Wednesday, September 28th
We got up early, packed and took a cab to the train station to catch the train to Caminha, Portugal, the northernmost town on the coast. It was a treat to see the countryside from the train as I was catching up on some work. It was recommended to us to take a ferry from Caminha to A Guarda, Spain, across the Miño river. To our surprise, the ferry was a small motor boat that only takes peregrinos (pilgrims walking the camino), beach to beach.
We got a ride to the top of Monte Santa Tecla, where mom had read about an archeological site and museum of a large Celtic Bronze Age settlement and a more recent, but still ancient chapel dedicated to Santa Tecla (Saint Thekla), who was the disciple of St. Paul, the apostle. The views from the top were so stunning that we sat down to enjoy and paint. Spain is to the right and Portugal is to the left of the beautiful Miño River delta.
After painting, we toured the Celtic museum, circular building ruins and reconstructed houses. The chapel was closed when mom went by, but I was lagging behind and as I approached, the doors opened. We were able to get our first Camino passport stamps! This is especially meaningful since it was our first stamp and marked the beginning of our Camino Portuguese de Santiago. We had received a blessing from Fr. Justin at St. Euphemia’s Orthodox chapel in Rockland, the night before we left, which was September 23rd, Saint Thekla’s day. The vespers readings were about Saint Thekla and Fr. Justin filled us in on her significance as the Protomartyr of all nuns. She was the first nun to be martyred for her faith in Christ.
The hillside was covered in purple heather and scattered with chestnut trees. We hiked down the mountain on the pilgrim’s path toward the town of A Guarda with Atlantic coast of Galicia ahead of us and ended up a block from our hotel.
