Travel – Page 3 – Newby to Expert Traveler

Points Check April 2025

Posted on June 5, 2025 by David Cox

April was about the only breather we could take for a while. March consisted of a trip to Spain and Portugal to do a week on the Camino de Santiago. In July, Jenn is taking our daughter Emma, as well as her sister and niece, to Munich and Dublin. Meanwhile, I will be taking our Son Alex to Berlin and Dresden as well as doing a little hiking in Bohemian Switzerland National Park. In September, we will be going to Nice, France, to participate in the UTMB Nice Côte d’Azur. It’s almost a little too much traveling in too short a time, but I’m willing to take this challenge head-on.

A Decent Deal on a Delta Flight?

I had been looking for months for a decent price on a flight for Alex and me to go to Europe, preferably Germany. For a while, I was getting frustrated because I could get flights to Europe for a decent number of points, but the prices for getting home were more than I wanted to spend. I was patient, and finally, Delta came through with round-trip flights for 40,800 Delta miles and $132 each. The price was 48,000, but Jenn has a Delta Gold Card, so the redemption was 15% off.

That meant Alex and I were set to go to Berlin in July for 81,600 Delta Miles and $264. That’s a pretty good price, but the downside was that it was the price for Basic Economy. In other words, we don’t get to choose our seats, so Alex and I may not be sitting together. I’m sure he’ll survive; he is 16 after all.

Those points came from a small amount of Delta miles that Jenn had, but she also had to transfer 76,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta to cover the rest. Those flights would have cost around $1,000 each, so the redemption came to around 2.1 cents per point, which isn’t bad.

This was the last of the redemptions that we have planned for flights this year. It’s honestly difficult for me to believe it, but we booked 12 flights to Europe this year on points as well as a flight to San Antonio. Those flights weren’t “free” because they always come with taxes and sometimes come with fuel surcharges, but they have always been at severely discounted prices.

There is no way I would have paid cash for all of those flights, so I’m glad that we were able to use points to get to these amazing destinations. This year alone, I will have visited Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Ireland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. That’s pretty amazing, and I’m very thankful that I’m able to take these trips.

Sign Up Bonuses

In January, I signed up for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card, which had a signup bonus of 75,000 Alaska miles and a companion fare after $3,000 spend in 3 months. In April, I finally completed my spending and received the bonus. The companion fare is essentially a $122 fare that you can use on any Alaskan flight if you purchase a second flight. It’s only good for a year, and I don’t think I’ll get an opportunity to use it. The Alaska Air miles, though, will definitely come in handy, especially when there are a lot of chances to use 4,500 Alaska miles to fly American Airlines on short flights. For us, they are especially useful for flying from our home airport in Moline to Chicago O’Hare.

Jenn got her 75,000 Membership Reward Points bonus for spending $6,000 in 6 months on her American Express Gold Card. That came just in time to replenish the points I used to book the Berlin flights for Alex and me. Membership Reward points are very valuable, and it’s always nice to have a little stash of those.

100K on Chase Sapphire Preferred

It doesn’t happen very often, but Chase occasionally offers a 100,000 point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. When it does happen, every points and miles enthusiast checks to see if they’re eligible to receive the bonus. The basic requirements are that you have signed up for less than five personal credit cards in the last 24 months, you haven’t received the bonus in the last 48 months, and you currently don’t have a Sapphire Card.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are the most coveted points in travel rewards outside of Bilt points. Getting 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points with one signup bonus is phenomenal, but the card itself is an excellent travel credit card. This card earns 5x on travel through the Chase Travel portal and 2x on all other travel purchases. It also earns 3x on dining, online groceries, and streaming services, and 1x on everything else. There is also a $50 hotel credit per year that you can receive if you book a hotel through the Chase Travel Portal.

What makes the points valuable, however, is their transfer partners. They have some great Airline transfer partners such as United, Southwest, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Aer Lingus/Iberia/British Airways Avios, Air Canada, and Virgin Atlantic. A lot of people, however, love their Chase Ultimate Rewards points because they transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. Hyatt has the most valuable hotel points, with most people valuing their points at around twice the value of Marriott points and about triple the value of Hilton points.

Jenn referred me to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, so she will receive 10,000 points, and I will receive 100,000 points. I need to spend $5,000 in three months to receive the bonus. She also referred another friend, so she will be getting an additional 10,000 for that signup. I think I know five people who jumped on this deal, because it was so good.

On to the Point Check!

Most of our spending in April was on cards for which we were working on signup bonuses, so the spending below is almost entirely recurring charges. That being said, a 7.1 percent return on those charges is phenomenal, so I feel good about how I have our recurring charges set up.

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Amex Gold	$552	2,130	$42.60	3.9	7.7%
Ink Cash	$445	2,224	$45.59	5.0	10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner	$347	1,736	$19.10	5.0	5.5%
Venture	$345	690	$12.77	2.0	3.7%
Total	$1,689	6,780	$120.05	4.0	7.1%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

On top of the spending listed above, I spent a little over $1,000 on my Alaska Airlines Card, earning over 1,500 Alaska miles as well as the 75,000 Alaska mile bonus. Jenn spent a whopping $8,500, a good portion of which was our annual taxes, nailing down her 75,000 point bonus as well as an additional 12,000 Membership Reward points. After all of that, we ended the month with:

126,900 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
122,600 Amex Membership Rewards Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
85,000 IHG points
79,100 Alaska Miles
60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
58,900 Wyndham Points
32,100 Citi Thank You Points
15,900 United Miles
6,500 Hyatt Points
1,100 Delta Miles
$109 in Cash Back

When you add everything up, the total value of points and miles, using the valuations from The Points Guy, comes to over $10,400. That is a $1,300 increase over last month. I don’t anticipate us booking very much for a while, since our trips for the year are pretty much planned. That means our point totals should be growing for the rest of the year and hopefully leave us with enough points to make some fun decisions for trips in 2026.

Day 6 – Quitting the Camino

Posted on May 27, 2025 by David Cox

This is the final post in a six-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal, and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

I didn’t get more than a couple of hours of sleep. The wind slamming the shutters on the windows was a constant reminder of the massive challenge ahead. At this point, we were all struggling with nagging pain. The hike from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela would be our most challenging to date. In addition, the weather looked horrible. The weather app called for sustained winds of 20 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 miles per hour. The forecast also called for rain all day.

All I could think was, do we really want to spend eight or nine hours hiking in the wind and rain, limping in pain? Jenn and I decided to ask the kids what they wanted to do.

We walked into their room, told them about the weather, and asked them what they thought. Emma was conflicted and said she wanted to finish, but that it sounded terrible. She said she’d leave it up to Alex. He took one look at us and said, “I’m done,” and then he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

So there it was, after five days hiking the Camino, we were quitting just 17 miles from the end.

I was conflicted about it, because after all, this was supposed to be a vacation, and I felt like I spent the better part of a week torturing my family. On the other hand, there is value to completing something so physically demanding.

The Camino is a hard physical challenge that is achievable by normal people. Jenn and I have both completed these types of challenges before. Jenn has done two RAGBRAIs (a week-long 400-mile bike ride across Iowa) and a couple of half marathons. I’ve done a RAGBRAI, about ten half marathons, and a couple of full marathons.

The kids hadn’t experienced what it’s like to complete a challenge like that, and I was a little sad they wouldn’t finish. For me, those challenges are important because they build confidence and character. I hoped that quitting that close to the end didn’t invalidate any personal growth that resulted from the first five days of the Camino.

We took our time getting ready, then took the walk of shame through the rain and wind down to the train station and bought a ticket to Santiago de Compostela. We shared the complex feelings of regret for not finishing the Camino as well as the relief of not having to hike that day. I was happy, however, to have a little more time to visit with my friend Nate.

While on the train, I texted Nate to tell him we quit and we would be in Santiago de Compostela in a little bit. He said he would meet me at the Pilgrim House, which is the community center where he works.

