We like to get coffee along the way after we have walked for an hour or two. We depend on google maps to find the bars. We planned for the cafe-bar shown in the far right but it was closed. It our backup was a pandereia in the closer brown building.
It turned out to be a tiny place, maybe 10 by 20 feet with 29-30 loaves of bread. One of those little local places that make things easier for the people in the area. Basically a bread middleman or middleperson or middleshop. They didn’t have a place to sit, but they did have a little coffee machine. Every selection had sugar and it was a bit too sweet. And the machine allowed you to add extra sugar.
This is a frequent sight on all the Caminos. Someone sets out some drinks and food and you take what you want. It is donativo, you pay what you want. You can see the red coin box. When we first got there, there was no one “minding the store”, it was all based on trust. It was perfectly located. We really needed a place to cool off and rest at that point.
Here is Charlie enjoying the natural setting, taking a break from the barrage of news and technology that can consume our lives. Sellos, stamps, are a big thing on the Camino. To get a Compostela, certificate of completion, you need two stamps a day.
As we were resting there, another pilgrim couple came along and stopped. They were from Madrid. The husband had finished the Camino from Porto, Portugal, a month before and loved it so much he talked his wife into doing the Camino Ingles. She wasn’t so sure she loved it. They were walking very long days.
Then the couple that created the rest stop came up in their car. They were adding a tarp to create more shade, maybe to prepare for this hot spell that is forecast in a couple of days. The pilgrim from Madrid helped them put up the tarp.
The couple from Madrid are the two on the right.
The woman who, along with her husband, provided the rest stop was showing us an elevation map of the Camino Ingles up to that point. We’d all climbed a very steep uphill to get to this spot. She pointed out that we were at the top of the peak on the right. The downhill was even worse.
We passed this today. In our walks in Spain we must have seen at least 50 bathtubs in fields. It seems to be a thing. I have never heard an explanation for them and I can’t imagine what they might be for.
We’re in Betanzos today. This place was literally right across the street from our hotel; Google said 20 feet away and it got great reviews.
They called them pinxos which is the same as the Basque word for them. I assume it is the Galician word for them. They are a little different from tapas. They are mostly little sandwiches. Tapas are more varied.
I don’t think people normally have lunch there. They seemed surprised that we had seven. But, bottom line, they were great. Some of the best we have had.
Charlie took this photo yesterday as we were walking under a freeway (or probably toll road) between Fene and Pontedeume. I thought it was a great photo.
I’m not sure how well it captures how tall and huge these concrete pillars are that hold up these super highways.
It seems we are never too far from a super highway and it’s not uncommon to walk under them like this. Here’s one we walked under today before arriving in Miño.
We did laundry in self-service lavandaria in Pontedeume yesterday. (You have to specify “self-service” because it’s still common to find laundry services that will do your laundry for a very reasonable price — not much more than you’d pay at a self-service laundry.)
We noticed this woman sitting on a bench just outside the laundry. We took her photo through the laundry widow.
Turned out she was waiting for her laundry to be done, too. She came in just as we were removing our clothes from the dryer.
No doubt someone in this house (with open windows on the left) was watching us pass by to be sure we didn’t go off the path.
Three times today, we were told we were off the Camino. Twice by people in the street before we even got out of Pontedeume. We weren’t really lost those times, exactly. Just trying to figure out the way we wanted to go.
But an hour or two later, we missed a turn and had only gone a few feet past it when we heard a voice from a window in a house about 100 feet away. She was calling out, “Por ahi.” She had to say it several times before we realized she was addressing us, indicating we needed to turn. We never saw her, just heard her voice. I was quite grateful she set us right. Charlie said he had a track going that would have beeped at us after about 30 more feet since we were off-track. But, it’s a lot more fun being corrected by the locals.
