Technically, it's Day 14, 15 and 16 of cycling but I counted the rest day in Baiona so my numbers are off.
WE'RE IN SANTIAGO! The final three days of riding were a major challenge. Sandy, whose approach to climbing hills, is to call down the curses of heaven upon them - I think her idea of hell might be an assignment levelling ALL the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula using a bobcat - faced some ugly riding as Santiago came closer. Our biggest day of climbing was our last. Depending on which system we used to measure it was somewhere between 780 and 950 meters. The slopes reached up to 16 percent and for a couple of stretches we were riding on logging road. On the other hand, some of the riding was the nicest that we experienced on the whole trip - very quiet roads; for the first 30 kilometers between Caldas de Reis and Santiago we saw two cars. (More about that later)
We left Baiona for Redondela on Sunday. The first 10 kilometers was following bike paths around the bay that holds Baiona's harbour. It was a little cooler because of our proximity to the ocean and the skies were a little cloudier than most of our trip. Yet, from our departure to the turn North to Vigo we could catch glimpses of the fort where we had spent the weekend, and say "good bye" to the ocean as we followed the inlet towards the city of Vigo. As we turned north we started to follow the regional highway from Baiona towards Vigo. It was Sunday, so we could only assume that the traffic was lighter because of it. Yet, I would still call it moderate. Sandy's take was that this part of the ride was uninspiring and I generally have to agree with her. It was simply the way we had to go from A-B. The Camino path was closer to the water, and may have been prettier; but I knew from Camino Forums that as we got to Vigo the path became more industrial and wasn't excited about dealing with that type of traffic.
Vigo was a whole new experience. The largest port city on the Atlantic Coast of Spain it's a lot like Edmonton - albeit hillier. It had a somewhat developed system of bicycle lanes that seemed to start and end in the most inconvienent places. My plan had developed using heat maps of the city to follow the most popular cycling routes from south to north; which worked to a degree. For a kilometer or two we followed a river valley trail system; not as developed as Edmonton with gravel instead of paved paths. It was away from the traffic - which worked nicely. But like all good things that come to an end the trail we were on became an alleyway through apartment buildings then ended altogether. Back to google and we developed a plan to follow the heat maps into the commercial areas of the city. We turned a corner onto what looked like a nice road to cycle - a small but usable shoulder - and a sign that I read permitting cyclists and pedestrians. Only the sign wasn't permitting them, it was prohibiting them. We road forward anyway. After all the sign didn't have a bar across the prohibited forms of transportation. In Spain they let you know what isn't allowed using a sign with a red cycle around the banned forms of transportation - as I said, without the bar across it. After about 500 meters we realized we were cycling on Vigo's equivalent of the Whitemud Freeway. The narrow shoulder was very narrow. Luckily we didn't encounter any police, and no one honked madly at us - in fact, most drivers moved over around us. We got off at the first exit which was, conveniently, a significant distance through the city. Finding our way to the main road which would become our road to follow from Vigo to Redondela we found another bike path. Sandy rode like a true Albertan - if there wasn't a visible reason to stop at a red cycling light, she didn't. I tried to keep up and prayed that the drivers would be forgiving - the road was not quiet. Stores, restaurants, patios - a little like riding along Whyte or Jasper Avenues at their busiest. We made it. Over the top of a ridge the city opened to a view of a suspension bridge over the inlet and the road moved downhill above the inlet. The traffic was still moderate as the road we were on fed into the nearby freeway at several spots. We could see the platforms harvesting Mussels in the bay. It was overcast and cooler - rain was forecast for Sunday night and Monday morning - and again the riding was not particularly inspiring but getting us towards our destination for the night.
That destination, Redondela, is where several different Camino routes come together. It was transparently so as soon as we turned through the roundabout at the edge of the small community. A bedroom community to Vigo it preserved some of it's history in ways we didn't get to see in Vigo. The roundabout led to a small square beside an old monastery. The monastery was surrounded by fencing, but still in some use as we could see people inside. Workers, Religious folk? It wasn't clear. Our hotel was around the next corner and busy with pilgrims coming and going. We settled into our room, showered and went in search of some food and drink.
Returning to the square we found a table in the midst of several outside a cafe/pizza joint/bar - it seemed to be a little of all of them. We'd just settled into our seats when a larger group of American pilgrims pulled into the table next to ours. It felt like we didn't exist all of a sudden. They arranged the chairs around the table crowding the table we were at and began discussing their trip, ordering food and drinks and visiting with one another. I learned more about them in about 1/2 hour of evesdropping - is it evesdropping if you don't have to work to listen? - than almost all the other pilgrims we encountered along the way. This group was from the Washington, DC/Alexandria, Virginia region. There were a number of older women (I know they were over 60 after a long conversation discussing a Danish gentleman who stopped to speak with the group for a few minutes. They speculated about his age for awhile after he left and there were several comments about wanting to be 60 again as they walked...) Oh, the irony. Turns out their "walking" was supported by a bus. The driver would drop them off and take pick them up along the way. They'd be taken from hotel to hotel walking whatever was comfortable for each of them on any given day. It left me thinking about the ways in which the Camino is for each person a very different experience - to do "the Camino" means about as many things as the 400,000 people a year that walk it can conceive.
It took about an hour but the pizza we'd ordered shortly after the Americans sat down arrived. It was now about 3:30 in the afternoon. The pizza was an Octopus pizza with a number of different cheeses, a generous covering of Olive oil and "fluffy" dough. It was quite good so the wait for it to arrive amid language confusion over whether the kitchen was open or closed became, mostly, a thing of the past.
It was time for Candy. The problem was that the Candy store didn't actually open until 5 pm. Spain has a rythym that is all it's own. Stores generally open from 10-2 or 3; close until 5 or 5:30, reopen for a couple hours and then close. Restaurants that open early are open at 7 or 7:30 - most wait until 8 pm. We know this from our previous Camino but it takes some getting used to. Again and again our plans are foiled by these schedules. Ours, at home, is to eat breakfast by 8 am, work through the day, dinner around 5 pm, and then evening activities - in bed around 10 and repeat the next day. In Spain that routine does NOT work. Breakfast opens around 8 - just when our suitcases need to be at the front desk for pickup and transfer to the next hotel. After breakfast we read, write emails until 10/10:30/11 before getting on the road. Our rides have lasted 2-3 hours each day arriving at the next hotel around 2:30/3 pm. Kitchens are closing down for the afternoon - if we're lucky a lunch might be possible (We can usually find a drink)...showering, a bit of sight-seeing, some relaxation after the ride will get us to 6:30 or 7 but waiting to 8 for dinner tests our patience. We're learning to adapt but a large dinner at 8 with wine tends to create chaos when you want to be asleep at 10...I'm not completely convinced I've ever adjusted my system as most days I'm wide awake at 4 am. It will be good to be home.
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