Camino de Portuguese Day 12: Redondela to Pontevedra
Hiking the Camino de Portuguese from Redondela to Pontevedra, Spain | June 2026
Today’s stretch of trail was definitely one of the best out of our entire hike, and after spending the last couple days missing Portugal, this section gave us a new appreciation for the beauty of Spain! We woke up before dawn thanks to all our new noisy fellow pilgrims, and we just decided to go along with it and get a head start on our day. We walked North through the now empty streets of Redondela, finding it a bit of a struggle to see the yellow arrows in the dark, but it was fun to see this town in a completely different light than the day before — perfectly quiet with most people still asleep and only the streetlights illuminating the charming cobblestone streets, as opposed to the craziness surrounding the festival that we had seen the day before.
Our hike today would take us from Redondela to Pontevedra, which was 20 km from one Albergue to the next. We would be going up and down two different mountain passes, with the town of Arcade right in the middle. We were in the dark throughout the rest of Redondela, with the first light starting to appear on the horizon as we began our trek up the first pass, and as we arrived at the top we were met with the most beautiful view: soft pink light, low hanging clouds over the surrounding mountains in shades of purple, and small towns along the water beginning to wake up. It was the perfect reward for our early start!
We made our way back down the other side, and entered into the town of Arcade, right at the head of the bay. We entered along a busier road and had to navigate through the outskirts before making it to the city center. The waterfront area was absolutely gorgeous, with soft golden morning light reflecting off the water and onto the other side of the river, where all the little houses were packed tightly together up from the coast up onto the hillside. We took a moment to enjoy the view before crossing the bridge and walking steeply up the neighborhood streets on the other side.
We had been hoping to find a little cafe to have breakfast, but the only one here that was directly on our route was completely packed and it didn’t look like there was much food left in the display case, so we carried on. A woman outside a touristy looking Camino shop stopped us and told us to go inside for a good free stamp for our credentials — and she was right, it was a great stamp! We looked briefly at the food they had for sale but quickly left because of how high the prices were (3 euros for one banana? No thanks!) When the woman saw us emerge empty handed, she gave us a grave warning — we were about to cross over a mountain pass that would have no food or water, and the next town wasn’t for another 10km. We were a little hesitant after that, but still not willing to pay the inflated prices. Instead we continued walking into the wilderness on empty stomachs, saying things like “if Jesus could survive in the wilderness for 40 days with no food, surely we can go another 10km!”
As it turned out, we didn’t have to go that long without food. Less than a kilometer into our hike, we were walking passed farmland on our way into the woods, when we came across a basket full of plums that a farmer had left out for donation. Those were the best plums we’ve ever had! Not long after, we came across a guy who had a table set up along the trail with a stamp and food for a donation, and we got the exact pastries we had been looking for in town! Once again, the trail had provided!
When we descended the second mountain pass, we came to another fork in the trail. Our fellow pilgrims who had heard about our past wrong decision outside O Porriño had advised us to go left, which was slightly longer but was much more scenic, following a creek through the woods the rest of the way to Pontevedra. We were very happy with this decision, and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the walk. We were alone for most of our time, but at one point we passed a trailhead and parking area where a group of young children (probably students on a field trip) were sitting listening to a guide or teacher talk, and the teacher must have told them to greet us because as we walked by we heard a chorus of children’s voices calling out “Buen Camino!” I couldn’t keep from smiling and thinking about how cool this whole experience was, like when else would we be strangers in a country navigating through places unknown to us but be welcomed with such enthusiasm by a group like this?!
The trail along the creek led us right to the main road into Pontevedra, and shortly after we arrived at our Albergue. This one was much bigger and more modern than the night before, with plenty of room to spread out, but was still very crowded. It was right down the street from an Aldi, so we stopped there for both lunch and dinner, as well as for pastries for the next morning.
After we got all checked in, we rested and got a bit of work done before heading out into the town for an afternoon walk. Since we expected to leave before the sun rose the next morning, we wanted to see it in the daylight and make the most of our time here. I was just so thankful that even after walking 20km and up and over two mountain passes, my feet were feeling great and I was still up for walking around more! The Albergue was about 1.5 km away from the city center, so we had a bit of a walk to get there, but it was definitely worth it. On the way in, the city appeared much more modern, with the buildings appearing to be more in the Victorian style. But once we made it to the city center, we found more historic buildings that we expect from Europe, such as the churches and a university. We walked around a large green space, checked out some monuments, and sat on a bench overlooking the bay. If you had asked me before the trail what I was most looking forward to, my answer would have been visiting towns like this that I had never heard of or wouldn’t have had a reason to see if not for the Camino, and I was thankful for places like this that were exactly what I had been hoping to experience and enjoy!
After our walk, we made our way back to Aldi and our Albergue, where we sat outside and talked to our Latvian friend for a while. Tonight would be our last night together, as she was going a bit further ahead of us and finishing a day earlier. We had enjoyed getting to know her, and I would miss our conversations and passing each other back and forth on the trail. One thing we had found interesting that we weren’t expecting was that we were rarely running into any other pilgrims from the United States, and the majority of pilgrims were much older than us. It seemed the majority were 50+ years old, then there were also a lot that were younger adults in their 20s, but not many in their 30s like us. But this was merely our experience hiking at the beginning of June, who knows what it looks like throughout the year as a whole.
