Friday May 3, 2024, Redondela to Pontevedra


Our day started out dry but it didn't stay that way for long. It rained pretty much continuously all day.


Not long after we started out we got chatting to Lily from Boulder, Colorado. She had quit her job and was starting a 2month tour of Europe. She had a degree in physiology and was going to train as an EMT prior to becoming a physician's assistant.


Next we got chatting to Sinéad from Barry, Wales. But "Sinéad's an Irish name, not a Welsh name", I said. Her family, on her father's side, had come over from Ireland. She was only spending 2 weeks on the camino and she was already thinking of flying home early because she missed her dog that she'd rescued from Romania.


Next we got chatting to Lindy, an ordained minister in the Church of Christ, from North Dakota. This was her 13th (!) camino, almost all of them ending at Santiago.


We collected multiple stamps from enterprising  people who'd set up stalls along the way, selling  memorabilia.


It was only 13:00 when we entered Pontevedra and our checkin time wasn't until 15:00 so we sought refuge from the rain. I settled on a bar en route.


Our host offered that we could check in early so off we headed. It was only 10 minutes away but actually finding the place was the hard part. The entry was "hidden" inside a shopping arcade.


We walked to the nearest supermarket and bought pizza. Patsy made a vegetarian lentil hodgepodge.


13.3 miles


Saturday May 4, 2024 Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis


When we left the apartment, at 8:00, it was surrisingly not raining. The sky ahead nevertheless looked very dark and ominous.


We crossed the Rio Lérez on the Ponte do Burgo. Not more than an hour later it was raining torrentially. Ken was somewhere ahead. Patsy and I sheltered under the eave of a house. Ken phoned to let us know that he and a bunch of other pellegrinos were sheltering by a church. When the rain slacked off Patsy and I braved the rain to find Ken. Over a dozen people were sheltering with him under a large roof. The rain was pouring down but many pellegrini just kept on trudging by regardless.


After about half an hour the rain slacked off to just a regular downpour so we set off with Bert and Eric, an uncle/nephew pair of pilgrims from Pennsylvania and Ohio. We all stopped at a cafe that coincided with another torrential downpour. We ended up each having two café con leche  and I had two empanadas con carne.


We set off again. At one point Ken had waited for us and was helping everyone, including us, cross a swoollen stream. He could have stayed there all day offering a helping hand to countless pellegrinos.


Continuing to follow the camino Patsy and I came to a "stream" crossing that we, plus a bunch of mountain bikers, deemed uncrossible. We had to backtrack to follow a road.


We made it into town and stopped for another café con leche to wait for our host. Within a few minutes our host said he could meet us in 5 minutes. We were very close but I couldn’t find the entrance. Fortunately, our host recognised us.


The apartment (€112.50) was fabulous. Shopping at the nearby Froiz the fish didn't look so great so I decided to make a large veggie omelette with pommes frites for dinner.


14 miles