The walk to Arzua turned into a long hot march which didn’t end til after 6:00 pm. It started out fine. Beautiful morning and we covered the 15 kilometers to Melide easily. But from Melide on was tough. Mostly because of the pulpo. We could have turned right and stayed on the Camino when we got to Melide but I just couldn’t see it being fair to Hannah to have been there without having a ración de pulpo so we turned left to Pulpería Ezequiel. And then it just didn’t make sense to have a big plate of pulpo without the traditional accompaniment of a bottle of Matujo wine and then it was Sunday so they had a big Sunday market and they had a stand selling churros. And they make regular plain churros but they also have chocolate covered ones, white chocolate covered ones and churros stuffed with cream which we hadn’t seen before so we tried them all and then as we walked out of Melide we missed the turn for the Camino off the main road and ended up walking for a couple of miles along the highway as the temperature approached 90 degrees.
It was a long afternoon arriving at 6:00 pm 16.5 miles total but the sight of Casa Brandariz an incredible country estate where they pride themselves on preparing every meal using exclusively their own farm products, chickens, eggs, cheese, butter, salad greens, vegetables, their own bread and pastries etc Dinner was amazing and even their own granola, home made preserves and yogurt at breakfast. Another place Cary would love.
Two more stages to Santiago. Last year I walked them both in a single day. Today we walk to Pedrouzo only about 22 kms hopefully to arrive early so we can chill cause tomorrow I want to hit the Camino at day break to avoid the afternoon sun cause tomorrow is supposed to be over 90 degrees. It would also be great if we could arrive by noon for the Pilgrims Service at the Cathedral so we can see the Botafumeiro in action.
Buen Camino
