Climb Every Mountain

We left Redondela this morning at 7:25am.  We seem to be getting later and later leaving in the mornings.  We spent the night in the remodeled municipal albuergue.  The building was from the 15th century, I think.  We didn´t get a lot of sleep as the albuergue was crowded, noisy, many people snoring and being noisy.  We were happy to leave it behind. Redondela was a very nice little town.  We find that in Spain full advantage is taken of the siesta from 2:00-4:30pm which left us with not much available for food.  Mirelle, Renee and I found an out of the way bar where we could sit outside and drink the vino rioja--the wonderful spanish red wine.  Spanish wine is not like american wine in that there aren´t any tannons in the wine so you can drink, drink, drink, and no hangover.  Good thing because walking with a hangover would be not so great.  Before we left town this morning we enjoyed cafe con leche and toast.  So good!

Our hike today was 11.5 miles.  We had two pretty substantial hills to climb.  At the top of the first one we could clearly see the ocean and the inlet.  The site was breathtakingly beautiful.  We hiked down the mountain with the ocean view on our left and a loose rock slope under our feet and onto the motorway.  It is always a bit scary to hike along the road where the cars zoom along.  We stay as far to the left as we possibly can but sometimes it seems as the cars will hit us anyway.  No mishaps thus far, though.

We walked on some beautiful country roads and up some steep rocky trails.  The stonework on one particular one car bridge was amazing and the streets of the town were almost straight up.  Thankfully the hiking poles were handy.  We encountered sheep, horses (first time to see horses), chickens and two billy goats.  They were funny as they would stand on their hind legs and eat the leaves from the grape vines. 

As I walked along this morning I discovered that spanish in Spain is not the same as spanish in Mexico.  Some words are the same but most are not.  I discovered that duct tape is a universal tool as a motor scooter  owner had used the familiar silver tape to hold his fender on.  I discovered that had I been good at math I would have wanted to be an astrologist.  I discovered that my feet are good for about ten miles before they start to hurt and they clearly know when it´s been ten miles.  I discovered that I am just as bad at reading a map in Spain as I am in the US.  Today was a day of discovery.

Pontevedra is a bustling city.  It appears to be fairly large.  It is just now waking up from it´s two hour siesta.  As I sit in this internet bar I see the traffic bustling by.  It is comforting to know that there is actually a place that has worse traffic than DC--that would be anywhere in Europe.

Tomorrow we are off to Caldo de Reis a journey of 14.5 miles.  After tomorrow we will have only two walking days left.  When we started this journey on September 12 it seemed like a long journey.  We have now walked about 110 miles.  We have only about 40 miles left to walk.  I can now adequately convert K´s to miles--an accomplishment.  I am looking forward to walking into the Plaza in Santiago knowing that I have accomplished what I set out to accomplish.  Not likely that I will cross this way again but what amazing memories I take with me.

Sending love...