• To Vilanova de Arousa

    5 сентября, Испания ⋅ ⛅ 73 °F

    Today was bright with sunshine and the air was chilly and that’s what we would experience all this glorious day. First though every morning I have to deal with my blisters-this has made me swallow my pride a bit because they are slowing me down but luckily they are not stopping me!
    We crossed ourselves as we passed the Monastery and began to hike what is supposed to be the most beautiful leg of this Camino. We were immediately on the Ruta da Pedra e da Agua- the route of stone and water. Describing this day’s walk is difficult because without pictures it’s hard to imagine the beauty we saw and felt. Basically we were in a magical fairyland of nature with hanging vines, mossy stones, rushing waterfalls, trickling water, birds singing and cool breezes. Little local dogs keep running themselves up the path too! (We ask them if they’re enjoying the Spiritual Variant!) All of that and more is what we had on our walk this morning- it was Heaven on earth!
    On the stone and water route there are 40 or so water mills and gristmills from the 17th century which were in use until the 1930’s - these are the Molinos de Agua or muiños. It was so interesting to see the forest taking back the land since these mills are no longer used. Fallen trees, huge boulders and the mills themselves were covered in moss and vines. It was cool and fresh and so invigorating to walk through God’s nature and beauty.
    Following the Río Umia we hopped out of the forest and into sandy paths that had us passing through miles and miles of vineyards. It is harvest time and we saw the workers in the vines hard at work picking grapes and loading them in to crates. In some vineyards it appeared that whole families were harvesting their own grapes. I wanted to hang out under the canopies of grapevines but the tractors criss-crossing and the level of industry I saw from the pickers made me tired when all I really wanted was someone to feed me some grapes! Occasionally a field of corn or peppers would pop up but primarily this afternoon it was all about the grape.
    We did pass a couple of chapels later today: Capilla De Santa Marta, San Pedro and San Roque de Monte but they were unfortunately all closed. I think our schedule was off a little today because we spent so long in the forest- usually we do find these chapels are open with candles burning.
    In Tremoedo we diverted back up into town to visit the Igrexa Santo Estaban built in the 16th century. Lucky for us it was open and we were able to see the wonderful wood altar pieces. In St Roque de Monte we saw the granite sculpture of a donkey set in the square to commemorate the traditional donkey races held in town in mid September- hate to miss that one!! The town is already preparing for the festivities- the decorative donkey lights are all hung and streamers were blowing in the wind. On we marched to see what other towns had local celebrations we could learn about!
    Along the Arousa estuary we landed on a sandy path that bordered three different beaches that had clear blue water and looked so inviting. The sun was shining and we were getting hot so we stopped for a frozen treat to cool us down while we rested our feet. Then it was only a little bit before we were crossing the O Terrón walkway into Vilanova de Arousa. Luke swam on the beach while I put laundry in, checked out the local grocery and stole some time to write. When he was back we visited the beautiful San Cipriano church with the statue of Senora du Carmel who is a patron saint of sailors and went across the street to see the ruins of Capilla de San Mauro from the late 15 century. We watched the sun go down and ended the night with sweet conversations with our hostel roommates. It was a great Camino day- beautiful but a long 15 miles and we have a boat ride in the morning so it’s off to sleep now.
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