We have been looking forward to this day for the last 4 or 5 as our guide book has told us that in the midst of 21+ km journeys each day, Arcade to Pontevedra is only 12 km. 4 times around The Sheffield Block - locals know it well.
To add to our interest in today's walk was the pending weather forecast for thunderstorms, issued for the last week even up to this morning. However, while the 12 km was reasonably accurate (we often find cafe's supposedly 100 m away to be more like 500m), we made our journey here without even a drop of rain, just mugginess clearing to sunshine.
An alternate route to the official camino walk alongside highway N550 was a gentle path meandering alongside a small rivulet. So after a much appreciated coffee at the only cafe along the route (well, maybe100m off the road), we took the winding path crossing the rivulet, over and back many times, until we found ouselves at Pontevedra.
What a difference a warm welcome makes! Borja joked as he checked us into the Hotel Avenida and stamped our credentials.
Tim and I headed into the old city during a short downpour - to make up for missing the storm - and enjoyed a platter of Iberian cheese and preserved meats with a local pipe player busking alongside the restaurant. He told us he played for his supper all the way from Pamplona to Santiago last year.
We are really taken with Pontevedra. The old city is full of magnificent facades, granite streets, old churches and convents both active and in ruins, and well laid out gardens and avenues. The most beautiful of all is the Capela de la Virgen Peregrina, a simple rotunda chapel made of granite, with a gilded statuesque centrepiece and recurrent scallop shells, the symbol of the pilgrimage to Santiago.
A walking tour of the old city added another 10 000 steps to today's tally. With a plan to have tapas back in the old city this evening, our officially short day of walking might see us with the highest step tally so far.
We have 3 more days and over 60 km to go. Thankyou to those of you who are following our journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment