Two Crossroads
It stormed last night. Thunder and lightning, horizontal rain, and the sound of wind whistling around the hotel started about 4 a.m. and continued on until about 8:00. The sky cleared and the rain actually stopped by 9 a.m. That’s when I started out after a mediocre breakfast.
Little did I know there was good news right around the corner. Within 10 minutes I caught up to Dave. He was out on the trail and doing fine. We wound up walking along together until we reached Pontevedra and headed to our respective lodgings.
There was some pleasant scenery and nice trails away from the road. Plenty of hills, but nothing too radical. The day passed pretty easily until a heavy downpour caught up to us. It rained heavily and steadily for about 20 minutes. As it let up we were only 90 minutes from our destination, but we decided to stop in for some coffee and to dry off a bit at a cafe.
There was no rush to get moving, so we lingered for about 30 minutes. Sarah arrived and we hung out for a while longer. As we were packing up, a woman approached us and appeared to be asking directions. None of us had any real Spanish language skills. I did my best to tell her I didn't know the area and I didn't know what she was looking for. She was very insistent. Finally, I set up the translate app on my phone and told her to start speaking.
We were all very grateful that she gave us this important information. There were actually yellow arrows blacked out to dissuade people from taking the river trail. Dave explained that much of the trail behind us, including the steep climb into Porto, was now more of a river. We were very fortunate to have traveled that portion before it was so severely degraded.
From the direction we entered the city, we first passed through the more modern area. We passed a dispensing machine that gives new meaning to the phrase “self-service.” Then we climbed the hill and passed the train station. My hotel was another five minutes down the same road.
After cleaning up, I set out to explore the city a bit. About ten minutes from my hotel I entered the popular area with restaurants and shops. They had everything from shoe stores, lingerie, boutiques, pilgrim stores, and an H&M. That’s where I ran into two other hikers. It's interesting how you can pick a familiar face out of a crowd. Philip from Germany was one of them. The other was the British/French woman with whom I had shared a dinner table in Tui.
Past the shopping area was the historic zone, with sections dating back to medieval times. One of the city features is the Iglesia de la Peregrina (The Chapel of the Divine Pilgrim). It is from the 18th century and was built with a circular plan reminiscent of the symbol of the Camino, the scallop shell.
Many restaurants and shops were closed as I passed through the area. They shut down early on Saturday, and many will not reopen until Monday. It will be very quiet in the city tomorrow morning when I set out again. The weather is supposed to be clear. I'm optimistic, but I'm packing my rain gear anyway.
