Walking Day 9 O SISTO to SANTIAGO de COMPOSTELA

O SISTO to SANTIAGO de COMPOSTELA

10 miles or 16.8K

1360 ft elevation gain

Tues Oct. 24,2024

We left our beautiful Casa Vella, which is one of the Casa Rural group about 9:00 after the best breakfast on the Camino.  Each small plate was a work of art just like dinner last night. The wife served eggs, toast, plus meats, cheese, tomato’s, avocados and melons in perfect thin slices.

As predicted it was raining when we left and increased during the morning as did the wind.  Leaves were blowing horizontally in the oak forest paths.  Hard to believe that it’s such beautiful country side just a few miles out of the city.

Our first glimpse of the Cathedral was 7k from it.  Up until then it was too wet to take photos .

One of several Halloween scenes .

Just starting the climb up into the city.

Walking to our Hotel to check in before heading to the Cathedral. Still raining and we are drenched inside and out.  Your body creates so much heat walking up hill that it condenses inside the ponchos and causes it to be just as wet inside.

We were able to make reservations at Via Aetcal for 2 nights which is the same one we stayed in 2019.  It's very small hotel.  I think there are only 3 rooms on each floor.

Finally the rain stopped while we were getting warmed up with hot showers and the driest of our clothes on to check out the Cathedral.

So much joy!   A whole group of pilgrims coming in from the Frances runs into a group that they hadn't seen in days and are greeted as long lost friends.

WALKING DAY 8 Padron to O Sisto

Walking Day 8 - Padron to O Sisto - 10.8 km Elevation gain 88m

October 23, 2023

Today was a planned light day to make the walk tomorrow into Santiago de Compostela manageable.  We had the usual breakfast and headed out at 0830.  Padron has more history than meets the eye.  The old portion shows close quarters, good maintenance, and architectural features like the sunrooms.  Supposedly Padron dates back to the actual time of the headless body of  St James’s transport to Santiago up the small river from the sea.

The walk was relatively flat and unremarkable.  We did stop at an open church and were surprised by its interior.  It was with full Catholic alters and furnishings.



The hard granite ground makes grave digging difficult so most graves are at grade or in vaults.

Rain was light or non existent for this morning walk. The sun appeared and the rays lit the path.

JoLinda thought she found a new fruit species, but on close inspection, not.

But one must be aware of the ever seeing guardian!

There were also a few goats along the way that had no interest in chatting.

By 1230 we arrived at Casa Villa de Rivera, a Casa Rural inn.  The owner notified us along our walk that our backpacks had arrived and were very tired and needed to go immediately to their room.

The villa was delightful and the owner a joy to meet.

 

Shortly after our arrival it began to pour with thunder and lightning.  But we had a cozy place to be for a little cervisa and vino.

We enjoyed an evening meal and discussion with a fellow pilgrim.









WALKING DAY 7 CALDAS de REIS to PARDON

10-22-2023    CALDAS de REIS to PARDON

                                         19.9 Km. 

We’ll this is going to be a shortened version of the original that I just lost in the digital space.    It was 7:45 and 46 degrees when we left Caldas de Reis this morning.  It had rained a lot in the night but had stopped.

We quickly found a great little posteria with a few Pilgrims.  

We crossed a very fast moving river on our way out of town.   The bridge was a beautiful old stone bridge way above the river but I couldn’t get a good shot. 

Some scenes along the way.

 

This thing appears several times a day at various intersections.  Not sure why ?

Mud from all the rain and bike tracks.

                        The town of Pontecesures but I’m curious about what this is.

                                       I found out it is a Nestle processing plant.

                                      
                     A 4 block long Sunday Market, no one was bothered by the sprinkles.

                                   Look at the price of the Levi’s and they look real?

 

Walking Day 6 Pontevedra to Caldas De Reis

It is Saturday and even though it’s been raining on and off all day there were many groups of runners on the paths.  Use of the paths for local recreation is part of the culture around here.

10-21-2023.        Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis- 23 kms or 14 miles.

Breakfast at the Hotel and backpacks tagged and ready for the transfer company to pickup in the Lobby by 8:00.   It was still pretty dark when we left but the city has so many lights and lots of  cafes open early plus Pilgrims everywhere.  Noted also Chapels are open stamping passports. 

There were also tiny blue lights embedded in the granite tiles  on the path out of the city.  Looks like it would be a cool city to live in.
Sunrise just as we crossed the river going out of town.

Today we chatted with several Pilgrims that we had met yesterday and met several new ones.  We also shared the Camino with numerous groups of local bicycle clubs.  

The walk was pretty flat relatively speaking and much easier without the weight of our full packs, however; it started feeling long around 11:30.  We stopped then for a coffee and shared a slice of Camino cake, which is a dense Almond cake.  Really good and energizing.

Some of the paths were close to the railroad tracks, some went up into the forest crossing streams and others though miles of private small grape vineyards, separated by cornfields and small communities.   We also walked by lots of granite houses with beautiful gardens and fruit trees which included Persimmons, pears and apples.

Open church in small town.

We’ve been seeing lots of these but have no idea what the are.  They are getting tiny narrow green leaves.  They seem to be separating fields.

                                       Granite poles hold up the wires that support the vines.

Finally coming into town.  Too many miles for me even without the pack.  Tomorrow is too be a little shorter but it will be quite a bit more elevation.  We got in by 3:00 today so we did have time to spare.