We started early on this day because we knew this would be a long day - 29 Km! By 7:15 AM we were on our way. Fortunately, we had ideal weather. There was cloud
cover until noon. After the clouds burned off we had warm sunny skies. No major hills on the route; the Camino went up and down as it crossed valleys. We went over rivers on old stone bridges.
Saw a few people limping. If they started in Sarria, this would be their third day and perhaps they are suffering from blisters. Lil and I remained ailment free.
Hardly anyone to talk with today. However, when we were in a cafe for lunch, I saw some angel wings mounted on the wall. I tried to get a silly picture of me with
angel wings. Another patron offered to take the picture for me, and that is how we ended up chatting with John and Lisa.
They were living in Indonesia at the time we met them, but had previously lived in other parts of the world - Texas, Mexico, Belize, and Florida.
They had started their Camino in Leon, but John's feet were now so badly blistered that they were going to quit. Too bad, because the end was so close.
Lil spotted our first stork today, in a nest on a church steeple.
Later we saw a second stork with a nest on a high voltage tower. When Melanie and I went to Portugal, we saw dozens of storks, but here in northern Spain they seemed to be less frequent.
We got to Arzúa at 3:30 PM. I actually felt less tired than yesterday, despite the longer distance on this day. Lil's step counter registered more than 40,000 steps this day.
In Arzúa, we found a place serving a pilgrim's menu dinner at 5 PM. Hurrah! We got to eat before 7 PM! Lil got the ribs and I got the chicken.
Lil's dinner came with a small pitcher of white wine (3 ½ glasses) and since I got beer, she had to drink all that wine herself.
She said her wine compared favorably to Winking Owl wine, which apparently is a favorite of Hoosier wine connoisseurs. She attended another 7 PM pilgrim's mass.
We had about 38 KM to go. It kept getting warmer each day, highs in the 80s were expected for the next day, so walking a shorter distance sounded good.
Still Photographs
