Redondela – Pontevedra (20 km)

Today I set off for Pontevedra at 6 am. By 8 am I was already crossing the Sampaio Medieval Bridge and was halfway to Pontevedra, where I arrived at 11 am with 20 km already walked.

The hostel only opened at 1 pm, so I took the chance to rest. Then it was time to check in at the hostel, pay the €8 and go for a shower.

Meanwhile Natalie arrived, who had left the Redondela hostel later, and she brought João and me a gift, a Santiago symbol wishing us “Buen Camino”, which I sewed onto my backpack straight away.

Next we went to the city centre, where I had lunch at the “Restaurante Novo Soto”, the dish of the day. For the 1st course I had “Huevos en lo Plato” and for the 2nd “Parrillada de pescado”, and a beer and a chocolate cake for dessert, all for €11.

It was past 4 pm by the time we left the restaurant terrace.

Then I wandered around the old part of the city and passed the Convento de São Francisco de Pontevedra, the Ruínas de São Domingos and the Praça da Ferraria, where I had coffee at RestoBar Savoy with João.

Meanwhile Natalie went to a shop to buy a dress and how happy she was with her new purchase.

Then the 3 of us went to the Basílica de Santa Maria Maior and climbed up to the tower, and then stopped at a terrace to cool off, because the sun was hot.

Next we went to Bar Pitillo with a Romanian pilgrim called Sílvia, who had walked in the morning with Natalie and who joined us for a beer.

At that moment Natalie challenged me to stop drinking beer with alcohol and eating pork for the rest of the trip, and she was going to quit smoking.

I accepted the challenge and now let's see how it goes tomorrow.

Meanwhile it was almost 9 pm and we opted to go to the supermarket, which closed at 9:30 pm, to buy something for tomorrow's breakfast and journey. We also ended up buying something for dinner and went to eat something lighter at the hostel.

Tomorrow is one of the toughest days, we're going up to the Armenteira Monastery.

We spent the day trying to book somewhere to stay, but nothing, but we're going anyway, we'll find somewhere to stay for the night.

When I'm getting there I'll go around ringing doorbells, to see if anyone will take us in.