In the morning we dressed in our warm weather walking gear, only to discover when we came outside to find breakfast that it had turned a lot colder overnight.
The guidebook said there would be two cafés en route – none of them were open! The first was at Ponte de Porco – Pig Bridge, hence the pig on the stone statue – where apparently John Adams, who would become the second president of the USA, had passed through on his way to negotiate a deal between the United Kingdom and the breakaway colony.
The second one was being refurbished, according to a local lady, so will hopefully welcome tired and thirsty pilgrims again soon. There was a bakery though with coffees, cold drinks, Galician empanada and some cake.
We didn’t really suffer though as it was a deliberately short stage of about 10 km. We were more than half way to Betanzos we came across a little oasis with a very kind, knowledgeable, and chatty host who stamped our credencials and gave some good advice. I realised that I understand so much more Spanish than I can speak, and it was great to be able to follow what he said and be able to reply in my enthusiastic, if not always grammatically correct way.
A steep hill brought us into the medieval town of Betanzos, where we will be spending two nights in the fresh and lovely hotel Portico in the old town. We had a big lunch when we arrived and then walked about a bit, but it was getting really chilly, so we went to the room to warm up.
We later discovered that a lot of eateries are closed on Tuesday and all of them open late – we didn’t get in until half past eight! Well worth it though as we had some really good tigres, filled mussels, and shared a portion of absolutely the best ever raxo at a raxeria in a tiny lane off the new square. Comtent and tired we bimbled back to our room, hoping the rain stays off another day!
Somewhere Slowly 