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What to do if we have to change plans and don't walk?

TMcA

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Pamplona to Santiago (2013)
Le Puy to Pamplona in segments (2013 - 2016)
Pamplona to León
We leave tomorrow for Porto and plan to start walking April 16. But...

I have been troubled by plantar faschiitis for about 6 weeks and despite wearing only arch supporting footwear with insoles, going to a physical therapist, doing exercises, etc., I still have a hotspot deep in my arch. So my question is, if we have to abandon our walk for 10 days to allow my foot to heal further, which places in Portugal or Spain should we visit? (We have already been to Porto and Lisbon and Madrid). In other words, what would you suggest for a Plan B?
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Visiting usually means walking around! Still, the smaller cities in Spain and Portugual have got a lot to look at and lots of things to do (early music concerts, jazz, roller derby!) so you could just hang out in Porto, or go to Coimbra, or Vigo, or Salamanca, or Zamora, or Valladolid.

However, I would look at something a bit different, to head to a seaside village or town and take a room/rent an apartment for a week, and perhaps hire a language teacher for a few hours a day to help you learn a bit more of the language and culture.
 
Every Cathedral or Church while making my way towards SDC. There's so much beauty in them! BTW, I'd still collect Sellos. I hope your foot gets better.
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Take the bus or a taxi and visit the places you would have walked through.
 
From Lisbon, you can visit Sinatra and Fatima. I recommend Coimbra. It is a very old university large town / smalll city.

Consider tours to learn about cork, port wine, and the wine industry in Portugal.

I think there is plenty to do, using Lisbon or Porto as a starting or ending point. City to city train service in Portugal is excellent.

FYI I had to cancel my planned Camino Primitivo from 4 May. This was also for medical reasons.

So, I will be volunteering at the Pilgrim Office from 6-20 May. I am still returning for my annual one-month volunteer stint in mid-July.

Hope this helps.
 
So many good options. Rent an apartment for the week, in one of the places you liked, and immerse yourself. Sign up for cooking classes or language classes. Take flamenco lessons. Revisit museums, art galleries, etc. Just because you saw them before doesn't mean another visit isn't going to be great. Day trips to mix things up.

Or hire a car and go roaming.
 
Join our full-service guided tour and let us convert you into a Pampered Pilgrim!
So, I will be volunteering at the Pilgrim Office from 6-20 May. I am still returning for my annual one-month volunteer stint in mid-July.

Hope this helps.


I was about to suggest the same thing. It's last minutish for sure but are there volunteer things you like to do? Great way to make yourself useful, practice your Spanish, and get to be a part of a place instead of just a looky-loo.
 
If they have space in the free lodging / flat, they assign you a bed there. In my case, there is no room at the inn. So, I rented an affordable hotel in the old town. It is important to me. So I just eat the goat... a question of priorities... ;)

I usually use commercial lodging on Camino anyway. The cost at SCQ is higher, but is largely offset by what I will not be paying while on Camino.

See my thread on “Volunteering at the Pilgrim Office in Santiago” it contains all the information you need to at least ask if you can volunteer. Use the Forum search function to find it. Be sure to tell them if you are prepared to house yourself, on the economy.

They can usually use more hands at the pumps. Housing is a primary limitation. But if you remove that obstacle, you might get lucky. There is always something that needs doing, in and around the office.

Hope this helps.
 
Lol volunteering ain't cheap. I volunteer vetted at Scooby Protectora de Animales in Medina del Campo (south of Leon) last August and will be back this July before starting my Camino. Scooby just built some simple onsite apartments and I was happy to pay €18 nightly to not be staying in a tiny sweltering (but free) caravan.

No room this year for a souvenir like the one from last year in my avatar photo. 🐶

P.S. I should add that Scooby can always use volunteers to help with their ( >500) animals. Initially started as a galgo (Spanish greyhound) rescue, they have everything from horses to dogs to ducks to donkeys. https://www.scoobymedina.org/en
 
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Get a spanish phone number with Airalo. eSim, so no physical SIM card. Easy to use app to add more funds if needed.
Lol volunteering ain't cheap. I volunteer vetted at Scooby Protectora de Animales in Medina del Campo (south of Leon) last August and will be back this July before starting my Camino. Scooby just built some simple onsite apartments and I was happy to pay €18 nightly to not be staying in a tiny sweltering (but free) caravan.

