Redondela

When you walk for hours to get to your next accommodation it’s kind of a drag to realize that you left your phone charger at the previous one. Luckily there’s Juan, the friendly Camino courier who brought it to me. And that is the beauty of modern infrastructure. Did you know that driving is soooo much faster than walking? Took me 5 hours to get here. Took Juan 30 minutes.

Here, by the way, is Redondela, Spain. But as the graffiti reminds me, « Galicia is not Spain ». So Redondela, Galicia it is.

We figured out that the parade that welcomed us yesterday in O Porriño was part of the weeklong Festa do Cristo which culminated last night with a huge concert right outside our apartment. We had the best seats in the house! There were at least two thousand people packed into the square. The concert ended about 10:30 but hundreds of revellers were still streaming by our window into the wee hours. I slept great; Ellen, not so much.

This morning we had a bit of a hiccup with the amazing luggage transport service that is delivering our packs from place to place. The restaurant where they told us to leave them for pickup surprised everyone by being closed. We waited in front of the locked doors for a bit with some Dutch peregrinos who were using the same company then headed to a cafe next door to grab breakfast and text the delivery folks.

The cafe was jammed with other peregrinos and piles of luggage awaiting pickup by other couriers. When our service (TopSantiago) found out their usual restaurant connection had left us in the lurch we agreed to add our packs to the pile of bags in the cafe next door. Lo and behold, when we arrived at tonight’s pension (A Boa Estrela), our bags were here. Yay! Costing only €6/day it’s pretty amazing this works so well.

Today’s walk was similar to yesterday’s but with more hills. One in particular was probably the steepest road I have ever been on. Years ago in New Zealand I walked up (and back down) Baldwin Street, the Steepest Street in the World according to the Guinness Book. Got the certificate to prove it. Today’s street could beat that street handily. Fortunately the Camino starts at the top of the hill and goes down. Still, Pilgrims with bad knees had to walk a zigzag path to get down safely.

Today the trail was even more crowded than yesterday. We passed the official 100k to Santiago marker this morning so this is the last chance for anyone who wants to earn their Compostela. At times I felt like we were being engulfed and swept along by the waves of pilgrims. We quickly adapted to making brief stops to let people pass then move on at our own pace.

It’s a little harder to form friendships within this surge of pilgrims. Many more large groups of Spaniards in particular. Our previous crew has mostly moved ahead of us after our rest day in Tui though we still see the occasional familiar face in the crowd. Ellen struck up a conversation with a solo peregrina from Lisbon after we spent the day passing her and she us. Ellen offered to take a photo of her posing at one of the novelty giant pilgrim cutouts, the kind where you stick your face through from behind. No way to take a selfie, even with a selfie stick. She seemed tickled by the gesture.

While we walked today we heard pilgrims speaking Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, French. Very few speaking English. But this afternoon as I was sitting in front of our pension waiting for Juan I heard many Americans and Brits pass by. It’s funny how when you hold still and listen as everyone else sweeps by you get a much broader picture. Stopping in cafes or taking a break in the shade for a bit has the same effect. «Buen Camino» is the shared language.

Getting too philosophical. Today’s favorite moments were befriending a dog by feeding him bits of cheese, singing « She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain », complete with sound effects and hand motions, as everyone passed us on the trail, and listening to a guy (Spaniard? Italian?) behind us singing a very rough rendition of « My Way » while staggering down that monster hill. We’re not the only ones who know how to have a good time!

Another favorite thing we’ve seen are the boxes for bread delivery next to the mailbox on the front of many houses. Today we saw the bread delivery lady stop at a house we had just passed, hop out of her van and hang a loaf on the front gate. We had in fact just taken a photo of the cute combo bread/mailbox at this house and why the lady hung the bread on the gate instead of sliding it into the box is puzzling. At least she didn’t just chuck it into the bushes like an American bread delivery person probably would.

Again, way too much pavement walking here in Spain. Hoping that changes soon. At least the weather is perfect. There is a rumor of rain on the way a few days from now. Another adventure! And I do enjoy the Galician bagpipers who appear along the foresty parts. Portland’s Unipiper should take note.Read more