Arzúa

Left early (6.45) but not quite as early as a 6am alarm would aspire to as I was moving slowly, despite a good nights sleep, and my phone was finding it equally difficult to get a reasonable amount of charge. Eventually I got moving and phone reached about 83% and we left.
A cool morning with a bit of cloud but very pretty.
First town was Arzua where many people finished yesterday as it’s a Brierley stop. We didn’t stop but continued on, stopping for coffee at a popular spot with a garden a bit further on. As I waited to order coffee they were showing España has talent on the TV - a pair of gymnasts were performing to Tom Odell - slightly surreal. Very disappointing coffee and ‘artisan’, but actually not, toast, so continued on quite quickly and found a better one a bit later.
It was a gentle day really - up and down but not severely so. However I was quite tired and my legs were feeling a bit weak. Relieved to stop for a drink and a sandwich at El Rincón de Maria in A Brea. The sandwich was very good.
Then on, and on, to O Pedrouzo. Just before arriving I walked for a while with Robert from Utrecht. He has walked the Primitivo - a very hard two week walk - but very beautiful. He told me he’d done his knee in on the third day going downhill but was still going and still loved it and would be back next year for another Camino. He goes as far as the knee allows - which today was a bit short of O Pedrouzo - but he’s still hoping to go to Finisterre.
O Pedrouzo was very familiar as Cressida and I spent the day there before starting our week on the Portuguese last October. It’s a town that has everything and definitely only exists in its current form because of the Camino. I had one of my favourite ice creams then headed to our accommodation, which is more like an air b&b than a pension. But perfectly fine.
We had heard that there was a pool at one of the big albergues so we headed there and had a wonderful swim in the biggest and best pool so far. I really need to create a swimmers guide to the Camino!
Dinner with Anna, Caroline and Alfred from Denmark. Alfred is an Arsenal fan so knows London quite well. He was very charming and we had some great Mexican food.
Just caught the last 15 mins of the mass at the church - we’d been told that it started at 7.30 but it was actually at 7 so we missed most of it. Then watched some local, mainly young peoples wind bands playing (with one random cello) and ate ice cream.
A good day but I am very tired now and am threatened with another very early start tomorrow, which definitely makes sense but will also definitely be difficult.Lue lisää