No room this year for a souvenir like the one from last year in my avatar photo. 🐶

P.S. I should add that Scooby can always use volunteers to help with their ( >500) animals. Initially started as a galgo (Spanish greyhound) rescue, they have everything from horses to dogs to ducks to donkeys. https://www.scoobymedina.org/en
I just looked it up. What a wonderful organization.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Some of your ideas may come in handy! (But I hope not.)
 
A cruise! A cruise, a kingdom for a cruise!
From Porto up the river Douro, even as far as to the border with Spain..... these cruises come in all sorts and prices and they are easy on the feet too.
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
I would spend 10 days visiting the following: Templar Castle in Tomar, The loveliness riverside town in the world, Ponte de Lima and then check out the University town of Coimbra.

For over a hundred years (from 1145 – 1255) Coimbra was the capital of Portugal, but today it is Coimbra University (founded in 1290) for which the city is best known. I had a hard time figuring out why there were so many tourists here, particularly since it was winter. There is no truly great cathedral in Coimbra like in Lisbon or Porto and there were no “world-class” museums. However, when I looked at my map of the city in my guide book, it became apparent why this city attracts so many visitors. It is the compact size of Coimbra with a nice collection of medieval churches, cloisters, small museums and the University all grouped around the city center and located either directly on or just off the Camino. Together with lots of shops and countless restaurants and cafés everywhere, all clustered among enchanting historic architecture and narrow pedestrian streets, the old part of the city is ideal for strolling leisurely about. In fact the old part of Coimbra was declared a “World Heritage Site” in 2013.

I left Hotel Oslo in the late afternoon planning to have my “leisurely stroll” around the old city and hoping to discover a memorable restaurant for diner. Not far from the Arco de Almedina which was the main gate of the medieval walled defenses of the Old City, I came upon a group of Coimbra University music students all dressed in black, some wearing black capes, playing music in the streets. It was Coimbra fado music which is rooted in the medieval lyrical “trovadorismo”. The twelfth century troubadours sang songs of poetry that had the stylized subject matter of love, of friend, of scorn and of curse. Trovadorismo is considered to be the very first literary movement in Portugal. Coimbra fado is played and sung by men (unlike the fado music in Lisbon where both men and women do the vocals). There were nine students all in their early 20’s in the very professional sounding group I had stopped to appreciate. There was one accordion player and one big stand-up bassist. A small guitar known as “guitar de Coimbra” was being played alongside two larger classical guitars and there were also two small mandolins or an instrument that looked like one. I leaned against the wall of a building on the opposite side of the street and it was not long before my feet began to shuffle, as if detached from the rest of me, to the upbeat song that the “fado students” were strumming out. I started dancing. I was doing my “Southside shuffle”, dancing in the streets of Coimbra and soon I found my exhaustion from yet another day of walking vaporized by the music. There were two tall guys in the troupe of musicians who picked up their tambourines for the next song and they started dancing to the rhythm of the churning upbeat song. The dancing duo were jumping up in the air and slapping their tambourines against the soles of their feet and the appreciative crowd which had gotten bigger started to throw Euros into the empty guitar case used for collecting “tips”.

What a change for me, after walking for weeks in silent meditation, to be dancing joyfully among a crowd of strangers. For the next half hour I was total absorbed in the present moment and having the time of my life. There were a multitude of other street performers “busking in the streets of Coimbra including mimes and puppeteers and actors dressed in medieval costumes. The largest group I saw was the “fado students” and the smallest was the one-man act (that is if you don’t count the monkey with the tip jar) of an organ-grinder. It was a perpetual festival here in the streets of Coimbra and I was feeling very much a part of it.

From "Portuguese Camino - In Search of the Infinite Moment"
 
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We leave tomorrow for Porto and plan to start walking April 16. But...

I have been troubled by plantar faschiitis for about 6 weeks and despite wearing only arch supporting footwear with insoles, going to a physical therapist, doing exercises, etc., I still have a hotspot deep in my arch. So my question is, if we have to abandon our walk for 10 days to allow my foot to heal further, which places in Portugal or Spain should we visit? (We have already been to Porto and Lisbon and Madrid). In other words, what would you suggest for a Plan B?
I bought some Protalus shoe liners for my walking shoes and they have really helped my feet feel good when walking. I think you should try a pair of these inserts and see if it helps your feet. I hope you are able to do the walk. We are going on May 7th for the same one.
 

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