Alternative route Tui-Redondela

[WareJacob]

Hello all,

this september, me and 9 friends will walk the Camino Portugués, with Tui as a starting point.
Unofrtunately, we saw in our guide that the track between Tui and Redondela involves a long walk through the industrial city, Porrinho.
We would like to avoid this track because the view might be dissapointing, and we feel that the industrial look of this track might diminish the spiritual experience of our pilgrimage.
Does anybody have experience with this part of the route? Is it really that dissapointing or is it okay?
And are there alternative routes avoiding Porrinho?

I hope you can help!

 

[miguel_gp]

Hi,

I've walked this section a couple of times and there is no getting away from the fact that it is fairly ugly and the walk after the factory area into Porrino is again long, straight and not very attractive. Does it really detract from the route as a whole? In my opinion, there is enough beauty on the route elsewhere for it not to matter that much.

You can see the route for yourself on Street View. This is the start of the long straight section alongside the car plant and various other factory units. It is approximately 2.5km of industrial area. Just move straight ahead to see the extent of it and make your decision from there.

This image shows aeriel view of the route (shown in blue) through the area.


There is no way-marked alternative close to the inland route that I am aware of, although I'm sure you could work out an alternative using Google Maps or OpenStreetMap. You may end up walking a few more kms and Tui - Redondela is a fairly long stretch anyway.

You could alternatively walk the Portugues Coastal route around by Baiona and Vigo and then join the inland route at Redondela. I've not done it myself but heard it is very beautiful. I can find out the nearest point that this route passes Tui if you want to consider this. Just drop me a PM.

Cheers
Mig

 

[robertt]

Okay, this will sound really bent, but I like Porrinho. Isn't that the big flat area with the world's biggest parking lot for Citroens? With the pink granite everywhere? Maybe it's because I live in a pretty part of the bush, but I enjoy the odd smudge of industry, just for some variation. Plus you often get a good cheap workers' eatery in the middle of it all.

I live with wilderness at my doorstep, but I can't see the prob with an easy trudge through the urban/suburban bits of a Camino, the industrial areas etc. All part of being a pilgrim for me. I'm surprised when people go to considerable lengths to avoid shops and factories, when I quite look forward to them.

However...that's just me!

 

[peregrino_tom]

I live with wilderness at my doorstep, but I can't see the prob with an easy trudge through the urban/suburban bits of a Camino, the industrial areas etc. All part of being a pilgrim for me. I'm surprised when people go to considerable lengths to avoid shops and factories, when I quite look forward to them.
However...that's just me!

+1 from me. I love the way as a pilgrim you peel through the layers of the city - especially leaving in the early morning from some picture postcard preserved old town, through the shopping areas and thoroughfares, through the nice suburbs, the bad suburbs, the industrial sites, then the wasteland that no-one cares for and finally the open country.... each bit in its own way constitutes and contributes to the city - like where I live in London. Fab.

 

[robertt]

You describe it well, Tom.

My very first pilgrimage was totally urban/suburban, from the Bastille to Saint-Denis. It was an impulse, for which I have no explanation. I walked through my favourite areas of Paris (Marais and Place des Vosges), then followed canals and boulevards to the shabbier northern parts. The outskirts were next, very dodgy, dirty and un-Paris, then the Stade area, then Saint-Denis. When I asked for directions, I found it hard to explain to locals that I didn't want to catch a bus. One guy was apoplexic about my determination to walk through such a crummy part of the city.

At the end of the walk, there was a great park fair happening in Saint-Denis, but the cathedral visit was unforgettable. (I know it's a Capetian fan club and centre of the Louis IX cult, but you can say similar things about St. James. I just enjoy.)

That urban excursion gave me the taste for the whole pilgrimage thing, and, some weeks later, I started exploring the Via Francigena in and around Siena. It just seemed to happen after Saint-Denis.

On pilgrimage, I like having ordinary people around me, going about their business, I like shops and lots of pit-stops, And I really like all those Citroens in Porrino. It's like some gigantic harvest of Citroens, waiting to be gathered. Don't miss 'em, guys!

 

[peregrino_tom]

Definitely looking forward to taking in that field of Citroens. My first car was a ZX and one of the nice things about going back to Spain is it's like going back in time, seeing a country where ZX's are still commonplace. They continued to make them in Vigo after they stopped importing to the UK.
er, sorry, I think I may have drifted a bit off topic... :?

 

[stevenjarvis]

I posted a question about an alternative to the Poligono Industrial section here http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/hostals-private-albergues-in-porriño.19680/ . However, I share the same general delight as robertt and peregrino_tom in the the variety of places we get to experience. Poligon Industrial Fan Club, anyone ?

http://www.poligonoagranxa.com/

 

[robertt]

Yep, Steven, I'll be a distinguished patron of the club - sort of a Duke of Edinburgh type. (Someone else can do all the work.) I'd also like to put in a good word for the poligono on the approach to Burgos. Lots of industrial buzz and homines sapientes after all that karst and hominid country. Plus the best workers' cafe on the whole track. Hominids...brrr.

 

[stevenjarvis]

robertt, brilliant, that's two of us. I'm sorry to have been hasty with the term "Fan Club", perhaps Confraternite would be more appropriate. Glad you're prepared to carry the burden of small talk and offending the natives. I'll work on creating a desperately inefficient bureaucracy. And a coat of arms. Can we agree on the Citroen chevron and a Pilgrim Rampant ? Yours, off topic...