When we met, he introduced us to the staff at the Pilgrim House and even pointed out someone from our hometown who volunteers with the organization. She was talking with Jenn and mentioned that she also works with the youth symphony orchestra in our hometown. Alex happens to be a viola player in that orchestra, so she took a picture of her and Alex and texted it to his conductor with a message: “Guess who I ran into in Spain?” It’s a small world.

Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica

We talked with them about our experiences on the Camino and what we would do differently. They have a different perspective as veterans of the Camino themselves and as people who listen to thousands of Camino stories each year. They chucked a little and said, “You spend your first Camino learning how to do a Camino.”

Nate gave us a tour of Santiago de Compostela, showing us his favorite coffee shop, the Cathedral, and the wonderful architecture of the city. We talked about the old days and what happened to our old friends. He talked about his family and what it was like for them to raise kids in Spain.

The organ is decorated in a baroque style

It was wonderful catching up with him after all these years, and if there was one blessing from having quit the Camino, it was the ability to spend a couple of hours with an old friend, thousands of miles away from where we grew up.

We said our goodbyes to Nate and headed to our hostel at Albergue Alda O Fogar de Teodomino. We were able to get a private room with four beds. The hostel was nearly empty. I think most people didn’t hike that day because of the weather. I assume that most people who would have finished in Santiago de Compostela that day were instead taking an off day and would finish the next day.

We checked into the hostel, and I said that I wanted to tour the Cathedral. Emma wanted to join me, while Alex and Jenn stayed back to take a nap.

The full name of the cathedral is the Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica. Construction began in the late eleventh century, lasted well over a hundred years, and was finally completed in 1211. It was built to house the supposed remains of St James, which were discovered in the 9th Century near modern-day Padrón.

I definitely question the validity of the claims that the body of St James was discovered more than 800 years after his death, thousands of miles away from where he died. However, this discovery led to millions of pilgrims over the centuries walking the Camino to this cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Seeing the Cathedral is the goal of every pilgrim who embarks on the Camino. As is the case with so many Cathedrals, it is lavish, with statues and artwork everywhere. The altar of the church is done in a baroque style, with gold and silver elements everywhere. There are countless golden pillars and a group of angels holding up a golden ceiling over the altar. It’s so ornate that I couldn’t really discern what the artwork was supposed to symbolize, but it is beautiful.

Right side of the altar in the Cathedral

My favorite thing in the Cathedral was a giant incense burner called the botafumiero, which is about 5 feet tall and weighs around 180 lbs. Traditionally, it took a team of eight men with ropes to swing the burner over worshipers. The purpose of this was to cover the smell of the pilgrims who had spent the day on a long hike to the Cathedral. They now only do this on special occasions, since it’s so labor-intensive. Presumably, because of modern deodorants, it’s also not as necessary.

Altar with botafumiero hanging in front.

We also walked down to visit the crypt, the supposed final resting place of St James. Behind an iron gate, you can see a silver ossuary. There it is – a beautiful, yet simple box containing the remains of someone, who may or may not be St James. It is the inspiration of millions of pilgrims over centuries to take time out of their busy lives to hike for days or weeks.

Silver Ossuary in the crypt of the Cathedral

I don’t buy it. I think people do it for so many reasons, but seeing a silver box can’t be the motivation for most people. For some, it’s the drive to complete a physical challenge. For others, it’s the opportunity to hike through towns, villages, farms, and forests. Some are taking time for introspection, and others are there for the camaraderie and fellowship with their fellow pilgrims.

I was there for a combination of those things, and I think that’s probably true for most pilgrims. I was also drawn by the opportunity to participate in something that draws people from around the world. According to the official pilgrim website, which keeps statistics on the number of people who complete the Camino, so far in 2025, about 37% of pilgrims were Spanish, 8% American, 7% Portuguese, and 6% were German. The remaining 42% were from various countries around the globe. It’s an amazing opportunity to spend time with a lot of wonderful, diverse people who are all working toward the same difficult goal.

The opportunities to connect with people at cafes, along the Camino, or at an albergue are endless. Those conversations also don’t feel forced. People who come to do the Camino are generally friendly.

Walking around the Cathedral, however, felt a little hollow. We hadn’t finished, and it felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. Visiting the Cathedral is a rite of passage for people who complete the Camino, and we hadn’t. Jenn and Alex didn’t even want to visit the Cathedral.

We finished up our trip to the Cathedral and met up with Jenn and Alex for dinner. At dinner, we discussed the disappointment of not finishing.

With everyone still dealing with being somewhere between sore and injured, I asked if they would like to try this again. Jenn laughed and said that she thinks we owe the kids a beach vacation for the next Spring Break trip. To my surprise, however, everyone said that they would like to do it again, but with some optional off days.

There isn’t an experience like doing a Camino. It’s real. It’s authentic. It’s a tremendous physical challenge. It’s the opportunity to meet people from around the world, as well as the chance to experience Spain in a non-touristy way. I would love to give it another try, but I definitely want to do it when I can hike for at least a couple of weeks. I definitely think it would go better the next time, now that I’ve spent my first Camino learning how to do a Camino.

Day 5 – Caldas de Reis to Padrón

Posted on May 18, 2025 by David Cox

This is part five of a multi-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal, and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

At seven o’clock, we woke up in Caldas de Reis at Hotel O Cruciero. We told the kids to pack up and meet us in the cafe downstairs for coffee. Jenn and I grabbed a table, ordered everyone a café con leche, and questioned whether we were hiking today or if our Camino was finished.

Emma and Alex had their own room, so we hadn’t yet had a chance to talk with Emma about her ankle. She had used some topical cream to ease her pain, but I didn’t know if that would be enough to get her on the trail. Emma complained about pain in her Achilles tendon, which had started early in the week but was worsening daily.

Caldas de Reis to Padron is a fairly flat and rural stage of the Camino de Santiago

Emma played basketball for eight years and learned to play through pain, so when she complains, I know she’s not exaggerating. When we asked how she was feeling, she said she wanted to give it a try. We told her that she needed to rely heavily on her trekking poles to take the pressure off her ankle.

We didn’t hurry out of the cafe. The coffee was great, and they served little pieces of cake with it. We had a couple of rounds of coffee, trying to prepare ourselves for the hike. I was sincerely worried. I saw her play basketball with ankle pain and shin splints in High School, and I was afraid she was legitimately hurt and was just pushing through the pain.

I trusted her judgment, though, and once we got started, things were pretty good. The weather was lovely. Emma was leaning on her trekking poles, which kept the pressure away from her ankle and helped with the pain.

Since Caldas de Reis was fairly small, it didn’t take long for us to hike through it and into the countryside. Once we left town, most of the Camino between Caldas de Reis and Padrón was rural, which made for really peaceful hiking.

Crosses at Igrexa de Santa Mariña de Carracedo

Early in the day, we arrived at Igrexa de Santa Mariña de Carracedo, a beautiful stone church. It is typical of the churches we saw in the area, with a gorgeous stone bell tower.

From there, we continued through the countryside, walking between farms and forests. The trail roughly followed the path of the small river.

We stopped for an early lunch at Bar Pardal around eleven o’clock. They were extremely busy, and it was difficult to get service. The main reason why it was so busy was that The Boys were there.

Just like during the previous day, the fact that there were around 30 in that group made it difficult for the staff to handle all the customers simultaneously. This made for chaos and slow service, but we got our breakfast sandwiches and drinks and enjoyed them in the covered patio.

While at Bar Pardal, we saw many familiar faces, including The German Girls, The Boys, and The British Couple. We enjoyed our brunch and then hurried out to get in front of The Boys, knowing it would take them a while to finish their meal and return to the trail.

We continued along the Camino, walking through the Galician countryside among farms and forests. We crossed Rio Valga and stopped for a drink and a snack at Buen Camino, a cafe across from Iglesia de San Miguel.

Buen Camino is a cute little cafe in a beautiful location next to Iglesia de San Miguel. That church is constructed in the same style as the other churches we saw in Galicia. Next to the church was a large cemetery. The cafe sits elevated over the cemetery with a fantastic view of the church and the hills on the horizon.

