Camino Ingles - Neda, Spain to Pontedeume, Spain

I got a late start this morning. I figured since I only had 13 kilometers to walk today, I could have a leisurely morning so I would not arrive too early in Pontedume and have to wait for my room to become available. Silly me! I would have set off much earlier if I had known that the 13 kilometers would be mainly on paved roads and with very little shade. Such is the life of a pilgrim on the Camino. The hotel that I stayed at last night spoiled me. Beautiful place and the food was amazing. For dinner, I had a starter of potato salad with garlic shrimp on top. The main course was steamed cod in a garlic sauce with julienned vegetables and a local red wine to drink. Pretty fancy for an old West Texas guy like me.

The sun was intense and of course, being this close to the water, the humidity was very high. It didn't take long to become drenched in sweat. For the first 10 kilometers, there was not even a rock or bench to sit down on if you wanted to rest. I finally passed a utility box that had a concrete curb sticking out, so I plopped down on it to take a short rest and have a snack. Anyone doing the Camino Ingles be aware that this is a stage that has no services other than a couple of water spigots along the way. Since we are talking water, as usual on any hike, top off your water bottle every chance you get whether you think you need to or not. I have seen people run out of water because they thought that they had enough to make it to the next water source. Don't be that guy!

The only breeze that I felt during the entire walk was when a group of thirty or forty guys on bicycles whizzed by me. I don't think they were racing, but they were speeding by in a blur. There wasn't much to take photos of besides a couple of horses and a cat along the trail. I finally made it to the town of Pontedeume which sits on the water. The town started with a wooden bridge being built over the Eume River that allowed a feudal lord to collect tolls from travelers crossing over the bridge. I am sure that included poor old pilgrims too. Later in 1270, King Alfonso X the Wise authorized the founding of Pontedeume as a town. In 1863 a new bridge was built to replace an old Gothic bridge and I am assuming that is what I walked across on.

My hotel was just across the bridge and a nice young man named Michael checked me in. He had worked for a time in Manhattan as a male nanny. He said his employer wanted him to teach the children in his care that there was life outside of being absorbed in today's technology. He later spent some time in San Francisco also. We had some interesting conversations about the problems we are seeing in the cities now with the homeless and the result of not prosecuting crimes such as theft if it is under a thousand dollars. He said that he took videos of what he saw in the cities in the US and his friends here in Spain did not believe that they were real. We both agreed that politicians and their insane policies are to blame for a lot of today's problems. I told him that it was going to be up to him and people in his generation to fix the stuff that we screwed up.

After getting to my room, I soaked my ankle in the bathtub and took a shower and a short nap. After having a dinner of beaded and fried chicken breasts stuffed with cheese and a side of potatoes, I went up to finish writing the day's post. I found out that the Wi-Fi here is glitchy and all I could manage to upload was the day's photos to YouTube. Oh well, I will upload the rest at my next stop. So, it is early to bed for me because I have to walk 24 kilometers tomorrow.

Here is the YouTube link to the photos that I shot on this section of the trip:

https://youtu.be/rYAQ5Plp-Ok?si=V8oLES2nmqSltbeE

Good night and Buen Camino everyone!