Caldas de Reis to Padron 22kms
Total distance 245kms
Climb 260m
Total climb 3450m

Another wonderful day of walking. We are getting a little blase over these. This morning we left Caldas de Reis crossing a beautiful little three arch rebuilt Roman bridge, Ponte Romana do Rio Bermana, over the Rio Bermana. It also had an old drinking fountain. This afternoon we entered Padron crossing a thirteen arch medieval bridge, Ponte de Padron, over the Rio Ulla, This bridge is built over a bridge of Roman origin built about 25AD and is sometimes called Ponte Romana. Once in Padron we also saw the Ponte de Santiago, a stone bridge of 1852, built over the Rio Sar.

Most of today was on natural pathways through urban areas, woodland, farms and vineyards. The route took us along two river valleys, firstly the Bermana and then the Valga. There was a gentle climb up to about 160 metres between them. The morning was crisp but clear so it was ideal walking conditions. It wasn’t all perfect. We had to cross busy roads a few times and walk alongside them for short periods. Not far out of Caldas de Reis we walked under a high concrete viaduct carrying a motorway. The train wasn’t too far away either and entering Padron we had to wait at a crossing for the intercity renfe train to pass.

Our hotel, the Rosalia, is about a kilometre out of Padron in a semi industrial and rural area and is directly opposite the Padron railway station. There seems to be a train about every 30 minutes and they all pick or drop off passengers at this station. The trains are very sleek and modern looking and are diesel-electric I think, so are a bit noisy. They make the most pathetic little toot sound as they go over a crossing. What you might expect on a toy train, not a loud blast you imagine from a high speed intercity train. We are hoping the trains don’t run all night although our hotel room seems to have good quality acoustic double glazing.

There were few eating places to stop at today and we didn’t have much food with us. Our first stop was Cafe-Bar Esperon in O Cruceiro, for a coffee and muffin. Because there are so many pilgrims these last few days, these cafes are packed with long lines getting food and drink and using the toilets. The staff are under a lot of pressure but are almost always good natured trying to take orders in at least a dozen different languages. In Portugal and Spain we generally order a cafe americano, or cafe longo, which is near enough to a long black we would get at home. The young guy at Esperon must have mis-heard or misunderstood our order as he made two coffees with leche, milk. We said we don’t want milk and we got a bit of a dirty look and exclamation, but he did put those two coffees aside and make us two new ones.

Later we stopped at Buen Camino Bar in San Miguel where Barbara had galician soup (ham hocks, lima beans, potato, cabbage, kale) and I had gazpacho (tomato, olive oil, vinegar, onion, spices, served cold). This was in a nice setting above the road overlooking the Church and Cemetery of San Miguel de Valga.

Today we got a stamp in our Credencial from The Guardia Civil (the Civil Guard). This is one of two national law enforcement agencies. As a national gendarmerie, it is a military force and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence. We had seen them a couple of days ago but didn’t realise what they were doing. This was basically a public relations exercise. They had a van and a couple of soldiers and had their own stamp and were just chatting with pilgrims.

Padron has a long history and is supposed to be the starting point of where St James preached the Gospel in Spain, and also the point where his remains returned to Spain after his martyrdom in Jerusalem. So there are many sacred churches, convents, fountains, altar stones etc, in the town.

We arrived at our hotel at 2.30 and dinner is not until 8.00. There is not much to see in this area so we have had a lazy afternoon just relaxing and filling in time train spotting.