Day: May 12, 2023

Impressions of Pontevedra

Post by Wynette:

We haven’t blogged much about Pontevedra itself. I thought I’d post a few photos with comments.

Pontevedra has a vibrant sidewalk culture. Nearly every street has a bar with outdoor tables. There are lots of pedestrian streets and these have many bars. If you go out any time in the afternoon or evening you’ll see people socializing. This photo was taken about 10 at night. There is a nightly “paseo” with everyone out walking, eating ice cream, visiting, lots and lots of children playing.
We saw a number of tour groups when we were out on our own strolls through the city. I think most of them were Spanish retirees. I snuck this photo while this group was getting their photo taken in front of a monument. Even though we saw tourists, Pontevedra doesn’t feel touristy at all. Just a place where people live and have a rich community life.
Today Charlie and I walked to the train station to buy tickets. On the way back we discovered this park that went on for nearly a half mile alongside a stream. We couldn’t believe we hadn’t discovered it already.
This is the “alameda” right in front of our airbnb. They had a flea market there last weekend. I bought a blouse. So good to have something else to wear besides my hiking shirts.
This is Ponte do Burgo. It is the bridge for which the city is named. Ponte = bridge, Vedra = old. This was once an old Roman bridge but nothing of that remains. Now, it’s pretty modern. The Camino heads out of town over this bridge. (Ella, I included this largely because I like the reflections, too.)
View from the corner window in our airbnb living room
There are so many children. We have seen many school groups out on field trips of some sort during the school week.
125 year old magnolia tree in park across from us. We saw children climbing in it. Reminded me of my Mom. She loved to climb trees when she was a kid.
Not typical here but I thought it was pretty.

We ate Mexican today

Post by Wynette: We finally made it to the Mexican restaurant that is almost next door to our airbnb. Our friend Henry asked if we expected it to be like USA Mexican or Mexican Mexican.

We got there a little before 2:00 and we were the only people in the restaurant. I was feeling bad for them. But by the time we left a little over an hour later, the restaurant was full. Maybe 20 tables of two or more.

We had half servings of several things just to try things. Tapas-like. The chicken mole enchiladas were the best mole I’ve ever had. Incredible. The carnitas were excellent as well. Those two dishes reminded us a lot of Mexican food we’ve eaten in California. Then we had a Sope. This was like nothing I’d ever had in the USA. It did remind me of food I ate when driving through Mexico to Guatemala in my 20s. (Hi Robert Joe!) It was delicious. And finally we had a Tostada Tinga. Never heard of one of those either. And then we shared a cheese cake with dulce de leche. A very dense, smooth cheese cake with a caramel-like sauce. Everything was excellent. I forgot to take photos of the food. So hard not to just dive in.

Menu is here.

I asked the waiter what part of Mexico the food was from but he just said “all over”. He wasn’t nearly as eager to tell us his life story as the owner of the Brazilian restaurant. Well, he didn’t tell us any of it. So, we didn’t have an experience like in the Brazil restaurant. But we did quite enjoy the food.