A Guardia to Oia 15kms
Total distance 134kms
Climb 210m
Total climb 1510m

This morning we managed to book online our bus trip from Santiago de Compostela back to Lisbon. I don’t know why but you can only book these busses two weeks ahead. In the UK we were able to book trains and busses two months ahead. It is 540km and takes about seven and a half hours. It cost us €49 each – seniors fare. There is a train but it takes longer than the bus, I think because of a two hour layover when you change from Spanish trains to Portuguese trains.  At great expense you can also fly, with flights going via Madrid and again some long layovers.

Today was a very easy day. A lovely sunny day, slight breeze behind us, easy to follow path, lots of fellow walkers we are getting to know well. For most of the day we were close to the coast but occasionally climbed inland and walked alongside a road. This was a busy road and the traffic was noisy. It also had a surprisingly high number of serious looking lycra clad cyclists. Alongside the road was a 3 metre wide concrete, very smooth footpath, painted bright yellow. Talk about “Follow the yellow brick road, we’re off to see the Wizard, The wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Is this a blasphemous way of saying we’re off to Santiago to see the relics of St James?

Our guide notes said today was 12 km from A Guardia to Oia, which is correct, but our Hotel Glasgow was a further 3km along the Way. This is okay as it just means we have 3km less to do tomorrow. Our notes also said there were no opportunities for food or drink between A Guardia and Oia although a temporary summer cafe might be open. This morning before leaving we went to a supermarket and bought a vegetable empanada (a type of baked turnover consisting of pastry and filling), mandarins and chocolate.  As it happened the summer cafe was open and doing a great trade. The chocolate became a bit of a mess in the heat so we had to put it in the fridge at our hotel to get it to resolidify.

We made it all the way to Oia before needing lunch and sat under some trees on a nice cool stone bench, looking across a small bay to the 12th century monastery and 18th church of St Mary of Oia. Idyllic. The monastery is pretty much a ruin but there are big plans to restore and rebuild it. The church looks in good condition but you can only look inside through some grilles in the entrance door. It was less than an hour’s walk from the monastery to Hotel Glasgow. This is a large hotel right on the coast and the Coastal Path and is full of our fellow walkers. It has a swimming pool which we made use of as it had been another hot day.

Dinner tonight was the opposite of last night. Dinner was 7pm and we were first there. Bread, soup, fish, cheese cake, wine, done and dusted and out of there in 45 minutes. That’s how pilgrims like it, and this hotel knows how pilgrims like it.