Once again, we ran into The English Couple who had also stopped for a quick drink. They were sitting on the patio overlooking the church, and we chatted with them while finishing our drinks, and then went back to hiking.

We were getting close to finishing our hike for the day, but as was becoming almost routine at this point, we were starting to hurt. Emma was still struggling with her Achilles tendon, Jenn was starting to limp as the hot spot in her foot got worse, and Alex was complaining about a bruise on his hip that was getting worse as the week went on.

The fact that we didn’t schedule an off day was beginning to look like a mistake. I was certain that our discomfort would have improved with an off day, and it was a mistake not to schedule one.

The options for lodging in Padrón were limited, so we booked an Airbnb for the evening. We stopped for another drink at Cafe Bar Galicia in Pontecesures and to contact the Airbnb. We finished the remainder of our hike and met with the host of the Airbnb in Padrón. After dropping off our backpacks, we ventured out to explore Padrón and get some dinner.

Padrón was a lovely town, but it was nearly impossible to get food before seven o’clock. Since the Spanish like to eat dinner fairly late, we had to check four or five restaurants before we found a restaurant serving dinner. While eating, we discussed the final day of the Camino. We were going to have our longest hike to date, about 17 miles, with about twice as much elevation change as our hilliest day so far. The forecast also called for rain.

No one was excited about hiking the last day between Padrón and Santiago de Compostela. Between the injuries, the difficulty of the final day, and the weather, the final day felt impossible.

In addition, I had planned to meet my friend Nate in Santiago de Compostela. Nate was an old friend that I hadn’t talked to in years, mainly because he had moved to Santiago de Compostela years ago to work in a community center. He was the main reason I had heard about the Camino, and I was looking forward to seeing him after all these years.

But everything seemed a little bleak. How were we going to arrive in Santiago de Compostela with enough time to spare to see Nate and Santiago itself? Especially when, at this point, we were barely capable of hiking, let alone at a faster pace on our most challenging day.

We decided that we should get up an hour early, and hopefully we would make decent time. After dinner, I settled into bed for the evening. I started to hear rain and then strong winds as they began to shake the shutters on the windows. I checked the Weather Channel app, and it was calling for rain tomorrow with gusting winds of up to 40 miles per hour.

What I wouldn’t do for an off day, I thought. A single day off would allow us to avoid the bad weather and get valuable rest for our aching bodies. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the banging of the shutters on the windows and all of my anxiety about the upcoming day.

Day 4 – Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis

Posted on May 14, 2025 by David Cox

This is part four of a multi-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal, and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

We woke up refreshed in Pontevedra at Dpaso Urban Hostels. We had a private room with only 4 bunks and a private bathroom, which made the experience seem luxurious by Camino hostel standards.

Day 4 was a considerably flatter day with about half of the elevation change of Day 3

Much of the beginning of the day was spent walking through Pontevedra. Pontevedra was the largest of the towns that we had stopped in, with nearly 83,000 residents. Going forward, we would be staying in towns much smaller than Pontevedra, and Carlos warned us that we should consider booking our accommodations ahead of time, because the hostels fill up fast. We were also slow hikers, so we were coming into town later than most pilgrims, which made finding a hostel a little more difficult.

Sign marking 64,500 meters to Santiago de Compostela

With Carlos’s advice in our mind, we put Emma in charge of finding us a hostel, and she used a Camino app to find one in Caldas de Reis. Knowing where we were going, there was the small matter of hiking the 15 miles to get there.

The first and most important thing to do every morning was to find coffee. Having been in Spain for a few days, I was getting used to starting each day with a café con leche and a small snack, which is a wonderful habit.

We started hiking through the middle of town, crossing the Lerez River at Ponte do Burgo while keeping an eye out for a cafe. Following the bridge, we continued the hike uphill through the middle of town. Finally, we stopped for a coffee and some really delicious breakfast sandwiches that fueled us for the hike.

Streets of Pontevedra in the early morning

After breakfast, we left Pontevedra, and we were once again treated to amazing views of the Galician countryside. It was a bright, clear morning, and the temperatures were cool but not cold. It was absolutely perfect weather for hiking.

We stopped by Igrexa de Santa Maria to stamp our pilgrims’ passports and use the restroom. It’s a little church that caters to the pilgrims passing through. Next to the church is a cemetery with rows of mausoleums. We noticed a lot of cemeteries set up this way in Spain, with mausoleums next to a small church.

The church itself had a large yard in the entrance, where fairly tame chickens seemed unbothered by our presence. Outside, a man with a guitar and an amp played a Bruce Springsteen song, which seemed a little strange for rural Spain. We got our pilgrim passports stamped and moved on our way.

The next hour was spent walking on a wooded path next to a creek. The hike was peaceful with the creek flowing on one side, shade throughout, and an ancient stone path to walk upon. Several brooks crossed the path, and every time, there was a cute little stone bridge to help cross the brook.

This was about as calm and quiet a hike as you can imagine, but that serenity was about to end. Shortly after leaving the peace of the wooded area, we started to hear music, singing, and a group of young men lined up with their packs. The Camino was about to become much more crowded.

A path with drainage running over it and a stone bridge on the side

We were taking the main route of the Portuguese Camino, but starting at Pontevedra, there is an important split. Many pilgrims leave the main route of the Portuguese Camino at Pontevedra to hike the Spiritual Variant. It is a longer route that heads towards the Atlantic Ocean and then rejoins the main route at Padrón. It’s normally hiked in 3 days, while the main route, Pontevedra to Padrón, only takes 2 days.

Many of the pilgrims we were getting used to seeing, including the English Gentleman, decided to take this route. In many ways, the Camino is like life, where people enter your life and leave, often without fanfare or even a goodbye, and all you are left with are memories.

But as some have left the trail, we were joined by others. One such group was The Boys. The Boys were a group of high school students from the Boston area. They were there on an optional school trip during their spring break, and we had missed them in previous days because they were hiking the Coastal Route of the Portuguese Camino while we were on the Central Route.

They were well-behaved and polite young men, but they were unmissable. There were about thirty of them, and even though they were courteous, the sheer number of them was a disturbance. We met them shortly after the wooded area, presumably when they were taking a break.

We passed them while they were stopped, but since they were faster hikers than us, they had to pass us. Because there were so many of them, it took over a kilometer for the whole group to pass us. They finally passed us completely along the trail in the middle of the day, by a sculpture garden called Carballeira con Esculturas de Madeira.

We hiked another hour and a half before we found some lunch. We stopped at A Cabaza Cafe Bar, a little restaurant along the camino with sandwiches, pizza, and beer. It was a welcome sight, as we were getting tired and hungry. It looked a little busy from the outside, so we had the kids claim a seat on the patio. Then we went inside and realized why it was so busy.

The Boys were there. This was March, in the low time for the Camino, when only about half of the services like albergues and restaurants are open. When a large group pops into a cafe during low season, it can create problems for the folks running the cafe. The woman working the bar did a wonderful job of handling the unexpected business, and we enjoyed a couple of pizzas and some beer out on the patio.

While we were enjoying our pizza, Emma was complaining about her Achilles tendon. This was getting progressively worse for her, and it was beginning to get concerning. She was not looking forward to the rest of the hike that day and was getting a little cranky about it. Jenn and I, being the wonderfully understanding parents that we are teased her a little about it and told her to suck it up. She was getting pretty annoyed by the teasing.

We finished our lunch and went back to the trail, leaving A Cabaza before The Boys had finished their meal. This meant that they were going to have to pass us on the trail again. Emma was noticeably limping and was becoming more agitated as the hike continued.

Vineyards were common late in the day, approaching Caldas de Reis.

As we walked through vineyards, The Boys caught up with us and started the long process of the whole group passing us, one by one. As soon as The Boys were past us, Emma and Alex left us in the dust. Jenn and I figured that our teasing Emma had upset her, and she wanted some time by herself. Alex followed behind her, probably because we had been hiking too slowly for him the whole time.

