Being repaired in dry dock. Missing it’s middle. I guessed it was a tugboat.
In the Bar
Having coffee. Always the TV. Always the old guys (and we include Charlie in that group).
Another Day on the Ruta
Day 19, April 23: Faro to Viveiro
Post by Wynette: We walked a whopping 4.5 miles today. Wanted to stay in Viveiro from having read an article in the Telegraph promoting it to British tourists. They said Viveiro is a good place to use as home base and visit wonderful nearby towns and beaches. We can attest there are many of those. Turns out most of the Viveiro hotels, etc. are out of town, for people with cars. The only place near the center was Viveiro Urban Hotel so we made a reservation. We didn’t realize at the time it was a four star hotel. Cost was 77. We prefer to pay 40 or 50, but didn’t have a lot of choice if we wanted to be in town (i.e., not walk 1 or 2 miles for a meal). It certainly is fun to stay in such a nice hotel. Rooms in VUH in high season are 150. Now that Holy Week is over we are back in low season where we always seem to be the only ones in the hotel. Tomorrow night we plan to be in a much smaller town and have a place reserved for 30 euros.
We checked into VUH about noon, rested a bit, then went to a nearby bar/restaurante for a menú del día. It was great. Photo of menu below. We have been remembering lately to ask for ensalada (salad) instead of the fried potatoes that nearly always come with the menús. They always seem happy to do that. The salads have been simple lettuce, tomatoes, and onions with oil and vinegar, but very fresh good lettuce. Often good tomatoes as well.
1st course choices: lentil stew, fried mushrooms with cheese sauce, potato salad.
2nd course choices: chorizo with egg and potatoes, ham and cheese breaded and fried, hake (fish) in sauce.
We had natillas (creamy egg and milk pudding) for postre (dessert).
They threw in two huge cafés con leche for no extra charge.
April 23 slideshow
April 22 second slideshow
Triple Wide Horreo
I know everyone is waiting for the horreo report. We saw dozens today, as usual. Here is a rare triple-wide one.
Another sun on the water photo
We had a beautiful ocean walk this morning with many stunning views.
Day 18, April 22: San Ciprián to Faro
Post by Wynette: We weren’t up for walking 15 miles today. (Are you surprised?) But that was the distance to Faro, the next place with a place to stay after San Ciprián. So, hmmm. What to do? Call a taxi! Taxi driver named Angel took us 6.6 miles. Because of taxi we didn’t have to walk through a not-great stretch by the Alcoa Aluminum factory that keeps many in San Ciprián employed, including our young airbnb landlady. Angel only charged us 15. These low prices make me feel guilty.
We started walking at sea level by a little beach and soon we were high above the water. Today had a lot more up and down than we’ve had lately.
We walked a little over 8 miles. At that mileage we are always happy to get to our place for the night. Tonight’s is an especially nice one. We got here around 2 so lots of time to relax and enjoy it.
The drawback here is that the closest place to eat is a mile and a half round trip walk and the hotel owner thought it was closed on Monday anyway. Luckily we have one boiled egg, a little cheese, a little bread, an apple, some muesli, some nuts, and some chocolate. The hotel owner gave us a carton of milk and also served us coffee. So we’re doing just fine without our usual menú del día.
Camino Natural de la Ruta del Cantábrico
For the first 12 days we were walking the Camino Del Norte, continuing our 2018 Camino. At Ribadeo we switched to the Ruta del Cantábrico aka Ruta de Mar aka Camino de Mar. It is a 90 mile (150 km) trail developed and maintained by the government of Galicia. A lot of it is flagstone walks and stays close of the coast. Some is quiet roads, some is forest trails. This photo is not cherrypicked, there are lots of places like this. The signage is mostly very good and you could probably walk it without a map but we have a gpx track of it also. Every once in a while we are really glad to have the track to reassure us we haven’t gone astray.
We couldn’t be happier with our choice to walk the Ruta. It is beautiful and easy to follow and goes through interesting towns. There are no pilgrims because it is not an official Camino yet although they seem to be trying to make it one. We’ve seen lots of local people out taking a walk, but we haven’t seen a single person doing it like us with backpacks. Also no albergues but we don’t stay in them much any way so that is not a problem.