Pontevedra

After a very simple, but very nice supper of cheese and ham bocadillas, with added olive oil, then cake and jam, accompanied, of course by a bottle of the local Albariño, we settled down for the night.
Sid, Marcel, Mouse and Mog had their own little adventure and had a go at swimming and sunbathing whilst we were eating! 🙄😂
We were being picked up at 0730ish so made sure we were ready that evening. The owners turned up just as we were packing up, armed with a loaf of bread and lots of pre-packed croissants and cakes - how lovely of them! They asked us if we wanted a lift back to the Monastery the next morning, but we'd already asked our lovely taxi driver to pick us up, so we declined, telling them we'd walk instead. 🙄😂
It was a good night's sleep, and the taxi turned up to take us a) back to the Monastery, and b) 7.5km further on to Os Castaños, where Julie and I would begin our walk.
There were a few pilgrims ready for the off when we arrived in Armenteira, but Luke and Ray headed straight off and, knowing their speed, they would have left them far behind!
Ray was determined to take the bread our hosts had left us and attached it to the back of his rucksack. Luke was thrilled, listening to it swinging to and fro for 5 hours. A true pilgrim! 😂
As soon as we reached Os Castaños in the taxi it began raining, so we put our waterproof jackets on. This route is known as the Stone and Water route as you spend quite a lot of time walking beside a river. It was beautiful but would have been even more beautiful if the sun had been shining (we'd had to stop to put our waterproof trousers on, too, as it was raining quite heavily). A first breakfast was consumed along the way, just one of the pre-packed goodies, and Sid made a new friend 🧡
After 6km or so, we reached Puente Arnelas, where we stopped for our second breakfast - this time, it was a tortilla bocadilla 😋😋😋. As we left the café, Luke and Ray walked across the road! They'd walked 13+km in the time it had taken us to walk 6.2km and eat breakfast 😂😂😂.
We walked the rest of the way, about 11km, together, through small villages and past farms and lots of vines, presumably the Albariño grapes. The sun had turned up by now and it was a great walk.
A stop for our celebratory beer, with about 4km to go, was a little previous, but it was very welcome, and a visit to a local church, where we lit a candle for Nigel, gave us a little rest before the last few kms.
Conversation in the bar turned to buffs (the things you wear around your neck), but neither Luke nor Ray understood what I was talking about until Julie said, "buffs"! There followed quite a protracted discussion (still ongoing) about how we should pronounce the letter U in words such as buff, buffet, puff (as in pastry!🙄😂), Buffy (The Vampire Slayer) etc. It developed into the 'oo' sound as in book, look, etc. Of course, being a northerner, I'm absolutely correct in my pronunciations, but it's caused a lorra laffs!😂😂😂
We're now in Vilanova de Arousa, in the most amazing apartment that overlooks the water, and it's from here we take another boat journey in the morning (Marcel can hardly contain his excitement 😀), this one for about 90 minutes.
Luke and Ray have been foraging (hunter-gatherers, if you can say it correctly!) and we've enjoyed a delicious pasta pesto with chicken and salad (with wine, of course!)
The boys can come again!Read more