Estrella Galicia mural along Camino near Caldas de Reis

We had no desire to try to keep up with them, and they clearly wanted a little space from us, which really wasn’t surprising given the amount of time we had spent with them. We just texted them that we would meet them at the hostel.

We made one last stop on our way to Caldas de Reis, at Albergue Vintecatro for a quick beer and a bathroom break. Sitting outside was the English Couple enjoying a late lunch. We chatted with them a little bit about how we had apparently made Emma mad, and she left us. They had become familiar faces along the trail, and we enjoyed our short chats with them.

We finally made it to Caldas de Reis around 4 PM. Alex and Emma had beaten us by about half an hour and were waiting by Hotel O Cruciero for us to show up. We walked into the lobby, and there were The Boys, all of them, crammed into the lobby trying to check in. The staff was feverishly trying to get the passport information from each of them and get them checked into their rooms. Jenn and I exchanged glances that silently said, “Are you sure you want to spend the night in the same hotel as The Boys?”

One of the staff members noticed us, and realizing how long it was going to be to check in all of them, graciously helped us book a couple of rooms. The rooms were only 55 euros per night, but they were also pretty basic. However, I was just happy to have a private shower. I was worried that with that many high school-aged boys in the hotel that it would be noisy, but after the check-in, we barely noticed them.

We spent the evening in Caldas de Reis walking around town. I especially loved Igrexa de San Tomé Becket, a stone church surrounded by palm trees.

We had some dinner and then went to a pharmacy to find some pain cream to help with Emma’s Achilles tendon. As it turns out, she was walking faster than us, not because she was angry with us, but because walking fast was less painful. We were starting to question whether we should hike the next day. I really didn’t want her to injure herself.

Small Plaza with Cross in Caldas de Reis

During the last couple of hours of our hike, Jenn had developed a hot spot on her foot that she mistook for a pebble in her shoe. It was becoming clear that physically we were beginning to break down, and we could use a day off. Unfortunately, our schedule didn’t allow it. We couldn’t finish the Camino with an off day; there wasn’t enough time. We went to bed that night, unsure if we would be hiking in the morning and hoping that some sleep would alleviate some of our pain.

Points and Miles has an Influencer Problem

Posted on May 2, 2025May 2, 2025 by David Cox

I’ve been using points and miles to help me and my family travel for a little over three years now. In that time, I have been consuming large amounts of podcasts, blogs, and YouTube videos to learn how to maximize earning points and miles, as well as using those points and miles for maximum value. The information that I’ve gotten from these influencers has been invaluable in helping me set up my own strategies for travel, but lately, I have to admit, I’m getting annoyed.

I’m annoyed because many influencers present an unrealistic idea of what points and miles can do, especially for the average person. They also miss the point of what travel should be. I’m afraid people are paying attention to these influencers and not listening to what is best for themselves.

The Myth of Unlimited Points

There are three points and miles podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. Every host on these podcasts takes multiple trips a year. These aren’t normal trips either; they are trips to Asia or Europe, and they fly their entire family in business class and stay in luxury hotels when they are there. They do this all on points. Listening to these conversations, the listener might think, “Maybe I can do this too?” Chances are, you can’t. These podcasters are spending millions of points per year, and that’s just not feasible for most people.

The podcasters fall into two categories: people who travel a lot for business and people with a lot of business spending. If you are a person who falls into one of these two categories, congratulations, you are going to have a lot of fun traveling on points. If you’re not, it gets considerably harder.

What really annoys me, however, are the ones who aren’t honest about this fact. I follow someone on Threads who, earlier this year, claimed that she had earned over 800,000 American Express Membership Rewards points on normal spend in three months. When pressed about it, she said that she had been getting 15x on a lot of purchases through Rakuten.

15x is pretty amazing but let’s, for the sake of argument, say that she got 20x on all her spending, which would be next to impossible, by the way. That would mean that she spent over $40,000 at 20x in 3 months to earn those points. That is not “normal” spending, and I guarantee she would have to spend way more than $40,000 to earn those points.

On one of the podcasts I listen to, a question was posed from a listener who asked how the hosts are earning all of their points. One of the hosts started talking about paying estimated taxes with a credit card, and while that will boost your point totals and help you earn signup bonuses, it doesn’t explain the number of points he must be earning to do the travel that he does.

I’m not saying that they aren’t earning a lot of points; I absolutely believe they are. However, can we be honest about how they are doing it? It’s not what they say. Here is how they are actually earning their points:

Lots of Business Spend

Many of these influencers are either owners of businesses that spend a lot of money on credit cards, or they are people who can spend and be reimbursed for expenses. This opens up the ability to earn a lot of points. This is especially true if you are a business traveler because that opens up the possibility of earning a lot of frequent flyer miles with airlines as well as lots of hotel points. It also opens up the possibility of earning status with those hotel and airline programs.

Manufactured Spend

A lot of points and miles people earn points and miles through manufactured spending. This comes in many forms, but generally it involves buying items, such as toys or gift cards, and then selling them for little or no profit. There are actually buyer’s groups that facilitate this for people who don’t actually want to handle the items themselves. There are all kinds of risks that are involved in doing this, including the fact that it’s frowned upon by credit card companies. This is probably why people don’t want to talk publicly about it. Understand, though, that there are a lot of folks doing this to boost their point totals.

Referral bonuses

For a lot of credit cards, you are offered a bonus for referring someone to apply for that card. These are generally limited to a certain number of referrals per card per year. For many of these cards, you can earn 100,000 points per year by referring applicants. If you have quite a few cards and a means to promote those referrals, like a blog or a YouTube channel, you can accumulate a lot of points and miles. However, for the average person, hounding all of your friends and family members to sign up for cards to earn a signup bonus may not make you very popular.

The Luxury Problem

Travel influencers are obsessed with luxury hotels. Hearing them talk about a Park Hyatt, a Ritz-Carlton, or an Andaz property makes me wonder if the only reason they traveled was to stay at that hotel. I understand that if you stay at a resort, you stay there because it’s the destination. But most of the time, the hotel shouldn’t be the destination.

We recently stayed in Madrid, where we used an IHG free night certificate that was good up to 60,000 points. We ended up staying at the Intercontinental Madrid, which was 59,000 points, so we maximized the value of the certificate. When we checked in, they double upgraded us because of Jenn’s status with IHG. The room was really nice, the service was great, but it was in the middle of the Financial District, and I would have preferred to be in an area with a bunch of tapas bars. In that case, maximizing the value of the certificate cost us the opportunity to be in a neighborhood that suited us better.

When we were in Amsterdam, we stayed at the Kimpton. It was a fun, quirky hotel with great service. When we checked in, they gave us $30 in bar credit because we used the Kimpton secret code, and Jenn had status with IHG. We didn’t use the credits. The reason why was simple – we were in Amsterdam! I don’t want to hang out at the hotel. I want to walk the canals and visit their bars and restaurants. We had a blast in Amsterdam, and all we did in the room was sleep.

At the end of the day, if you are out enjoying the place that you went to visit, the only thing that really matters is that you have a comfortable bed, a clean room, and a hot shower. Guess what? That’s nearly every hotel room. You don’t need to be that picky. If you have small kids and you will spend more time in the hotel because of naps, then maybe you want to be pickier, but for most people, what does it matter?

Flying in Economy is Fine

The obsession among points and miles people with flying in business class is ridiculous. Some of the comments from the folks I follow on Threads have been “I don’t care where I’m going as long as I turn left when I get on the plane,” and “Stop wasting your points on economy flights.” I mean, seriously, those are crazy statements. Are you only traveling so you can take a selfie in your lie-flat business class seat? That’s seriously weird.

I’ll tell you a little secret. When Jenn and I fly, she always wants an aisle seat, so if the seat arrangement is window, middle, aisle, I take the middle. I’m 6’2″, 220 pounds, and I can handle a 10-hour flight in the middle seat in economy just fine. The way influencers talk about economy seats, they act like they’re being stashed in the baggage hold under the plane.

