Ponte de Lima - Rubiaes - Tui - Rendola (from Porto - 175km)

After - I think - 7 days of walking we are now into a routine, sad but true. We wake at 5am strap our blisters and walk... after a couple of hours we stop for coffee/breakfast... walk some more... look at yet another church... walk some more... arrive at Albergue... shower... wash clothes... buy food to cook for dinner... pack backpack... sleep.

In the last 4 days we have walked 90km, this includes 30km that we walked today. We now only have 60km until we reach Santiago de Compostela, we are aiming to arrive in time for mass at the cathedral in 3 days.

To keep the blog short, I will try to briefly sum up our last few days:

• Walked through picturesque villages, along isolated paths, up mammoth hills, along motorways with trucks hurtling past us at 100km/hour
• Met some amazing people along the path
• Sent 4kg of clothes back to UK, my bag now weighs 7kg - woohoo!!
• Taken one too many photos of flowers
• Somehow managed to control our blister count, only 1 new blister each
• Been chased down the road for 100m by vicious dog, baring full set of fangs
• Charged at by massive dog who then ran straight past us
• Walked for a whole day in torrential rain (god love waterproof clothing)
• Visited a few too many cathedrals/churches
• Met a Knight of Malta, who had walked 3,000km from the Vatican, Rome
• We've become addicted to coffee
• Tried unconvincingly to speak Spanish

The last few days have been a fantastic journey,we are really into the walking mode now and a bit sad that soon we will have finished the camino...