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.
22 miles is a long day at any age, even if all you are carrying is a day pack. Even at three miles per hour (my pace around the UNM north golf course every morning, without any pack of any sort) that is over seven hours of actual walking.
There were two people in her group at breakfast. We talked to the first and she said one day was 18 miles and then the second one arrived and mentioned the 22 mile day. Not to impugn nice ladies but she might have gotten confused with kilometers. But even 18 is a lot for us older people. When we walked in 2013 we regularly walked 15-16 miles in a day. Of course, Wynette came home with a stress fracture so maybe it wasn’t a good idea.
Love the photos of old Santiago and Obradoiro Square. I remember what that walk into Santiago meant.
Love your sweet apartment in Pontevedra. Enjoy that relaxing time! H
Thank you, Holly. I knew you would remember walking there and thought of you.