Camino Day 3

I'm determined to get this finished in the next day or two!  So, back to the Camino of Santiago - our adventure continued on Day 3!

We are learning, slowly, that we need to get an earlier start - and an earlier finish.  That seems to be the routine on the Camino.  We awake, had a nice breakfast, celebrated Mass and goofed off a bit!  Dan Carr found a good window from which to offer a "Pontificial Blessing" to all of us pilgrims below...

Anyway, we got back on the road and arrived first at the town of Leboreiro.  There is the church of Santa Maria de Leboreiro.  A very beautiful statue of San Diego (St. James) the pilgrim.  

After passing through the town of Furelos we crossed a Medieval bridge and came into Melide.

 I just thought the Calla Lilies were beautiful in bloom!

Melide has a fascinating history.  Is is the place where the two Casinos meet: the Camino Primitive (Original Way) ends here in Melide - while the Camino Frances (French Way) passes through the town on its way toward Compostela.  The story is that Melide didn't begin to grow until after the discover of the tomb of St. James - so from the 10th Center on Melide was important as pilgrims passed through the town - leading to many traders and innkeepers setting up shop to care for them.

In the early 14th Century, as the Archbishop of Santiago (Berenguel de Landoria) was on his way to Santiago to take possession of the Diocese, he stayed here in Melide.  To thank the townspeople for their hospitality he gave them permission to build a fortress and charge taxes - a fortress which was destroyed only 100 years later.

The town is a regular city - and provides pilgrims with a real present stop on the way.  And stop we did!  We had learned from other days not to put off lunch for the next town - because you sometimes never know what the next town will hold.  So, entering Melide, we found a place along the road to get some lunch - even though it was on 11:30 and we had not been on the road for that long.

We headed through the town - not without some confusion - as the Camino signs are now in the middle of the street... we hadn't seen that in a while.

We got back into the wilderness and found the donkey stamp.  Don't ask me...

But immediately after was an old stone bridge over the stream.  

And again, the beautiful countryside.

We continued on to Boente.  We found a church in the town: St. James (of course) in the Diocese of Lugo (the stamp tells me this).  

This doesn't seem like much - but after all the kilometers on aching feet at a rapid pace... this hill was KILLER!

So we stopped at the top at Bar No Camino go get something to drink.  Boy did that beer taste GOOD!  We continue on and arrive in Casteneda - a town which was famous for the furnaces where lime was prepared for use during the construction of the Cathedral in Santiago.  So it's got quite a connection to the Apostle and the Cathedral.

Everywhere along the way we kept seeing these...

WE did not know what they were and each a a turn at speculating.  I thought they were perhaps for drying produce or something - as they all had slats or holes and a small door.  (Turns out, in Santiago we asked a vender who had pictures of them - they are for storing corn).

As we drew close to Ribadixo, we crossed the Rio Iso - a very calm and refreshing spot.

But there was no time to waste!  Our goal was getting within sight - Santiago by Thursday!  So he pushed on into the town of Arzura - it is the last big town before Santiago.  It's a modern town - and you can tell that as you enter into it.  Because of our previous experience with Alburgue, we had booked an AirBNB here in Arzua.  We had a GPS on our phone and looked for the address.  I at this point was PAST the point of being tired... I was slow and hurting.

Fortunately we had arrived MUCH earlier than previous days - about 5:30pm.  Nonetheless, it seemed a long walk through the town until we finally got to our AirBNB and met our host, who took us to our apartment for the night -- 4th floor!  YIKES!  These tired feet - those packs... 4 flights!  OUCH!  But we all did it - collapsed in the dining room and opened up a cold drink.  This was a nice apartment that we had all to ourselves - four separate rooms, kitchen, dining room and bath (of course).  We were TOO TIRED to go out for dinner, so we simps went to the local grocery store and bought stuff for fajitas (Old El Paso).  We bought ground chicken and beef pork - at least that's what it said...  it was REALLY pink - and when we cooked it, it didn't change color (so Stephen and I just added the El Paso flavoring so no one would notice the odd color - better the others now know).  We also got some chips, salsa and lemonade beer - oh, and ice cream!  Had a pleasant evening here where we recharged for Day 4.