The weather forecast was right, it was definitely getting colder! We had decided to split the next stage too and spend more time in Betanzos, famous for its tortilla and very odd Encyclopedic Park, the Parque do Pasatiempos, paid for by local brothers Juan and Jesús García Naveira who made their fortune in Argentina. Sadly I’m not a fan of tortilla and the park was closed, but the town itself is very pretty and the food is good.
We had a late and leisurely breakfast before heading out – or rather up, as the trail out of town started with another hill. Very soon we were out in the green countryside, surrounded by eucalyptus and orchards of flowering fruit trees, rolling gently downhill again. We kept bumping into a Swiss lady and her 15 yo son who were also taking a slow stage.
On the way we stopped at Bar Carabel, a welcome stop on a usually 25 km stage, for some refreshments for our last few km.
I was looking forward to visiting the Meson Museo Xente no Camino, a café restaurant near the small albergue in Presedo. The Meson is beautifully decorated with paintings and murals depicting the people, history and myths of the camino. I’ll add a quick 360° view of the café. When we arrived it was nice and sunny, so we had a lovely outdoor lunch of ribs and slow cooked meat and potatoes which would last until the restaurants in Betanzos opened.
The Swiss lady and her son shared our taxi back to town, and after a shower I managed a little sightseeing spin around the old town, getting deliberately lost, before we headed to the square to wait for food. Dinner was late, but delicious; Nanci had a fresh salad with cheese and I tried a toast with smoked fish and cheese, and raxo made with chicken instead of pork – both unusual but very tasty!
All too soon our two nights in Betanzos were gone and it was time to move on.
Somewhere Slowly 