tui Cathedral, even if it was closed this early in the morning. Another spot we would have liked to get a stamp for our credentials….oh well. We continued walking, and the city streets gave way to neighborhoods, and we started to notice the subtle differences between Portugal and this part of Spain.
As we made our way out of the town, the trail followed a busy highway, just on the side of the road. It wasn’t the most enjoyable, but the forest to the side was nice, with purple flowers blooming along the road. At least it was pretty easy walking, and the light drizzle that had followed us across the border had finally worn off. We finally got to break away from the road and walk through the woods, and cross over a historic bridge. We came across a man who was set up along the trail with a stamp and bananas for a small donation, and we enjoyed a nice chat with him and the healthier snack that he provided.
After enjoying our quiet nature walk, we started to approach the next town, where we were met with a sign informing of a break in the trail. Without understanding exactly what each entailed, Curtis said “easy or medium?” And I said “Easy” without any follow up questions, because sometimes my indecisiveness and desire to know everything before making a decision can be tiresome for Curtis, and I thought it would be helpful to just answer the question. And so we went what was marked as the “easy” way, going right instead of left, into the town of O Porriño.
Unfortunately this was a situation where a bit more research and consideration would have been beneficial. (Or maybe just the guidebook that we had ordered….which arrived in Iowa hours after our flight left.) As it turned out, the ‘easy’ way involved walking through a very industrial area on a long, flat sidewalk in direct sunlight. There was nothing worth looking at, it smelled a little funky, and we didn’t see any other pilgrims, so it felt like we were all alone in making this poor decision. After making it passed this stretch, we crossed a bridge over railroad tracks and followed a busy road through the outskirts of O Porriño into the town center.
We finally made it to the historic downtown area, which was at least prettier to look at, and then made our way over to the Albergue. Our trail friends confirmed to us that we made the wrong decision as they gushed about how beautiful the other path had been — a nature trail, surrounded by lush green and following a creek most of the way. We vowed to do more research when we came to any other forks in the road and not be swayed by the so called easy path anymore!
After relaxing, eating lunch, and chatting with others, we got checked in to our first Spanish Albergue, then went out for a walk in O Porriño. On the top of my list of things to do was visit Aldi, my favorite grocery store in the states, just to walk around and see what they had (we did this in Ireland last year, and it’s become a goal to visit them in as many countries as we can!) We picked up some pastries for breakfast the next day.
We had seen signs advertising a pilgrim meal here, so we ended up going there for dinner tonight. The restaurant is called La de Sandra, and we enjoyed a very filling meal at a good price here. When we were finished with the meal, he translated a list of their desserts which were included in the meal, and we both chose the ‘ice cream cake’, which wasn’t exactly what we had expected it to be — we were imagining it to be like what you’d get in the states, but it turned out to be a smooth, creamy ice cream that came in a rectangular shape and was cut into slices like cake. We declined the offer of coffee that normally came at the end of the meal, and the owner offered us a coffee liqueur instead, which paired perfectly with our dessert. We couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the night.
