Camino: Palas del Rei to Melide

Wide,stone staircase

We woke up late, about 8:00 a.m. In fact, Carl thought it was 7:00 a.m.  Fortunately this was a late day, and breakfast was not scheduled until 8:30 a.m.  The sun even threatened to shine.  I took some pictures of Pazo de Sedor. We loaded up the bus and drove to Melide, stopping a few hundred yards from where we were yesterday.

Given the rain overnight, I gave a good deal of thought to what to wear – rain coat and pants, or regular clothes.  The later would be cooler and generally better if it does not rain.  I finally decided to start out with normal long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, but I’ve got the rain suit with me and ready.

We began the walk toward San Xulian, basically flat and along roads and fields.  There is nothing remarkable about the terrain or the fields on either side. We came across a gathering of Guardia Civil vehicles and some troops.  They are looking for an 86-year-old woman who apparently went walk about and disappeared.  We later saw posters about her description and clothing.  There are a number of hórreos old and new along the path, and I took pictures of those that seemed attractive.  Katie and I walked for a while, and we went through an area that was like a tunnel of trees over the camino.

The trouble with walking in the rain is that you don’t see much.  You pull your hat down over your face, the wind is blowing, and you keep your eyes on the road for puddles and slick rocks. So, not only are there few photographs taken (Lea has gotten some good ones despite the weather), but I at least don’t feel like I’ve seen as much at the end of the day.

As we walked down a hill, I did notice at one point a woman in a field about 100 yards to our left.  It became clear she was ministering to a new born calf.  She was trying to get the calf to stand up, but it would not or could not.  She stroked the calf, and encouraged it.  Eventually she simply grabbed the still wet calf by a couple of legs and dragged it about 15 feet.  That put the calf over closer to the cow who was sitting on the ground – probably herself exhausted from giving birth. I feared the calf was not going to survive having been born in a field in the middle of a tremendous rainstorm with cold winds.  What a shock to the system!  But some of our group who came by a little later reported the cow was licking the calf, and so we have hope that they bonded and that the calf survived.

At times it rained pretty hard and we put the jackets on.  Then it would clear, and we took them off.  Back and forth. We went through the intermediate spots of San Xulian, Pontecampaña and Casanova before arriving at Casa de Somoza for a coffee. 

We had to pass by the first coffee bar and go to the second which had an outdoor patio.  I got a stamp – I’m really collecting stamps everywhere now that I understand I’m behind.  I was being too picky at the beginning and skipped some of the bars in favor of churches with better designs.  Now I need to be sure I get enough by Santiago.  At Casa de Somoza they had a couple of early hórreos on display in the park next to the patio – each one looked like a beehive, stood about three feet tall on a stone block, and was made of woven branches. 

When we finally got to Melide, we looked first for the church with the Christ reaching down to help the pilgrims. It was closed, however. A woman in the bar across the street said, with a backhand wave, that it is closed due to cuts by the ayuntamiento in public services.

“It used to be open every day of the summer season, but now…,” she gestured dismissively.  The GFC has come to the Camino too.

The reward for walking into Melide on the Camino is "pulpo" -- octopus cooked in water and seasoned with olive oil and salt and paprika.  A restaurant owner helped me get a photo of the pre-cooked version – very red and with the suction cups in evidence.

With lunch very much in mind we continued on – uphill – and entered the commercial part of the town. First, we passed the Garnache pulperia.  Cate likes this one, which she said is the upscale version. Maria, John and I continued to Alex’s favorite, the traditional place, Exequial. It has sawdust on the floor and long wood benches and tables where customers were seated. 

Pulpo and cachetas

It was noisy and kind of dark, but filled with Gallegos having lunch.  Small women waited on the tables, delivering bottles of wine, bread, and pulpo, which you eat with a toothpick. No dishes to wash!  We also got the boiled potatoes (cachetas), a plate of chorizo, and the red wine of the region -- the last, served in small, flat bowls that might otherwise pass for soup bowls.  A suitable pilgrim's reward!   

We were soon joined by Katie and Pat, and Karen arrived later. 

After eating, John and I walked around town some.  There are a couple of more churches we could enter, but none had stamps available.  In fact, the town is pretty much shut for lunch at this hour.  

Some of our group decided to walk back to the hotel. It's only about five kilometers.

The rest of us returned to the Café Chaplin to wait the appointed hour and then boarded the bus back to the hotel.

Dinner was at a little rural restaurant out in the countryside and featured paella.  First there were mussels, cooked in a red tomato sauce that many of us enlivened with salt and Tabasco. Then came some salad, and finally the main dish: paella with shrimp, mussels, pulpo, beef, mushrooms, etc.   The red wine at dinner was a Mencia, a new grape that Alex says is becoming popular in Spain and beyond.  It was hard not to overeat.