Day 9: Calda de Reas to Paldron

Got in bit of trouble with accommodations as in we could not get any. The three Portuguese Caminos merge at Redondela. Every pension, every hotel and every private or public room was booked. It was also the hottest day yet at 38C or 100.4F. Gerry and I couldn’t go another step so we decided to take a bus to the next town but only after we drank Lake America.

Hot and frazzled. That tee that I am wearing is soaked through. But Pilgrims are supposed to suffer and not have fun so I “feckin” pressed on. No, that is not swearing. It is the title of an Irish folk song so Gerry tells me.

This shirt is soaked too. I shouldn’t have bought this tee because after one washing the XL tee became a bib – maybe a hanky.

The terrain is fairly flat with a few hills but not many. Agricultural wine country here. The vines here are grown onto trellises with row upon row that you can walk under. Many small villages with quaint cafes but very few. Not like the Camino Frances. And there are now hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims here all vying for the same cafe or the same accommodations over the same terrain. It reminds me of the military route marches we had to do with hundreds of your colleagues. Not nice and for me the worse part of this Camino. Too many effing people on this last part. Oops sorry Pilgrims are not allowed to swear. We have to sweat and suffer.

But there are fun times too.

In beautiful settings. The food 🥑 and the culture here are great.

Because of the accommodation problem we had to take a hotel room at a cost we didn’t want to pay. On top of that we had a greasy pizza from El Domino-so. Gerry fell ill but my Navy training kicked in and I had seconds. All in all we had to walk about 35 clicks to catch up and get back on track. Tomorrow will be our last day we think.

Cheers. Sangria is great on a super hot Spanish evening. 88F at 830pm.