CP Day 9 O Porriño – Redondela

The walk across the magical time changing bridge yesterday has caused chaos with my sleep pattern.. I’m not exactly sure but I think I may have jet lag.. Today I woke at 7, which was actually 8 but as dark as 7.

Normally I spend the first 20 minutes of the day wandering around, slowly gaining consciousness, bumping into things and muttering to myself until my brain reaches its optimum running level.. today however things were different. I leapt from my bed, dressed and then packed my bag with all the delicateness of a bank robber stuffing money into a sack. Today was café con leche day..

The cafe was that close that I could still connect to the WiFi from last night’s hostel and so I went from asleep to sat at a table in less than 3 minutes..

The coffee arrived… And it was glorious.. I started to wonder how crossing a bridge could have such an effect on coffee quality but instead cleared my mind of any unnecessary thoughts and enjoyed my first 10 out of 10 of the Camino.

It was definitely a turning point on my journey.. all of a sudden the 80% asphalt didn’t hurt my feet quite so much.. the hills flattened out and I skipped over them leaving a trail of glitter and rainbows in my wake.

As we trundled along we chatted about our experiences on this trip so far.. It was generally agreed that there is too much hard surface to walk on.. We also agreed that although the number of pilgrims is increasing each day (some start at Tui, others cut across from the coastal routes) the doesn’t seem to be the same amount of socialising between pilgrims.

We walked a while with a solo pilgrim and had a brief chat that involved all the usual questions.

Where are you from? Where did you start.. are you heading to Santiago or finisterra but that was that and we were back to being just us two.

We arrived at the albergue, threw our clothes in a washing machine and hit the town on search food.. within 50 metres I had tracked down an empanada.. for those of you that don’t know it’s kind of an English pastie type thing . Various filings (mine was beef, potatoes, various other vegetables but I try not to focus on those bits too much) wrapped in pastry and baked. (There are other ways of preparing them but this place has done it like that).. whoever says the Portuguese have nicer food than the Spainish obviously needs their bumps felt. (As old granny Wild used to say).

So the evening approaches, the washing is done.. Redondela doesn’t appear to have much in the way of cuteness or even anything interesting to look at. Shops and bars in abundance but no real charm.. I may risk a glass of vino tinto and get an early night to see if I can overcome the jet lag.. I’m sure it’ll only take me three or four days being the seasoned traveller that I am.

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