We left Melide at around 08.30 just as the sun was breaking through the early morning mist. Today was going to be another short 9 miler with a few ‘ups and downs’ to contend with.
Passing a church
Much of todays walking was through shady forest. At one point we called into a coffee shop for a quick caffiene injection, bumped into Michelle and Byrnn and sat chatting with them for a short time before we were all off again.
As mentioned in the previous post, many pilgrims do the 18 mile section between Palas de Rei and Arzua in one day but our G Adventures tour had split this into two sections. Again this seemed to result in a pleasant morning with far fewer pilgrims on the trail.
Crossing a stream
Walking through a small village
We saw Rushil at another coffee shop.
More countryside reminding us of England.
As 9 miles in total today was another relatively short walking day Bridget and I stopped for a leisurely coffee in the medieval village of Ribadiso just outside Arzua. Elu our G Adventures guide also stopped in here.
From Ribadiso we had under 2 miles of walking left to do and much of it was uphill until Arzua came into view.
Arzua is known of as the ‘land of cheese and honey’ and more information can be found on the Santiago Ways website. The town has a population of 6315. Another interesting fact… there are more cows per capita in the Aruza area of Galicia!
We came to this signpost… 39 km to Santiago!
We were then greeted by a huge mural showing a pilgrim and advertising Estrella Galicia a local brand of Estrella.
We arrived in the centre of Arzua at around one pm and found a long queue of pilgrims waiting at one of the albergues (Spanish pilgrim hostel).
After checking into our hotel we had a wander in the warm 26 degree sunshine to have a look around.
Arzua felt relatively up market and as we had the afternoon to ourselves some of our group took the opportunity to have a relaxing massage.
Relaxing for Bridget and I was a small snack each for lunch sitting at the back on a sunny wine bar terrace in Arzua. We really did get a taste for a cold refreshing Spanish cider after a hot and tiring walk. This time it was served in an Estrella glass. Spanish Estrella is a popular pale lager in the UK and as mentioned above there is a local Galician version.
A national dish of Spain, tortilla is an omelette made with eggs and potatoes and this one was particularly tasty.
Later that evening, Bridget and I had dinner with Sam, Naomi, Rachel, Rushil and Sarah.
As we wandered back towards our hotel a band was setting up in the main square. Except we didn’t go straight back… 5 of us stopped for ice cream 🙂
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