Day 9: to Padrón

In many towns and cities I noticed these pavement stones which make the surface look like it's undulating, but it's an optical illusion created by the wavy lines.

I thought I should visit the hot springs from which Caldas de Reis (Hot Springs of Kings) gets its name. So I found a public one shown here. Not very inspiring but hey it's free.

The path ran roughly parallel with the rail line here. Smallholding farms and vineyards dotted the landscape.

Usually there would be other walkers within a hundred metres of me on this stretch.

At a rest stop halfway up a hill, a pool and flower bed. I overtook the Swedish pilgrims again, and said: You guys aren't walking fast enough to get rid of me. We are everywhere, said a guy in the group in a mock sinister tone. We all laughed again.

Only 33 km to go. Tomorrow would be the home stretch.

The landscape wasn't spectacular, just easy on the eyes, like this.

Nearing Padrón, we crossed the river Ulla at Pontecesures. There is a cluster of restaurants at the other end of this bridge that you can see in the far left, but I decided to wait until I reached the main town before taking lunch.

I felt that the town was a bit sleepy but that might have been the effect of the warm day. After walking around I found a restaurant more suited to my budget than some of the higher end ones for tourists. Besides I didn't want to eat octopus, which unfortunately is a Galician specialty.

The guest house was actually 4 km outside of town again due to shortage of accommodation in the town itself. It was a renovated old house just off the main road. Nobody was in attendance but there was a room key and written instructions on the side table. One of the instructions I discovered on second look was that we would be picked up by a car for dinner at a local gastronomic restaurant.

And these are the starter and main dish that I had: baked Coquilles St. Jacques (St. James, or Santiago) and veal fillet in breadcrumbs. It was good, but a bit plain compared with what the other patrons were having. I guess we were on a fixed price menu.

I got the impression the guest house was a side venture of the restaurant owner which is why the driver, an employee of the restaurant, was willing to drive us some 20 km on secondary roads.

There are few pictures from this day. I guess the scenery didn't make me ecstatic enough to pull out my phone. The road out of Padrón was a busy one with cars whizzing by.