Post Camino

Valença do Minho ...and back to Spain

We've had a wonderful day. Firstly we went to a huge market near where we're staying which was set up in what had been an empty carpark yesterday. The market covered a huge area and sold everything imaginable.
Later we walked to the Valença Fortaleza, the Valença Fortress, which is just up the road from our apartment. The fortress dates back to the 12th century and was an important defense against their northern neighbours of Spain and France. It has 5.5 kms of walls and is one of the largest and best preserved forts in the world.
What was a surprise was finding a mass of narrow shop-lined streets within the fortress walls - with the shops displaying as many of their goods out in the street as in the the shops themselves.
The road we're staying in is on the Portuguese Camino so walking up to the fortress and through its archway we followed the yellow arrows and Camino markers once again. We followed these through the fortress, out the other side and over the bridge across the Minho River and into Spain. The border between Portugal and Spain is halfway across the bridge - we walked from Portugal back to Spain! The Spanish city of Tui is immediately over the river and we walked up to see Tui's 12th century Cathedral of Santa Maria. Unfortunately it was closed. We had lunch in a cafe opposite the Cathedral and looked out at the magnificent building. It seemed strange to think that we walked from Portugal to Spain and back again.
On our way back to Portugal we were passed by a steady stream of pilgrims on the Portuguese Camino - excited to be crossing into Spain. We decided that we would rather have been pilgrims than the tourists we now are. It was a very odd feeling.

At Valença's weekly market:

117.624 kms from Valença to Santiago de Compostela.

Part of  the fortress wall

The arched entrance into the fortress 

...to the streets within:

Looking over the fortress wall to the outside.

 And through the archway

 ...to the outside again and on our way to the bridge.

81, 652 pilgrims walked over the bridge in 2018

Looking across from Portugal to Tui in Spain...

....with the Cathedral on the highest point.

The border marker half way across the Minho River.

Look Girls, Pappy has one foot in Portugal and the other in Spain 😃

...and just as easy as that we were back in Spain.

Looking back from Spain to the Valença Fortress in Portugal.

Some photos of our walk in Tui:

The Cathedral of Santa Maria in Tui

The Cathedral doorway.

Walking back to Portugal.

These are the first pilgrims on horses we had seen. They looked very happy to be approaching the Portuguese/Spanish border.