Flying in economy is wasting my points? Really? At best, your business class flight costs twice the number of points that my economy class flight costs. That means that I can travel twice as often for the same number of points. The magic of flying is that I can be transported to a completely different part of the world in a matter of hours, it’s not that I can take a nap during the flight.

The Insanity of Positioning Flights

The worst part is the lengths people will go to get a business class flight. A good price on a business class flight is difficult to find. It’s so difficult that there is a term for a flight that you take to get to a business class flight. It’s called a positioning flight. In other words, you need to take a flight to get to the airport where your desired flight departs.

Typically, you want to fly a positioning flight the day before, that way if there is a delay on your positioning flight, you won’t miss the more important, business class flight. This is where, for me, the logic of doing this begins to break down.

Earlier this year, we booked flights from our home airport to Nice, France, for 19,000 American Airlines miles. Let’s say I have a friend who wants to join us there, but he wants to fly business class. He finds a business class flight from New York to Nice for an excellent price of 50,000 points. He’s going to have to book a positioning flight, which, if he’s lucky, will cost around 10,000 points, but he’ll have to get there a day early, so he also needs to book a hotel. Let’s say he books a Hyatt for 12,000 points near JFK airport. Now that a 50,000 point flight really costs him 72,000 points and a day of his time. Not only did I save 53,000 points compared to my friend, but I’ll be enjoying a latte and a chocolate croissant at a cafe in Nice while he’s on the plane.

This even gets more extreme, though. I’ve actually heard two people recently suggest that it’s easier to get a business class flight outside of the country, and you should try to take a positioning flight outside of the country. Let me get this straight: you want me to take a four-hour economy flight to Mexico, so that I can get a business class flight to Europe? Nope, nope, nope.

What is your Time Worth?

At the end of the day, many of the complaints I have are based on the amount of time required to earn the volume of points to go on luxury vacations. If you are lucky enough to earn points through large amounts of business or travel spend, then you are holding the golden ticket. However, for the rest of us, you would probably need to earn those points through some kind of manufactured spend scheme. I don’t really feel like spending my free time driving around town buying gift cards and products on sale and then posting those items on eBay.

Even if I had an unlimited amount of points, I don’t have an unlimited amount of vacation. Do I really want to waste a vacation day positioning so that I can take a business class flight? No, just get me to my destination so I can enjoy my vacation.

Know Yourself and Your Needs

Knowing yourself is important, however. If you are someone who appreciates luxury, maybe you’re willing to take fewer vacations to have that one dream vacation. That’s fine, and you shouldn’t be ashamed. It’s not for me, though. I want to experience the world, and that means that I need to make the most out of every single point that I earn.

We just got back from Spain and Portugal, where we hiked the Camino de Santiago. We ate at tapas bars and stayed in hostels. We flew in economy. Guess what? It was fantastic, and we were spending less than 50 euros per person per day, including lodging and food. It was fantastic because it was an authentic experience. We used points and miles to help us afford the flights, as well as a hotel in Madrid and one in Porto.

Points and miles have opened the world for us by lowering the cost of taking vacations. I’m proud of what we’ve done and the precious time that I’ve been able to spend with my family on those vacations – and you know what? I’ll never feel bad about turning right when I enter a plane and it wasn’t a waste of points, that’s for damn sure!

Points Check March 2025

Posted on April 25, 2025 by David Cox

Oh, that’s an ugly chart. For several months, the value of our points and miles has been tanking. There is a very good reason for this. We have been planning a lot of vacations, and we’ve been using those points and miles to book those trips.

This year, we’ve had a ton of flights to book and quite a few hotel rooms to book as well. We are taking full advantage of the points and miles that we’ve accumulated over the past couple of years, and we will enjoy our trips. We just got back from Spain and Portugal, where we spent a week hiking the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. This summer, Jenn and Emma, along with Jenn’s sister Misty and our Niece Zoey, will be going to Munich for five days and Dublin for four days. At the same time, my son Alex and I will be hiking the Malerweg on the border of the Czech Republic and Germany. In the fall, Jenn and I will be joining our friends Bill and Theresa when we participate in the Nice Côte d’Azur UTMB trail running event in Nice, France.

In addition to that, Jenn will be flying with me on a business trip to San Antonio in May. After hiking in Spain and Portugal, she is very excited to relax by the pool and read while I’m in day-long seminars.

That makes for a very packed schedule and declining point values. That’s okay, though – that’s what those points are for!

Redemptions

We used 12,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to book a night at the Courtyard by Marriott in Wood Dale/Itasca near O’Hare airport. This was really more about parking than anything else. On our way to O’Hare to fly to Porto, we parked at the Courtyard and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. Then we stayed at the hotel when we returned eleven days later.

Before we left, Jenn was trying to figure out how much the Courtyard charged for parking, since we would be staying one night and parking (without a hotel room) for ten nights. Before we booked the room, Jenn called the front desk to ask about the cost of parking. They told her that parking is always free for guests. She reiterated what we were doing, and he repeated that parking was always free. We didn’t believe him, but we showed up anyway.

When we went to the front desk, the day of our flight out of O’Hare, we found out that parking was $15 per day. Jenn told the attendant that we were told it was free, and she said that she needed to have another conversation with the guy who answered the phone. Apparently, this is an ongoing problem for them. We pretty much expected to pay the $150 for the parking anyway, since we didn’t really believe the guy who answered the phone. It’s fine, but if you work at a hotel with an airport shuttle, maybe you should know how much parking costs – just saying.

We also booked the missing leg of Jenn’s summer trip. We had already booked the flights to Munich and the flights out of Dublin, but had no way to get from Munich to Dublin. Using the 20% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Aer Lingus, we transferred 25,000 Chase points to get 30,000 Aer Lingus Avios. From there, we booked four flights from Munich to Dublin for 7,500 Avios and $56 each. The four flights cost a total of 30,000 Avios and $224, which isn’t too bad. The Airbnb they booked in Dublin is right in the middle of town, by the Temple Bar District and Trinity College. I’m excited for them, I think they will love Dublin.

Confusion with Points Pooling on United

We booked Jenn a flight on United to join me on a business trip to San Antonio. I was able to find her a seat on the same flight I was going on for 12,900 United miles from Moline to San Antonio. We transferred 11,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points to United and added them to the United points pool we had set up months ago. To my surprise, I wasn’t able to book the flight with the pooled miles. At the time, I wrongly assumed that it was because one of the legs of the flight was using a SkyWest plane flying as United Express. I couldn’t reverse adding those miles to the pool. The only way to reverse it seemed to be to dissolve the pool, which I didn’t want to do.

Instead, I decided to transfer another 13,000 Ultimate Reward points to United, so that we could book it directly from Jenn’s United account. That means we stranded the first 11,000 point transfer to United.

I found out later that the reason we couldn’t book with the pooled miles had nothing to do with the flight being SkyWest operating as United Express. Instead, there is a 24-hour hold on pooled miles, so you can choose to reverse adding miles to the pool. I don’t know how to reverse that action, though, because I couldn’t find that option anywhere. Suffice it to say, be careful with United mileage pooling.

The return trip from San Antonio to Moline was booked on American Airlines for 7,000 American Airlines miles, $5.60, and zero drama.

On To The Points Check!

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Citi Premier	$678	892	16.06	1.3	2.4%
World of Hyatt	$623	3,114	$52.94	5.0	8.5%
Wyndham Business Earner	$501	2,944	$32.38	5.8	6.5%
Ink Cash	$444	2,224	$45.59	5.0	10.3%
Venture	$345	690	$12.77	2.0	3.7%
Citibusiness AAdvantage	$283	283	$4.67	1.0	1.7%
Blue Business Plus	$67	134	$2.68	2.0	4.0%
Total	$2,941	10,281	$167.03	3.5	5.7%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

Once again, we managed to achieve over a 5% return on our spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus, so I’m happy about that. Besides that spending, I spent a little over $1,000 on my Alaska Airlines card and earned a little over 1,000 Alaska miles. Jenn spent a little over $1,100 on her American Express Gold Card, earning her just under 2,600 Amex Membership Rewards points. That left us with:

124,700 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
108,600 Amex Membership Reward Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
85,000 IHG Points
60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
57,200 Wyndham Points
32,100 Citi Thank You Points
16,600 United Miles
15,500 Hyatt Points
6,300 Delta Miles
2,500 Alaska Airlines Miles
$109 in Cash Back

We’ve been redeeming points at a feverish pace, but that’s why we have the points. Even with all of the points that we’ve redeemed so far this year, we still finished the month with a total valuation, according to the Points Guy, of $9,100, and that’s really not that bad. The most important thing to me is that we have three great trips to Europe this year, and I couldn’t be more excited about that.

