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.
Menu in the Portuguese restaurant. They handed us the English version. (Typical in a tourist town to get these.)Desert: pear in Port wine — it was greatThe dessert menu! Usually a menu del dia only has 3 or 4 options for dessert. We had the Pera (photo above) as well as the Panna Cotta de lima e limon. (This menu is either in Galician or Portuguese, very similar languages.)
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.
Picking out apples for breakfast.Henry, we got some Kanzis. And Envys as well.
Santiago in the early morning rain, entering Obradoiro Square
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.
Obligatory selfie in front of the cathedral, finally got that this morning
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.
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.
The most cheerful mail clerk we’ve ever met. He brightened an already bright day.
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.
The couple from Madrid after we said our final goodbye
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.”
Laundry has historically been a big and hard job. Just about everywhere we have been in Spain we see these washing structures with washboards and running water from a nearby stream. We’ve probably seen hundreds over the years on various Camino walks. Probably dozens this trip.
Here’s a pretty nice one. Typically they are old and falling apart like this one. Strangely we saw this one that looked pretty new. You could tell by the cement and tile work that it couldn’t be older than maybe 20 or 30 years. Why would someone make a new one?Some people use them for other things. This one is kind of unusual since it is attached to a single house.
Usually they are clearly community owned. The women would wash together. Of course, they worked best when beside a source of running water, i.e., a stream.
We don’t have a photo (we didn’t want to be intrusive) but a few days ago we passed a house and a woman was washing clothes in one of these next to her house. It was probably fed by a faucet. We were amazed. And, at the same house there was another woman sitting on a covered porch who appeared to be shelling peas. They never looked up from what they were doing as we passed by.
Now, we’re sure most homes in Spain have a washing machine (a very nice front-loader). And there are lots of laundries in most towns. Some self-serve, some which run as an inexpensive laundry service. We think it’s rare for people to have a clothes dryer because of the high cost of energy here. We’ve stayed in a few apartments in Spain and they always have a nice washing machine but not a dryer. But there’s always a way to hang up the laundry.
A day or two ago, we found a bar to take a break. (For the feet and for a bathroom and to get out of the heat.). We were hot and sweaty. It’s been humid and sunny lately and not a lot of breeze. A little warmer than usual for Galicia. It might not have yet even been in the 70s by then but we were needing to cool off. A cup of hot coffee didn’t appeal to me so … I ordered a coke. My first on this Camino. It was perfect. Holly, you were there with me!
This morning, just before getting into Sigueiro. The white dog came out to greet us. The brown dog barked at us half-heartedly but he was on a chain.Yes, that’s a tiny little dogThis guy was quite interested in usSometimes they just ignore usThey gave us our first “buen Camino” our first hour on the Camino Ingles in Ferrol.This was also on our first day on the Camino Ingles
The black dog was with the man and the two others were with a woman sitting on the fence, not shown. The brown dogs must have known the man because they all hurried to him and got into begging position for treats. It reminded us of how Chindi used to do that with the UPS guy.
And, finally, we met this woman back on the Ruta Cantabrica. She was walking towards us and stopped us, wanting to visit. She told us her dog was only 6 months old and she expected him to more than double in size. He was already huge (bigger than he appears here) and she could hardly handle him. It was fun to talk with her. She reminded me of my grandmother Richards, the way she looked and dressed.
Every town but the tiny villages has these. This was one of the bigger ones. We were impressed by this one in Sigueiro today.
Tomatoes in one window. This is what drew our attention to the store as we were walking by. Apples in the other window. To the right. On the left. In the center. And beans, pastries, bread, and several kinds of sausage.
Yesterday morning shortly after we set out for the Camino, we came across our first broom in bloom. At least Google Lens said it was “broom”, aka “Scotch broom” and a bunch of other brooms. The leaves aren’t exactly like the broom we have in New Mexico and that we call “Spanish broom”, but the flowers are very similar. It reminded me of when we were hiking on the meseta on the Camino Frances in 2014. We came across some broom in bloom. I cut off a twig and took it with me to the next town and asked the people at the bar what they called the plant here in Spain. They thought for quite a while and then one of them remembered. With a big smile, she said “Las zapatillas del niño Jesus.” The flowers do look a little bit like little slippers.
I wonder if the Spanish broom is blooming in Albuquerque yet?
