By the time we had found a place for breakfast and eaten, most of the stores and bars had opened. I used my Spanish to tell the owner of the pulperia that I had left my sunglasses at dinner the night before (impressed? actually I said: "yesterday. dinner. my sunglasses") and she nodded. She had found them!!! She climbed up on an armoire and took them off the top. A group of pilgrims eating pulpo for breakfast saw the exchange and pumped their fists in triumph for me.
We ran the errands we could not accomplish the night before and then set out. The path took us past the Capilla de San Roque and the Capilla de San Antonio (with its interesting creatures on the door!), back to the Cathedral, then along the road with all the crests hanging over it. The streets were full of pilgrims. And one budgie.
I was grumpy from the noise of the city and my sore neck, so I was thrilled to see "Arzua 14 km" on a sign. I had been assuming we were in for another 20 km+ day. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. The map showed fairly small undulating hills throughout the day.
Just outside the city, we stopped for a sello at the Iglesia de Santa Maria de Melide. The city road gave way to tree-lined gravel. Just like that, pastoral life had resumed.
The many pilgrims from town somehow evaporated, and the few we encountered were walking in silence. It was not what I expected.
After a little fruit stand called Pequeno Oasis, we found ourselves in a crowd.
I watched Cathleen drop back as I pulled ahead. I had just gotten ahead of the clack clack clack of a pilgrim's poles when we passed a café. It was about half way through our day's trip, and about lunch time. Their patio looked quiet and cool. I waited for Cathleen and we decided to do lunch. The service was surprisingly quick, and the food was good. I got more of that tasty tasty bread that I got the night before in Melide. It's called Rosca Gallega.
Even in the shade, it was hot enough that we were sweating just sitting there. The forecast said 33°C.
We examined our map and found a way to cut directly to our hotel, rather than going through Arzua. I had wanted to do something similar when we were entering Melide, but we were walking quite far apart at the time, and without discussing it first, I was hesitant to take it, in case Cat would look for me.
After lunch, we ended up in a conga line down the road. Everyone had clacking poles. I wondered if the pilgrims didn't know they were supposed to put on the rubber tips, or whether they had already been walking so long that the tips had worn through.
We passed the church of Santa Maria de Boente, which was dedicated to St James. While I had been pleased that so many churches have been open and giving sellos since we've joined the Frances, it had also been weird that many of them so far have had their interiors plexi-glassed off from us. Inside Boente, it was actually difficult to get a photo, because of the pilgrims' nose prints on the glass.
The other thing I noticed about the Frances is that the Camino signs are all much more uniform, and much more vandalized. Many of the "km count" plaques are missing, and people have tagged the posts with their names or written jokes on them.
The path had been mostly shady, dipping in and out of light woods. Then it went into open road for quite a stretch. I pulled out my umbrella. Every tiny patch of shade held a pilgrim. I was sweating so much I was dripping wet. The path started a long gradual climb. In the heat it was nearly unbearable.
Then finally it crested and turned downhill and I got some relief. By the time I reached Bar Manuel, I was ready for a rest and pulled in for a KAS Limon. After that, I felt a million times better.
For about 10 minutes.
The heat was relentless. I ended up in another conga line that lasted until Arzua. The path was 3 km of up. Staring at people's backs, I noticed that 9 out of 10 carried a small day pack, many of them smaller than mine. I wondered if everyone was shipping their luggage.
Just a little ways past Bar Manuel, I crossed the Rio Iso, where more than a half dozen pilgrims were swimming. It looked very inviting! They all looked very relaxed. The pilgrim walking ahead of me made a bee-line to the water.
That was the start of a massive albergue complex, with several sleeping areas and food offerings, among other things.
Just past that, up at the highway, Milpes albergue and cafeteria had the genius idea to make a ring of benches with a fountain in the centre where everyone's feet would go. WANT.
The bronze shells embedded in the sidewalk were pointed in the opposite direction again (the direction they were in Asturias!), just to confuse us yet again.
By that time, I was getting close to the turnoff for our hotel. It was--guess what-- about four blocks uphill off the highway. I grunted my way up, dripping in sweat, and rang the bell at 3 pm on the dot.
The hotel was great! Well furnished, cool, and our own large balcony overlooking the courtyard and some horses. I immediately took a cool shower and washed all my clothes, which were soaked through with sweat. Ew. Even my skirt. Ew.
Then I guzzled more water, ate some skittles left over from Cathleen's birthday's sharing game, and had a relax on the bed. Cathleen arrived around 4:30pm, which was right around when I told the hostess to expect her.
While Cathleen showered and did her laundry, I napped. Afterwards, I wanted to check my hair, which had dried as I slept, and commented how it dried "poofy." She walked around the corner and said, "Don't talk to ME about poofy!!"
That was what 18 days with out conditioner will do to curly hair... >.<
We chose a place to go for supper (the closest one!) The barman looked at us like we were crazy. "No food! No food!" We looked at the sign that stated "restaurant" and shrugged. We went to the next place, which was clearly a restaurant and had more than a half dozen people outside the terrace. We asked what time they served supper. 9 pm. We had an hour to wait. Cat was not impressed. She was doing a great imitation of the "grumpy cat" meme. (http://i.ndtvimg.com/mt/2014-12/grumpy-cat%20(7).jpg)
Everything was the worst!! Lol. (https://youtu.be/Tu2hzq_HqCk)
At 8:15 pm, a couple men pulled up in a car and carried in huge pots. The food had arrived!! At least they weren't holding out on us. ;)
By 8:40 pm we were starting to get excited for our pending supper, and all the other patrons promptly disappeared. I supposed to go eat at home.
Cathleen ordered the 3-course pilgrim's menu, while I just ordered two items à la carte. We also asked if we could try the famous Arzua cheese. The cheese was outstanding! And it came with the bread I love. I was pretty happy. I joked that I could buy a big wheel of the bread on the morning and lash it onto my pack with rope.
My scallops were overcooked, but the shells were a gorgeous array of purples. My pulpo a fiera was good, although not as good as Ezequiel's the night before.
We had to laugh when Cathleen's second course arrived as three big steaks. This was after she had already eaten a huge potato salad as her first course. (Never mind the extra cheese and bread we ordered!) How was anyone supposed to eat so much food?!
Then the waitress asked if she wanted the included dessert. >.< Somehow, through our broken English and Spanish asking what the desert was, I ended up with dessert too. But when the bill arrived, they had comped our cheese and bread, my dessert, and both of my non-alcoholic drinks! Score!!
We rolled our way back home and into bed.
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