Camino de Portuguese Day 15: Pontecesures to A Picaraña
Hiking the Camino de Portuguese from Pontecesures to A Picaraña | Hiking Monte da Grela | June 2026
Today was our second to last day on the trail, the day before we would finish in Santiago. It already felt different than the other days in several ways, which made the reality that we were almost done really start to set in. Today would be one of our shorter days, with only 12km to reach our next accommodation. And because the last public Albergue was closed that night for renovations, we had actually made reservations in advance at another hostel for this evening, and since we couldn’t check in until after 3, there was no need to rush. We allowed ourselves the opportunity to sleep in a little (which was easier done thanks to the nearly empty Albergue in Pontecesures and very quiet neighbors) but we still needed to be out of there by check out, which was at 8.
We left right around check out time and meandered our way down the hill to the river, allowing ourselves every opportunity to stop and enjoy the views. We crossed the river and walked about 4km to the next town of Padron. Our intention was to spend as much of the morning here as we could. Once we had gotten passed the industrial and urban parts of the outskirts of town, we were able to take a breath and enjoy the more scenic town center. There was an avenue of sycamores along the path, and we enjoyed the river views and looking up at the Convent (Convento do Carmen) on the opposite side, picturesquely up on a hill. We crossed the river and walked up to the convent to check it out — we weren’t able to enter, but the large area in front provided excellent overhead views of the town below.
We wanted to tour the Catholic Church – the Iglesia de Santiago Apostol de Padron – because it had significance to the trail, but it didn’t open until 10 so we had just over an hour to kill before then. We found a restaurant where we could sit and enjoy some breakfast, and besides getting something healthy, we couldn’t pass up their deal of 6 churros for 1 Euro! This was also the only place where we found matcha, which Curtis enjoyed while I had a cafe con leche.
Once we were done here, we crossed the street to check out a botanical garden, which was free but didn’t really have much to see, then made our way over to the church which had just opened. We got stamps for our credentials, then walked around and admired the different artistic details of the church before making our way to the front. This church’s focal point is a stone behind the altar – which tradition states is where the body of Saint James (Santiago) came to shore during his transport from Palestine to Hispania. And from here his body was then carried to the mountains near Santiago. This is also the end of the Spiritual Route, which more or less also follows the route of the body of Santiago. The name Padron even comes from this ‘rock’ (padron, pedron, pedro, peter, petra all mean rock).
After all this, we had nothing more to see here in Padron and no reason to stay, but still had just under 5 hours to walk the remaining 8km for today, and nothing else noted on our maps between here and our hostel. We turned to Google Maps to see if there was anything along the route, and realized that we really weren’t that far away from the mountains…the trail would be walking along the base of a short range, but never going up into them. A quick look at the satellite map and other hiking apps showed us that there were forest roads that were supposedly public and could actually get us to a peak named Monte de Grela. It didn’t have the 300 meters of prominence that Curtis wants for his long term goal, but it still had some prominence, and would at least be a bald peak with good views. We figured it would add about 6km to our day, but both agreed we felt up to it, and that it would be worth it. Our only concern was that a heat wave was starting to move in to the area, with a high around 90 predicted today. We hoped there would be shade on the way, but also we knew that regardless, we’d have to be outside until at least 3pm, so why not enjoy it?
And so we started heading North on the Camino, making our way up to where we believed the forest road would split off from the trail. First we had to get through the North side of Padron. The trail went through neighborhoods and farmland parallel to the main busier highway, but not directly beside it for a while, which we appreciated. Eventually it returned to the busier road, which was less enjoyable of a walk with constant traffic and walking across parking lots with no shade. We made it through that, then enjoyed the quieter roads even more as we continued along the base of the mountains, looking up and wondering what our journey to the top might entail.
Our trail to the mountains came right at the Camino marker for 18.010 km left to Santiago. We ignored the marker pointing to the left and set off on the road to the right. We heard pilgrims behind us yelling at us to go the other way, and we called back that we knew, it was ok! We had multiple maps to guide us up to the peak, enough water, and were confident in our ability to both find our way to the summit, and to know when we were over our heads and needed to turn back. We crossed under the highway, and kept following the roads, constantly checking ourselves at road or trail junctions to make sure we were going the right way, and translating every sign we saw to make sure we weren’t on private land.
The roads unfortunately didn’t have as much shade as we would have liked, but we tried to drink lots of water and take our time. I found a place to safely stow my backpack because I realized I didn’t need it and its weight was only slowing me down. The roads were steep at times, and I struggled to keep up with Curtis’ pace, but step by step we made it up, and the higher we got, the better the views became. We realized we could see Santiago and even the cathedral to the North, and couldn’t believe we would be arriving there tomorrow. How cool was it to be able to get this glimpse of the city we’d been walking towards for 2 weeks now?!
Most of the elevation gain came in the first 2 km of our hike up, and the last kilometer was mostly a flat ridge walk on a wide, gravel path. We were somewhat surprised to find that there is a paved road that goes up to Monte de Grela coming from the East side, but no one was up there today — in fact, we didn’t see a single soul from the time we left the Camino until we returned back to where we came. A little scary when you think that if something had happened to us, no one would know or come across us like they would on the Camino. But since nothing bad happened, it was a breath of fresh air to be all alone together for the first time in what seemed like a while, enjoying this beautiful spot that we had found and hiked to all on our own.
We made it to the summit, and were rewarded with views in all directions. We could see Santiago and barely made out the cathedral, we could see the inlets to the West leading to the ocean, we could see surrounding mountains and small towns all around us. It was definitely just what Curtis needed especially after walking for so long with no mountain peaks to climb! We took our time at the top, had some snacks, and finally made our way back. We retraced our steps and returned to the trail right where we left off, mostly because we didn’t want to risk taking chances on unfamiliar roads and getting lost.
Once back on the trail, we continued walking our last 3 km to the town of A Picaraña, mostly through residential areas. It was definitely hot now, but we pushed through and made it to our hostel for the evening. We were staying at Casa De Amigos tonight, where we had reserved a private bedroom with 2 twin beds (and a shared bath) for 40 Euros for one night. It was double what we had been spending at the Albergues, but since that wasn’t an option for tonight, we were thankful to have found this place. We took showers and cooled off after today’s walk, and for dinner we walked across the street to the Novo Mexico Restaurant. It turned out being our most expensive meal of the trip (mostly because of the waiter upselling us things we didn’t realize would cost as much as they did) but left very full and ready for bed — one more sleep and we would be on our way to finishing the trail, we couldn’t believe it!
