We’ve discovered that posts appear in reverse chronological order based on when they are first created, not when they are published. Hence, a newly published post might end up buried below an older post. We will see if we can fix this problem, probably tomorrow when we are less tired. In the meantime, you might scroll down a little if you don’t want to miss one of our scintillating posts, or check the list of posts in the menu (sidebar or bottom bar).
Day: May 4, 2023
The festival across the street
Post by Charlie and Wynette:
As we were waiting for our host to let us in we heard a band warming up in the park across the street. We have a nice view of the park from our third story living room and balcony.
Unfortunately the music is mostly not to our taste. It started with very repetitive electronic house music mainly for dancing. It has changed several times. The only one we actually liked was when we were passing by on a walk through the park. A woman with a great voice started singing an Amy Winehouse song, Back in Black.We got closer to look and the lead singer was wearing wings like what we had seen in the grocery store. Then we noticed young women in the crowd with wings. Her fans? The singer was actually quite good. But, unfortunately, her set didn’t last very long.
Our apartment faces the park and the windows don’t muffle the music much. It has gone on for ten hours now and seems to get louder and louder. It is getting pretty irritating. This is Thursday. We are hoping that it will not last the four day weekend. We’ll keep you posted about it.
The Portuguese Restaurant
Post by Charlie and Wynette:
After we finally got to our hotel in Santiago yesterday, we rested and cooled down for an hour and then headed for lunch, Spanish lunch time, around 3:30, at a Portuguese (!) restaurant that was near our hotel.
We had seen and wished “buen Caminos” with a group of five young women earlier in the day when were still on the Camino. We had made up a story about them after they passed us. We saw the same group at the restaurant. It turns out we had it all wrong. It seems they were not mean girls who were excluding the fifth from their group but the fifth one was a little older and some kind of den mother. (Well, that’s our current story.) Enough said.
The lunch was really good, again. The menu had tabouli as a first course option (delicious!) and also a vegan option for second course: quinoa burger. It was ok, but would have been better if they had had mayonnaise. We requested it but all they had was ketchup.
Staying in Pontevedra
We often schedule a few days at the end of a Camino in some nice town as a contrast from being in a different town each day on the Camino. This year we chose Pontevedra. We didn’t know much about it although we had stayed here one night when we walked the Camino Portugués. We mainly chose Ponferada because it was a quick train ride from Santiago.
Because we had skipped some parts we had originally planned to walk, we ended up with eight days here. So far we are very happy with it.
We have a nice, roomy apartment just on the edge of the Old Town.
One of the joys of having an apartment is that you can buy food in grocery stores and eat at home. I’m having some nice pineapple as I am writing this. So we went to the supermarket around the corner to stock up, especially on breakfast supplies, but you already know about our breakfasts.
At the market I drew Wynette’s attention to two women in costumes with little wings on them. More on that in a later post.
Two things about the apartment: it is right next to three high rated restaurants (per Google) and there seems to be a rock festival in the park across the street. Each deserves a post.
Transition from Camino mode to longer stay mode
Post by Charlie and Wynette:
We got up this morning and had a nice hotel breakfast. We love the hotel breakfasts. Of course, we brought our own muesli but they had walnuts and fruit and milk, everything we needed. Plus lots of other delicious things.
At breakfast we met some women from a package tour who had just finished. They were on the Camino Frances, the main one. They had not gone the whole way but from Sarria, long enough to get a Compostela. We asked about their days and they had long days, one was 22 miles. Of course, they were still in their 60s, so how can we keep up with that?
We walked around the old town a bit but it was raining, as usual. We have been in Santiago maybe six times and it has rained every single time.
We packed up but this time we had the rolling suitcase so we put the heaviest stuff in that. Then we walked the mile down to the train station to catch the train to Pontevedra (35 minutes, runs every hour) where we had reserved an AirBnB for eight days. We got into Pontaveda and walked the two miles to the AirBnB to meet the host. See, we’re not slacking, we probably walked three miles today. And that doesn’t even count the 50 feet to the amazing (more on that in a later post) restaurant next door.
Correos comes through
Post by Charlie and Wynette:
On the first day of our trip, in A Coruña, we had a pleasant experience at the post office sending our suitcase on to Santiago where they store it for us.
After we got to Santiago, it was time to pick it up. Google maps, which has opinions on everything, said the post office was “busier than usual” so we went there prepared to wait for our number to be called. But the pick up line was empty and we got right to the clerk. He got our check number, went in the back, and came out with our suitcase in about two minutes. It was lovely to see our suitcase again. And the clerk was so nice. Wynette chatted with him in Spanish.
Finishing the Camino Inglés (yesterday)
Post by Charlie and Wynette:
We had originally planned to stop three miles from Santiago and make a short walk in the next day. When we got there the hotel seemed drab and in a rather boring residential area so, we decided to go on all the way to Santiago. This meant a 12 mile day which is short for typical pilgrims but long for us. Before walking the last miles we called and reserved a hotel near the train station where we had stayed before and liked.
We completed the Camino and got to the Cathedral and the big square in front where pilgrims gather when they finish. Everyone is in a great mood. Maybe we’ll meet someone from the trail, Wynette suggested optimistically. Only 7% of pilgrims reaching Santiago have taken the Camino Inglés so her ever-practical husband poo-pooed that crazy idea.
Well you already know what happened or we wouldn’t be telling the story. We ran into a couple we had met several times and talked to at a pilgrim rest stop (and blogged about — the couple from Madrid). Meeting people you saw on the trail, especially in Santiago is a satisfying pilgrim experience so we felt a sense of completion. Wynette and the woman in the couple gave each other a big hug.
So we headed down the last mile to our hotel in the south of town. Finally we got there, hot, tired, hungry, and ready to kick back. The desk clerk checked our reservation and told us it was for the next day, some communication failure. But the clerk was very nice and said we could get a room in another of their hotels around Santiago. She called and reserved it and called us a taxi, which came in two minutes. It was only a mile back but we were tired. The area in the old town is a maze of streets and it took 10 minutes or more to get to the hotel. We were weaving through little streets and scattering pilgrims in our path. Only €7.20 but these crazy Americans gave her €10.
The hotel was just a few blocks from the Santiago Cathedral. It was quite nice and even had cross ventilation, a north and south window, very unusual for a hotel room. And very welcome after a long, hot day. Did we mention we went 12 miles? It was only 76 (24 C) but with the humidity here and in the sun, it was very hot.
Wait, there’s more! No, not steak knives, better. Check out another post about “The Portuguese Restaurant.”
