Walking the other way: the Portuguese Camino (Guardian article, 2 March 2019)

jungleboy · Mar 2, 2019

Walking the other way: the Portuguese Camino.

This is a rather unremarkable article that's light on substance and purpose but I'll share it anyway. The writer did three days of the Portuguese camino, walking 9 miles / ~14.5km per day and staying in manor houses. He doesn't seem to know much about the camino and writes mostly about the tourism part of it.

At least he manages to ask the age-old question of why we keep walking caminos, though he doesn't attempt to answer it.

Why do pilgrimages survive, even thrive, in a secular age? The Camino de Santiago must rank as one of Europe’s most popular walking routes. In 2017, the number of pilgrims arriving at its end point, Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain, was up 8.3% to 301,000. Yet much of it is on roads, with uninvited companions, through unexceptional terrain, with a destination whose claims to sacred significance are fantastical, even by the standards of the genre.

naplesdon · Mar 2, 2019

Agreed.

Jeff Crawley · Mar 3, 2019

I stopped reading at: "On this occasion, our first day, the taxi driver has dropped us in the wrong place" (the italics are mine).

Leibniz · Mar 3, 2019

Oh I WISH the article was open for comments.

PeteAJ · Mar 3, 2019

I disliked the passage jungleboy quoted as well!

This article looks to be more for a luxury tourist. On a quick search, all three properties mentioned are lovely higher end spots with pools off the camino (and not at all in Brierley) between his stages 16 and 17.

Camembert · Mar 3, 2019

PeteAJ said:
I disliked the passage jungleboy quoted as well!

This article looks to be more for a luxury tourist. On a quick search, all three properties mentioned are lovely higher end spots with pools off the camino (and not at all in Brierley) between his stages 16 and 17.

Touregrino thus ! Instead of a peregrino

FLEUR · Mar 3, 2019

He did say it was just a recce and it appeared to be luxury camino taster organised by Inntravel.
Something to print on the travel pages and not the experience of many of us on here.

Kathar1na · Mar 3, 2019

At the end of the Guardian article is a link to the Inntravel trip in question. It's not even marketed as a luxury camino taster but as "slow travel holiday" and the title is "Manor Houses of the Minho" with "gentle riverside walking in the home of vinho verde". It praises the beauty of this part of Portugal and just at the very end it mentions the camino: "Enjoy the pastoral beauty of the landscape and the camaraderie of fellow walkers as your path intertwines with the Caminho de Santiago on its pilgrimage north to Spain." Which is not a grammatically correct sentence, I think.

And by the sound of this thread, the fellow walkers on their way to Santiago aren't going to show much camaraderie to Inntravel customers ...

Delphinoula · Mar 3, 2019

I guess he had to make his 1000 word stretch between pastoral beauty and landscape. Who reads the guardian? Is it journalistic well reputed? Well he wrote count of something here, beer there, soccer and platitudes. Ah and “uninspiring”.
Maybe no publizer for him this time.

Elle Bieling · Mar 3, 2019

Each to his own, I suppose. It's all in the approach and the intention, don't you think??

Bradypus · Mar 3, 2019

Delphinoula said:
. Who reads the guardian? Is it journalistic well reputed?

I do for one It is probably the UK's leading left-of-centre national newspaper and generally has pretty high journalistic standards. The article seems quite entertaining but I do not think it is one of the Grauniad's finest efforts and I personally will not get too overheated about the "luxury" commercial aspects of its depiction of a Camino. As far as the Portugues and the Frances are concerned that battle was lost some time ago.

Delphinoula · Mar 3, 2019

Bradypus said:
I do for one It is probably the UK's leading left-of-centre national newspaper and generally has pretty high journalistic standards. The article seems quite entertaining but I do not think it is one of the Grauniad's finest efforts and I personally will not get too overheated about the "luxury" commercial aspects of its depiction of a Camino. As far as the Portugues and the Frances are concerned that battle was lost some time ago.

Thank you . Did not know.

Delphinoula · Mar 3, 2019

Elle Bieling said:
Each to his own, I suppose. It's all in the approach and the intention, don't you think??

Right that’s what I was wondering who the audience is. Thank you.

musicman · Mar 3, 2019

What a “ precious” piece of writing.
No real feel for or about the Camino.
Last time I walked that way, accommodation for Pelegrinos was not in abundance.
Even if it was just an article about the area , regardless of its misleading Camino bumf,it was as someone else has said, poor quality by the Guardian’s usual standards.

Camembert · Mar 3, 2019

Kathar1na said:
At the end of the Guardian article is a link to the Inntravel trip in question. It's not even marketed as a luxury camino taster but as "slow travel holiday" and the title is "Manor Houses of the Minho" with "gentle riverside walking in the home of vinho verde". It praises the beauty of this part of Portugal and just at the very end it mentions the camino: "Enjoy the pastoral beauty of the landscape and the camaraderie of fellow walkers as your path intertwines with the Caminho de Santiago on its pilgrimage north to Spain." Which is not a grammatically correct sentence, I think.

And by the sound of this thread, the fellow walkers on their way to Santiago aren't going to show much camaraderie to Inntravel customers ...

If you forget all about the caminho in this case, stays the beauty of the Minho aera.
If you ask the average tourist what he knows about Portugal , most only can mention the Algarve in the south- no difference with the popular places like e.g. Benidorm, Salou etc in Spain - Lisbon and some know to mention Porto. We ,pilgrims ,know better . We walk through an unique area , beautifull landscapes, interesting towns -Porto,Barcelos, Ponte de Lima ,Valença do Minho and for the coastal lovers, Viana do Castelo and Caminha.
The culture is in the north Is unique and do not forget the food and the northern Douro wines. The north of Portugal for me personally is my favourite area since many years.
So in a that point of view the article tells the truth. In case of the caminho I agree with you all .

Pega bem e bom caminho

Bert45 · Mar 9, 2019

The author of the article and the author of the Inntravel blurb seem to think that there is just one "Camino (Caminho) de Santiago". Btw, Bradypus's deliberate misspelling of Guardian (Grauniad) is a popular reference to the newspaper's frequent typographical errors.

nzPhreadde · Mar 10, 2019

"Btw, Bradypus's deliberate misspelling of Guardian (Grauniad) is a popular reference to the newspaper's frequent typographical errors."

It was well known as The Grauniad when I lived in the UK in the mid 70s....

anthikes · Mar 10, 2019

Like many Guardian travel articles, this one would have been sponsored by companies, in this case TAP airlines plus others. It was never going to reflect a real camino!

Silencio Por Favor · Mar 12, 2019

jungleboy said:
Walking the other way: the Portuguese Camino.

This is a rather unremarkable article that's light on substance and purpose but I'll share it anyway. The writer did three days of the Portuguese camino, walking 9 miles / ~14.5km per day and staying in manor houses. He doesn't seem to know much about the camino and writes mostly about the tourism part of it.

At least he manages to ask the age-old question of why we keep walking caminos, though he doesn't attempt to answer it.

As he quotes, "in a secular age", this certainly made me imagine how many more people would be walking the Caminos if this was not a secular age?

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Walking the other way: the Portuguese Camino (Guardian article, 2 March 2019)

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