Day 3 Redondela to Pontevedra

Posted on April 18, 2025 by David Cox

This is part three of a multi-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal, and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

During one of our conversations with the English Gentleman we met on our first day, he commented about this being our first Camino. I joked that it was probably our last. He told me, “No, you’ll be back—it gets in your blood.” At the time, that seemed impossible. My shoulders hurt from trying to get used to my pack, and I wasn’t exactly used to staying in hostels.

But here we were waking up in an albergue for the third straight day. We had stayed the evening in Albergue A Conserveira, a fairly large hostel with probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 beds. Even though they were in one large room, they had separated them into pods of two or four. Each pod had a little curtain, which at least gave some privacy if you wanted to change your clothes. They also provided sheets and a blanket, which made the experience much more comfortable.

Water fountain at Parque Loureiro near Cesantes.

I didn’t notice a whole lot of noises overnight, which was surprising because of the size of the room and the number of pilgrims. The OSB board dividers between the pods did a pretty good job of blunting some of the noise. Inside the pod was a different story. Sleeping near my children revealed things I didn’t know about them. Apparently, Emma talks in her sleep, which was a surprise. What was really a surprise was that it was in Spanish.

Getting ready in the morning was a little more hectic than on previous days because the hostel was fairly full. There were quite a few pilgrims, all trying to get their packs ready and jockeying for space in the bathroom to get ready for the day. We headed out the door, saying our goodbyes to the people we met at the albergue.

Heading out down the streets of Redondela

The first kilometer of the hike was through Redondela, which is a lovely town. That was just the beginning of a gorgeous hike through Galicia from Redondela to Pontevedra.

One of the main reasons was that we were in the area around the Ria de Vigo, an estuary that is 22 miles long and 7 miles wide at its widest point. Much of the early part of the hike takes place in the hills overlooking the estuary.

Leaving Redondela, we climbed into the hills on the outskirts of town. The Camino led us to a natural area with tall pines on both sides of the narrow path. The trail was covered with pine needles. We were mostly hiking uphill, and as we continued, the pine forest began to thin out a little and gave us a preview of the amazing views to come.

Off in the distance, we could see Ponte de Rande, a striking cable-stayed bridge that crosses the narrowest point of the Ria de Vigo. The further we continued along the Camino, the higher we went, and the more spectacular the view. Now I understood what the English Gentleman told me – it gets in your blood. Every step was a blessing.

We started to descend into the town of Arcade, right where the Verdugo River meets the Ria de Vigo estuary. We stopped for a quick café con leche before crossing the Ponte Medieval de Pontesampaio, a stone arched bridge built in the 11th Century. It is an incredibly narrow bridge that allows automobile traffic to cross. Several cars inched past us on the narrow bridge while we were crossing.

Between the ancient bridge, the wonderful buildings, and the cobblestone streets, Arcade is a pretty town. It would have been a lovely place to spend an evening, but we needed to push on to Pontevedra.

Leaving Arcade, we went into another natural area that had some technical hiking, where we were actually hiking uphill in a rocky creek for a while. I’m sure that most of the time, that creek is dry, but it had rained a little, and there was water flowing down the path.

The path after Arcade became a rocky creek.

After a while, we came to a fork in the path where we had to choose between going on what looked like a slightly longer path along a creek and a shorter one along the road. We chose the complimentary route along the creek.

Path along the creek on the Complimentary Route.

I think we underestimated the extra time and distance needed to walk the complimentary route along the creek. I don’t know how much it added, but the path was extremely curvy. The complimentary route was a calm walk, but the extra hiking began to wear on us.

Tunnel near the end of the complimentary route

I began to notice a pattern emerging where we would start to get progressively crankier after ten miles of hiking. Emma would normally run out of gas about that time, and it also seemed like every day, Jenn would need a restroom late in the day, with nothing around. The Camino doesn’t have a ton of restroom facilities, and that can get a little stressful when you are out in the woods for a long time. Alex and I would get tired as well, but both of us get quieter when that happens.

Just as we were about to completely run out of steam, we arrived in the beautiful town of Pontevedra.

We got to Dpaso Urban Hostels, which had run out of bunks in the normal area of the hostel, but they did have space in a different building that had private rooms. We were able to book a private room with four bunks, which turned out to be perfect for us.

It was a very nice room for accommodating pilgrims with plugs on every bunk and sheets, and a comforter. The big luxury was our own private bathroom with a rain showerhead. I don’t mind sleeping in a hostel, but the shared bathrooms are something I really don’t like. Having our own bathroom for an evening was amazing.

We went back to the main area of the hostel to do some laundry and ran into the English gentleman, as well as Carlos, whom we talked with for about an hour while doing the laundry. At this point, there were people we were recognizing all the time, some that we never talked to other than to say buen camino. We had names for them like the German girls, the Ohio girls, the Italian couple, and the guy with his Mom. Even though we never had conversations with some of these people, our greetings became more friendly as the week went on because they were friendly faces.

One such couple was the English couple. They are a married couple who had done the entire French Way of the Camino, which normally takes around 40 days. They didn’t do it all at once. Instead, they did it a week at a time when they were on vacation. We first met them at Casa Veiga on day 2, and ran into them repeatedly the rest of the trip, since they were walking at our pace.

We ran into them again at Bar Pitillo, which had been suggested by the hostel attendant. They sat at the table across from us, and we chatted a little. Pontevedra is a fairly large town, and it seemed unlikely that we would run into familiar faces at dinner. But that’s just how the Camino seems to go; you always seem to be running into the same people.

Following dinner, we arrived back at the hostel where we climbed into our bunks to rest after a long and challenging day. I reflected on what a beautiful hike it had been and the wonderful people sharing our journey. It had become clear to me that the English Gentleman was correct. The Camino was in my blood now.

Day 2 of the Camino – O Porrino to Redondela

Posted on April 7, 2025April 7, 2025 by David Cox

This is part two of a multi-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

The first day of the Camino was hard on us. Everyone was sore. For me, it was my shoulders. I wasn’t used to my backpack. Surprisingly, a good night’s sleep healed up most of our aches and pains. The first day had tested everyone physically and mentally, but surprisingly everyone woke up refreshed and ready to take on another challenge.

We tinkered around in our hostel kitchen and made some breakfast. The English gentleman we met the previous day was also having breakfast, and we discussed his previous caminos. He had done the English way, the French Way, and the Coastal Route of the Portuguese Way. This time he was doing the Portuguese Central Route with the Spiritual Variant. Talking to him it became clear that you can hike the Camino in infinite ways. As a nearly 70-year-old man, he had truly been making the most of his retirement and was inspiring to talk to.

We told the gentleman goodbye and that we would see him on the trail (he’s a faster hiker than us, he was going to catch up) and started our walk toward Redondela. Most of the early part of the day was spent hiking through rural Galicia. It was on a lot of blacktop country roads weaving through farms.

In Iowa, we are used to giant factory farms where one family plows thousands of acres of one crop, either soybeans or corn. In Galicia, farms are small and have a variety of animals and crops. Almost everyone had a dozen or more chickens. There were also usually some other animals on the farms including ducks, geese, cows, sheep, and sometimes goats. There were also a lot of gardens and grapevines. My favorite thing about these little farms was that you normally saw an orange tree and a lemon tree on the property. Walking outside and picking an orange right from the tree has to be pretty amazing.

