Redondela to Arcade 8kms
Total distance 201kms
Climb 120m
Total climb 2670m

We knew today was going to be a comfortable day. Only 8km to Arcade, so we had a pretty relaxed start. Breakfast was at a panadaria/pasteleria, Cafeteria O Cruceiro, the typical continental breakfast. We then had a look around Redondela. At 30,000, This town has only a tenth of the population of our last stop, Vigo, and so has a much friendlier, intimate feel.  Its main characteristic is its sky which is dominated by two large railway viaducts built in the nineteenth century. These span the valley that the town is built in, and have great masonry arches at each end and a steel lattice structure between. Redondela is sometimes known as the “Villa of the Viaducts”. I wasn’t aware of any trains on the viaducts when we were there, but it must be quite a thing to hear trains rumbling hundreds of feet above your head when you are in the narrow little lanes of the town.

Before leaving Redondela we bought some bread, chocolate, banana, apple, mandarin and nuts to have for lunch somewhere later in the day. We also bought some bottled water as the water in our hotel had tasted musty. There are quite a few drinking fountains along the way but these sometimes have signs “no beber” or “agua no potable.” We didn’t leave town till after 9.30 (the supermarkets don’t open until 9.00) and so we were behind most of the long procession of pilgrims. We stopped at the Chapel of Santa Marina to collect a stamp for our passports. Some of the churches and chapels are not open so we take the opportunity to get a stamp (sella) when we see one open. It is pretty easy to get the stamps at hotels, cafes, bars, shops, tourist offices etc, but the ones from churches seem more genuine somehow.

It was a nice walk out of town along the narrow streets and climbing a hill as we left suburbia. A coolish morning at 15° but much clearer than the last few days. At our morning coffee stop we got talking with a couple from Adelaide who had started walking a couple of days ago from Tui. They were a bit younger than us (everyone on the Camino seems a bit, or a lot, younger than us) and after getting to Santiago they were going to have some time in Malta, which sounded an interesting thing to do. We noticed the guy had some tattoos on his arm so asked him if he would get another one in Santiago and showed him ours. He didn’t know about the tradition of getting a scallop shell tattoo but was very keen and said he had an empty spot on his arm. His wife was not so keen.

From the cafe we climbed a steep hill and into forest. It was beautiful walking up there with occasional views down to the Rio Viga and the Puente de Rande suspension bridge we saw through the fog yesterday. Then a steep descent into Arcade where we stopped in a park to eat our lunch. It seems a scruffy little town but is popular because of one of the most popular dishes in the Galicia region – oysters. On the first weekend of April there is an “Oyster Festival” where you can try this seafood and enjoy the music and festive atmosphere of a typical Galician food festival. Oysters were appreciated here in Roman times and to this day are exported from Arcade. They are not born here, they grow here. The small offspring come from France and Greece and are cultivated in the waters of the Arcade estuary over the course of two or three years. This gives them a special, unmistakable and unique flavour that delights oyster lovers. Of which we are not one.

Opposite our hotel is the small Church of Santiago de Arcade dating from the end of the 12th Century. It was locked so we couldn’t enter but apparently a series of unsuccessful changes have destroyed practically all the original Romanesque elements. Even the front facade has been compromised by the addition in the 1960s of a church hall.

Today we saw the guy who transfers our bags each day. The bags have to be down in the hotel lobby by 8.00 am and we don’t see them until we arrive at our next hotel in the afternoon, and there they are, waiting for us in the lobby. Somehow the elves have done their magic. Today as we walked up to the Hotel Isape in Arcade we saw a white van with Tuitrans emblazoned on it and a young guy unloading bags and cases. I knew Tuitrans was the company doing our bag transfer and our bags were unloaded along with 24 others. He was also loading bags into the van from Isape and already had a load of bags in the van off to somewhere else. There are lots of tour companies, using lots of hotels and pensions in heaps of towns. Just how to make this happen in the most efficient way must be a logistical nightmare.

Just back from dinner. The noisiest dinner ever. A small dining room with about 50 people and terrible acoustics. One very, very noisy group of 17, 15 women and two men.  Of course the noise level in the room went up and up as everyone had to shout over each other to be heard. We and others were sitting there with fingers in ears. And it took an hour and three quarters.