 

[Camembert]

Won't disappoint you. The field of Citroëns when we passed it the other day was almost empty. They don't hardly sell anything due the "el crisis " so I think the factory in Vigo hardly produces any vehicle now.

 

[mikevasey]

Hi just seen this post so i hope you get this in time, there is a website www.caminandor.es for the Tui section to Redondela there is an alternative way given it has access to the albergues in Porrino and Mos. have a look at the part which deals with the central section on the camino portugues.

Good luck

 

[mikevasey]

www.caminador.es

 

[naplesdon]

For most of the day from Valenca to Porrino the walk is through pleasant countryside and small villages, so just accept the good with the bad. Porrino has a great municipal albergue and there is a good restaurant nearby at Paso a Nivel. There are several place where you will cross paths and markings for Roman Via XIX but I have no idea where to find the trail map for this route.

 

[mspath]

biarritzdon,



This is my photo of a Roman marker near Mos

Seek ,ie Google, and ye shall find!

Here is what Peter Robins fellow Forum member and cartography expert notes on the Roman Via XIX from Braga to Lugo via Santiago. >> http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/braga-lugo-roman-road-path.3525/.

Another most informative site with photos and maps describing the Roman routes crossing today's Spain and Portugal is this >> http://viasatlanticas.depo.es/ingles/vias_romanas.html

Brush up your Latin!

Margaret Meredith

 

[naplesdon]

MM, yes I remember it well, it is just after the park on top of the hill as you start the descent down to Redondela. Thanks for the resources, I had done a little research about the various Roman Roads throughout Spain but never found a modern day route map.

 

[stevenjarvis]

Albertino, mikevasey, biarritzdon, mspath, Peter Robins - thank you all so much for the helpful information. Whilst happy to take the bad with the good ( biarritzdon !) and keen to promote the charms of the Poligono Industrial, (see Confraternity comment...) I'm also always happy to walk leafier ways !

 

[Diogo92]

The new alternative, marked by the AGACS http://www.amigosdelcamino.com/attachments/article/541/orb_porr_cast.pdf

Best Regards
Diogo

 

[hecate105]

I enjoyed the contrast of the route thru Porrinho, also there are a couple of lovely little chapels right on the main road ( a St. Roche I think?) And the town centre is gorgeous, lovely old arcades, friendly locals, good food. Don't miss the variation - it's the spice of life...

 

[Diogo92]

hecate105, the objective it's to pass through out O Porriño, but pass over the asphalt part. I didn't had any trouble to do it this year, but I know that there are people who feel uncomfortable to to this part. O rather prefere to walk in through the wood's. It's my kind of thing

Best Regards
Diogo

 

[stevenjarvis]

hecate105 wouldn't dream of missing O Porriño , just happy to experience an alternative to the industrial zone section ( which I also enjoy ). Regarding O Porrino itself, I agree, a great small town and a wonderful Albergue . The people in the town hall were charming and helpful, and there is a bar round the corner where the owner is a magician ! Lovely bakery just over the rail tracks from the Albergue.

 

[Diogo92]

I've talked with a pilgrim today that has already passed for this new alternative, and he warns out people to be very but very careful and at least, for now, to take the map/flyer of this new part of the Caminho, because the way it's not so well marked has that. He got lost twice.

So be careful.

Best Regards
Diogo

 

[bauzonc]

I just took the alternative route several days ago. It is lovely and well-marked. I asked a Spanish man about the route, and he explained that it is fairly new (just opened last week) and a better route than the original route that goes through the industrial zone. It follows the river and at the end of the path, you'd go down and the alburgue is right there. It is only slightly longer than the old route, I was told.

 

[stevenjarvis]

I just took the alternative route several days ago.... It is lovely and well-marked.... better route than the original route that goes through the industrial zone. It follows the river....

Hi bauzonc , thank you for sharing your recent experience. The Poligono Industrial has it's unique charms, but the prospect of a riverside walk might tempt me away !

 

[Urban trekker1]

2.5 kilometers does not a Camino make. 2.5 miles of factories in what, well over a hundred kilometers? How could that detract from the experience of walking a Camino?

 

[Diogo92]

@Urban trekker1, the problem it's not only the factories. It's the unsafe boardwalks. It's the cars passing by without leaving any safety distance. It’s the big rigs speeding up and sending winds against you. It's the bad restaurants with high prices. I rather prefer to go through the new way, that to come back to Polígono.


Best Regards
Diogo

 

[bauzonc]

Hi bauzonc , thank you for sharing your recent experience. The Poligono Industrial has it's unique charms, but the prospect of a riverside walk might tempt me away !

Also, there were some blackberry vines before the turn to the river walk. The Spanish pilgrims were enjoying the berries.

 

[stevenjarvis]

Thanks for that bauzonc, notwithstanding my admiration for the Poligono Industrial, www.poligonoagranxa.com , I imagine this fruity riverside will rapidly become the route of choice for most people .

 

[Johan]

How difficult is this long stage?

 

[mikevasey]

Its not difficul terrain and height wise, just the distance 30km + to Redondela. In Mos (21.5km) there may be a 2nd Albergue or an overspill for one already there, which has opened or is opening this year.