Wooden arrow marking direction on the Camino

Walking among the farms, I began to realize that my anxiety about getting lost had vanished. The Camino is marked with yellow arrows that guide pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. These arrows come in a variety of forms. Some are simply spray painted on walls, some are wooden arrows, and some are signs. There are also granite monuments and brass shells embedded into streets. These markers are at almost every intersection, ensuring pilgrims don’t take a wrong turn.

I was surprised by the frequency of these guides, especially the granite monuments. Those monuments mark the Camino and give the pilgrim the distance left, in kilometers, to Santiago de Compostela. It became clear that we weren’t going to get lost.

A little chapel named Igrexa de Santa Baia de Mos

We walked among these farms until we reached Mos, a tiny but beautiful village. We stopped for coffee at a cafeteria there, which was mostly serving locals at the time. We had some café con leches and a bite to eat and prepared ourselves for a large hill we were about to climb.

A small group of shops and restaurants in Mos

The next two miles or so were hiking uphill as we gained about 600 feet of elevation. As with most climbing, the views improved as we became more tired. At the top of the hill, we stopped at Casa Veiga for a couple of beers and some bocadillos under an orange tree. Bocadillos are basic sandwiches usually made with baguette-style bread. They were available at most bars and like most sandwiches can be found with a variety of fillings. Typically, we saw things like jamon, chorizo, bacon, and cheese.

Bacon and Cheese Bocadillo from Casa Veiga

The man working at Casa Veiga didn’t speak much English, so we did our best to order in Spanish. Jenn, Emma, and I have all been trying to learn Spanish, so it was nice to try out our skills. I notice so often while in Europe, that so many people speak excellent English, that I feel like I’m annoying them when I try to speak in their language (Germans are definitely annoyed).

The odds of meeting someone who doesn’t speak English well in Galicia must be higher than in other parts of Europe. That is because the language spoken in this area is Galician which is very similar to both Spanish and Portuguese. However, the main official language of Spain is of course Spanish, which means for most people, English would be a third language not a second.

View from the outside dining area of Casa Veiga

With our stomachs full of bocadillos, we continued to Redondela. Most of the hiking from Casa Veiga to Redondela was either flat or downhill, which made the rest of the day pretty easy. The views coming down the hill were really nice. There were many areas where we were on top of a hill looking out over the Galician countryside. It made for an enjoyable second half of the hike.

Looking down toward Redondela you can see a tiny bit of the Ria de Vigo estuary

We made only one more quick stop for a drink at a café and we were in Redondela. The second day turned out to be our shortest hike, where we only logged around 11 miles. After struggling the first day, the short day was welcome and we were all feeling a bit more confident that we would finish the Camino.

We checked into Albergue A Conserveira in Redondela. Unlike the previous two stays, this hostel was nearly full. The Portuguese coastal route had now joined the Portuguese Central Route and now there were considerably more pilgrims looking for beds.

Sign in front of an Albergue in Redondela

This is where things started to become more social. We ran into the English gentleman again who was staying in the same hostel. Jenn and Emma chatted with two girls from Ohio taking a gap year. They were on their second week of the Camino, having started from Porto.

After getting situated in the hostel, we headed out to look around the town. Redondela is beautiful. There is a creek that runs through the center of town and a lattice iron train bridge that seems impossibly tall going over it.

Creek running through Redondela with overhead train bridge

We sat down for a couple of bottles of wine at Don Vilnius, a tapas and wine bar. Don Vilnius has an outdoor patio facing a beautiful building called Convento de Vilavella. We ordered a bottle of house white and a bottle of house red. Both were very good and it was a great night to sit outside in a beautiful setting and enjoy some wine.

Returning to the hostel after dinner, we met Carlos, a young man from Valencia. He’s one of those incredibly friendly, generous people who is just having a great time all of the time. He had done plenty of caminos in the past and because of his outgoing personality, it seemed like he knew everyone. He and his friend Herk were making spaghetti carbonara in the hostel kitchen and enjoying a couple of beers.

We sat in the kitchen for way too long talking about the Camino, differences between the US and Spain, and life in general. We eventually had to go to bed because we had another big day the next day. It had been a great day along the Camino and I was looking forward to day 3.

Beginning the Camino – Valenca to O Porrino

Posted on March 31, 2025April 7, 2025 by David Cox

This is part one of a multi-part series on our experiences doing the Portuguese Central Route of the Camino de Santiago starting in Valenca, Portugal and ending in Santiago de Compostela.

Walking the Portuguese Route of the Camino de Santiago was an unusual choice for a spring break trip. We could have chosen something a little more relaxing, like a beach vacation, but here we were, backpacks on, getting ready to head out for an adventurous, long hike across Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain.

Following a night in Porto, a train ride to Valenca, and our first night in an albergue, Jenn and I and our two kids Alex and Emma were set to begin a journey of more than 120 kilometers to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.

Strava recording from our first day on the Camino

We started our Camino from the Albergue Sao Teotonio in Valenca. Albergues are essentially what Americans call youth hostels – basic bunk beds stacked in rows to maximize sleeping capacity and economy not comfort.

It cost 8 euros per bed a night, cash only, and we were given fitted sheets made of paper to sleep on. Each of us packed a sleeping bag liner for these conditions. It was uncomfortable and I didn’t sleep well. This was when I found out that my son was a snorer and I worried that we were keeping the other guests up. However, I don’t think this was the case since I was hearing snoring from the other guests as well. I probably only got a few hours of sleep between the uncomfortable conditions and the anticipation of starting the Camino.

Emerging into Valenca through the castle walls

We woke up in the morning and had some coffee from the instant coffee vending machine in the common room. We readied ourselves for the first morning, made our packs as comfortable as we thought they could be, and walked out of the albergue and onto the Camino.

Building inside the city walls of Valenca

The trail from the albergue immediately winds through the Fortaleza de Valenca, the ancient fortified town of Valenca. It was first built in the 13th Century and has been improved many times, but the current walls are from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Capela do Bom Jesús with Statue of Sao Teotonio in front

The town is very well preserved but is mostly bars, restaurants, and gift shops now. We lamented the fact that most pilgrims would be coming through the town at night and would have a variety of bars and restaurants to choose from and we, unfortunately, were going through in the morning when nothing was even open yet.

Leaving the castle walls of Valenca we continued down to the Minho River where we crossed into Spain for the first time. Once in Tui, we had a couple of people greet us with a “Buen Camino”, the traditional greeting of pilgrims on the Camino. One kind gentleman showed us where to find the first marker on the Spanish portion of the Portuguese route of the Camino.

Bridge from Valenca to Tui and the border between Portugal and Spain

We wound along the Minho River and saw a Cathedral on a hill. The route took us up the hill and finally to the Tui Cathedral where we stopped to buy pilgrim shells. Scallop shells are the traditional symbol of the Camino, with pilgrims frequently hanging them from the outside of their backpacks in order to show they are on the Camino.

There are many explanations as to why scallop shells are the traditional symbol of the Camino but my favorite explanation is that on a scallop shells there are several lines converging into one point. This is similar to the multiple paths of the Camino converging in Santiago de Compostela.

Looking out at the Minho River from just past Tui Cathedral

In Tui, we met our first fellow pilgrim, an English gentleman who is retired and has done multiple routes of the Camino. We had a nice chat with him and he gave us some pointers on doing a Camino. He gave us some instruction on the proper use of hiking poles, which might sound basic, but using them improperly negates much of their benefit. The whole time we were chatting, we had been walking through a rural natural area.

Statue at Parque Merendas Pedra Santa with Ponte Medieval do Louro in background

After a little while, he left us and where we had been enjoying a nice hike in nature, we were suddenly on the edge of a country road with infrequent but unnervingly fast traffic. This section may not have been that long, but it wasn’t pleasant so it seemed to last quite some time.

A mural on an underpass wishes pilgrims a good journey from the Municipality of Tui.

