Palas de Rei to Casteñada – 24.4km, t.t hours, Casa Milia, 67€

What a wonderful, hilly walk today, mostly on natural trails away from any traffic. We had lots of nice interactions with other pilgrims as well as with the Spanish who work in supporting the Camino. We have one more long day and another short one to go and I think we are both on the fence at times between “we wish it wouldn’t be ending” and “yeah, I’ve had enough”.

First, I have to say that last night’s sleep was our best in Spain. The bedding and mattress were awesome and the room temperature was perfect. We slept straight through until just moments before the alarm went off. That little hotel was more expensive than usual but it was well worth the price.

The trail out of Palas de Rei was easy enough to follow but we were looking for some fuel first. We passed by one small cafe because no one was there. You don’t walk the Camino to be alone. That was a dumb move though because the next cafe was located near the last streetlight in town was and there were at least 30 people in the queue to order and no tables available. You don’t walk the Camino just to wait forever for food. We somehow managed to survive until we got to San Xulian, 3.6km down a trail which was lit only by hundreds of headlamps and torches.

At the first bar in San Xulian, we found only eight pilgrims including two waiting to order, a few waiting for their food / coffee to arrive and a few people enjoying breakfast. Breakfast #1 was the usual tostada & cafe con leche for Melanie but I had peach cake with my orange juice. We loved the food, place and bartender. Melanie spotted the unusual sight of a basket hung in the corner of the room with three small flags stuck in it, the flags of the U.S., Mexico and Singapore. She excitedly told the bartender that last one was her flag. Without missing a beat he replied “do you want it back?” Melanie, being Melanie, didn’t miss a beat either and with an angry face put on asked “Don’t you want it?”. The bartender lost that battle of wits as he stuttered and stammered while trying to reply.

A few kilometers after San Xulian, we passed through the town of Casanova. For obvious reasons, I had to stop and get a photo.

The fun part of the walk in the morning was when we were walking up a hill to a village. A bus zoomed past us and I said I bet that it was dropping off touragríanos at the top of the hill. We saw it turn the corner onto the main road and when we got to the corner, we saw the parked bus offloading all the part-time pilgrims who were rushing back to a pilgrim statue that they wanted to get a photo in front of. While I went into the nearby market to buy a banana, Melanie and a Japanese girl we met organized the crowd, directed traffic and took the photo. Fortunately, they planned to share the one photo instead of each of them handing over a phone for a shot.

The bad part of the walk today was that there was only one route out of Palas de Rei. Everyone was was on the same dirt path through the forest. Since the first hour of our walk was in the dark, everyone had headlamps or torches and it was like a light show at Sentosa / Federal Hill / Disney world. Shadows were jumping everywhere and it made the footing harder to detect. Once again though, we survived but I sure did appreciate the walk out of Portomarin even more today.

Melanie was off her meds today but handled all the hills quite well, both the ups and downs. The sharp lower back pain was gone although a general back pain was still there but manageable. One thing was slightly less manageable though – after a few more kilometers we both needed toilet breaks. The last 100 KM has too many people along it to quietly go off trail into the forest a bit and find a “lava-tree”. We needed a bar, cafe or something else with a real toilet. The next village we got to had a single cafe… but it was closed. The next village had a bar but there were dozens of pilgrims queuing at the toilet. We kept walking but now with shorter and much quicker steps. We got all the way to the large city of Melide. The first cafe on the trail was also closed but we soon got to a pizza restaurant. I ordered two soft drinks for us while Melanie did her thing, then it was my turn. We made it! It wasn’t quite the same sense of joy and relief we feel when we get to Santiago but it was close. I’m calling that breakfast #2.

30 seconds after leaving the pizza place, we were each being offered pulpo (sliced pieces of boiled octopus). Melide is famous for their pulporias so we divided that lunch #1 was going to be a plate of pulpo, drizzled in virgin olive oil and topped with a generous sprinkling of smoked paprika and some sea salt. Deeeeelicious!!! Also, for the first time when I still had several kilometers to walk, I chased the pulpo down my throat with an ice cold beer. The final 10km into Castañada was a blur. Melanie says I was singing loudly the whole way but I think she made that up.

As bigger modern Spanish cities go, Melide is a good one. Two stores down from the pulporia was a heladería – a store specializing in selling great helado / ice cream. How can you not love a city where pizza, pulpo and peppermint pattie ice cream is all within stumbling distance of each other.

Actually, the walk in from Melide brought back many memories and we knew the way well. Not only was much of it the same as when we first walked in 2012 but also this section was the final few days of our Del Norte / Primitivo Camino in 2017.

Today I thought some more about Melanie’s pains and twists. When she doesn’t take ibuprofen, most days I have to walk slower than normal or wait for her every couple of hundred meters. If she does take ibuprofen, she races out in front and I can’t catch up. Today was the outlier where she was ibuprofen-free and sometimes ahead, sometimes behind. Either way, why didn’t I ever think of Melanie just taking half an ibuprofen pill? Wouldn’t she be nearer to me. Of course, I also wonder why didn’t Melanie think of it either. Then I worried that she just doesn’t like walking next to me. Yikes! I think I’ll sneak a half pill into her cafe con leche tomorrow.

One last thing to mention was last night’s dinner. Melanie and I shoehorned ourselves into the last table available near our lodgings. Shortly afterwards, the two toadies from aura guay that we saw leaving Ponferrada a few days ago. As normal, Melanie invited them to join us. From that point on, we didn’t stop laughing. They are an hysterical pair. We got some odd looks from the other patrons but it was fun.

Peace y’all. Goodnight George and Leo. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. If they do bite, put them in timeout. If they do it again, give them a spanking. That will teach them.