Along the road we were passed by a couple of young German women who made us feel like we were practically standing still. It was becoming clear that we were considerably slower than the other pilgrims along the route. Are we going to be able to do this? Are we in good enough shape to pull this off? The doubts were already creeping into our heads.

Wooded path before our first stop or Ponte das Febres.

This is also where the weight of the pack started to bother me. We all were struggling with trying to navigate new equipment. This was the first time doing a long hike. The weight from the pack is supposed to sit on my hips, but was instead resting on my shoulders too much. We all did some equipment adjustments and while the pack didn’t seem quite right, it did seem better.

There are a lot of stone crosses along the Camino.

It seemed like forever before we were able to make our first stop of the day. It was about 7.5 miles along the route and we came by Ponte des Febres, a really cute cafe and albergue. We were greeted with “Oh no, it’s the bloody Americans!” We looked up to see the English gentleman sitting at a table, the two German women at another, and both guys from our albergue the night before.

We ordered croissants and Spanish Tortilla as well as some cafés con leche. We also got our first stamp in our pilgrim passport.

The Pilgrim passport is a book that each pilgrim carries with them to prove that they are on the Camino. Without it, you may not get admission to an albergue. Also, if you complete a 100-kilometer pilgrimage ending in Santiago de Compostela, you are awarded a certificate. You need at least two stamps per day to qualify.

From there we went to Orbanlle where we had the opportunity to choose between a more direct route through an industrial area or a more scenic route through the country. There are routes like this one on many days, they are called complementary routes.

That turned out to be a pretty good choice because that was a pretty relaxing route to take. Most of it was out in the country, but it did wind through a lot of small towns along the way.

Pathway along a creek on the complimentary route

Getting really tired by this point we came across San Campio, a bar and restaurant that clearly is a favorite of locals, but also caters to pilgrims. Everyone but Alex had a beer and I ordered a giant bottle of water for the table. We also shared three sandwiches and a big plate of fries. It hit the spot and gave us enough energy to finish our trek to O Porrino.

From San Campio to our Hostel in O Porrino was about 2.5 miles and honestly most of it wasn’t very scenic, but it felt good to finish the hike. We arrived at Casucho de Peregrina, which is a nice hostel. We paid extra to have our bunks in a private room with only 4 beds. As it turned out, that was pretty unnecessary, because there was only one other pilgrim sleeping in the hostel.

While we were getting our stuff settled in our private room, I heard a familiar voice. It was the English gentleman we met earlier on the trail. It was nice to see a friendly face. Being the only other pilgrim in the hostel, he ended up sleeping in a large room full of bunks all by himself.

It had been a challenging day and I was already beginning to question whether doing a Camino was a smart way to spend a family vacation. I underestimated how much of a physical challenge this was going to be and both hoped we would finish and that we would be able to actually enjoy it.

The accommodations at the hostel were very comfortable and after a little dinner we were out cold. I guess 15 miles of hiking will do that to you.

The Unexpected Beauty of Porto

Posted on March 24, 2025March 24, 2025 by David Cox

There is a socially accepted form of beauty that we are all familiar with. Flawless skin, a wrinkle-free face, athletic body, the kind of beauty we see on the cover of Vogue magazine.

As I approach 50, I understand now that’s not true beauty. Real beauty has grit, personality, life experience. Life experience, however, has a price. That’s why true beauty has cellulite, laugh lines, scars and maybe a fading tattoo. True beauty also comes with kind eyes and a loving heart.

For years now, I’ve heard people gush about how much they love Porto. I would look at photos and not understand the hype. Sure there were clearly beautiful things in the photos. But nothing to me seemed exceptional – why does everyone love Porto so much?

We decided to spend our Spring Break walking the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago, but we only had a week, so we decided to start in Valenca, Portugal. Valenca is located along the Minho River which serves as the border between Spain and Portugal. That meant that we needed to fly into Porto and take the train to Valenca from Porto.

Fountain of the Lions illuminated by colored LED lights

This gave us the golden opportunity to brush off our jet lag in Porto and spend one evening there. To be fair, I wasn’t that excited about it. I assumed it would be nice, but other than going to the Cathedral to pick up our pilgrim passport for the Camino, I didn’t have anything planned.

Porto Cathedral where many pilgrims on the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago begin their journeys.

Once we got to our hotel, we were able to drop off our stuff and head out. We stopped into Cervejaria Nortada, a brewery near our hotel. We had a couple of drinks and a snack. Our server could tell we were struggling with the Portuguese menu and even though we insisted we could figure it out, he took the time to explain some of his favorite dishes. He was our first experience with Portuguese hospitality.

Copper brewing equipment at Cervejaria Nortada

From there we walked to the Cathedral for our Camino passports. Along the way, I noticed a combination of beautiful buildings and buildings in decay. Shells of buildings without roofs and graffiti are common even in the center of the city. In Porto, when a building falls into disrepair, the exterior remains in place, even if the rest of the building has completely disintegrated. By not demolishing the building, the city keeps it’s historic blockfaces intact, even if it has clearly deteriorated inside of the shell.

Graffiti is common in Porto. In general, graffiti isn’t uncommon in Europe, but sometimes, as Americans, it seems unfathomable that people would deface buildings that are centuries old. Graffiti is an artform like tattoo, where some are clearly horrible while others are fine works of art. Like tattoo, it is also polarizing, because some people love the artform and others find it vulgar.

There is evidence of a renaissance of sorts in Porto. There are cranes everywhere as old buildings undergo renovations. The city is renewing itself as people look to transform those decaying properties into vibrant rehabs. Porto, like Lisbon and the Algarve, have become hot spots for middle and upper class immigrants from the European Union and the United States, so the need to provide housing for the new immigrant class likely is responsible for many of the rehabs.

Mosaic sidewalks are everywhere in Porto

The character of the city remains, however. Mosaic black and white stonework turn sidewalks and plazas into works of art. They are absolutely stunning and it’s almost impossible to imagine how much work went into building the miles and miles of mosaic walkways.

Another defining feature of Porto is exterior tiled walls. The Portuguese began to use tile on the exterior of the homes in the 1800’s, not only for their aesthetics, but also because they are fire retardant and help regulate temperature. You will find anything on the exterior walls from highly artistic tiles to subway tiles.

Porto does have its moments that take your breath away. The Cathedral is located high on a hill near the Douro River and from the plaza, you can see a large portion of the city as beautiful churches and bell towers emerge over red tiled roofs for square miles.

View of Porto from the plaza by Porto Cathedral

The Cathedral itself is a beautiful example of a 12th Century cathedral. It’s one of many beautiful houses of worship we came across while in Porto, including the Igreja do Carmo and the Church of the Lord of Bonfim.

Igreja do Carmo was constructed in the mid 1700s.

After a long night of sleep, we walked on Dom Luis bridge, where the views of the Douro River are stunning. The bridge is at a dizzying height over river which provides long views along the river in two directions.

Off in the distance from the Dom Luis bridge is Maria Pía bridge, which was designed by Gustave Eiffel, best known for the design of the Eiffel Tower. Both of these bridges are stunning metal bridges that only enhance the Douro River’s beauty.

During our short time in Porto, I noticed something you don’t see in crowded cities – patience. People make way for other people while walking on the sidewalk. When we struggled with the language barrier, people were understanding and patient. No matter what building we walked into, we never felt out of place or unwanted. The people are just genuinely kind.

Tiles on the side of the Igreja do Carmo depict scenes from the founding of the Caramelite Order.

The general vibe of the city is relaxed. People weren’t trying to run past you to get to the next crosswalk, It also wasn’t excessively noisy. People just seemed to genuinely enjoy their day.

Narrow building and road in commercial section of Porto

On our way to the train station, leaving town we stopped at a bar where there clearly were regulars drinking coffee and beer, playing cards. Nobody spoke English well. They weren’t annoyed by these four Americans and their giant backpacks taking up space in their bar. The bartender took his time to figure out what we wanted and allowed us to enjoy our drinks. They were all demonstrating kindness, patience, and tolerance. Isn’t that what this world needs more of today? What can be more beautiful than that?