To Pontevedra – Gem of a City for Pelegrinos – A Wet One.

We set off along a busy stretch of main road, but soon went right to the village of Arcade, famous now for its oysters, but historically for being the place where the Spanish vanquished Napoleon’s troops during the War of Independence. A handsome bridge , the Pontesampaio and  Cafe a Romana – last chance for refreshments before Pontevedra, with fine views of both the bridge and the Estuary. The rain started, as you can tell, by the impressive ponchos on show. And a gull had its eyes on the Churros.

We passed three impressive statues, one featuring Santiago, looking serenely Northwards and we obtained our “Sellos” – Stamps for our Pilgrim passport – at the chapel of Santa Marta.

( Author’s note – WordPress is putting the photos above the text, but they should be obvious!)

We reached Pontevedra and our hotel, Rias Bajas….sadly the rain continued, so we enjoyed the comfort of this fine hotel, until it stopped, around 6 pm, when we were able to walkabout the city, which has much resonance for Pelegrinos, especially the fine Church, La Pelegrina, where for €1.00, you can climb 64 steps to look down on its classic structure.

There is so much to see here and just rambling around the narrow, arcaded streets and interesting squares is a pleasure in itself.

Dinner was taken in the Rias Bajas hotel;extremely good and breakfast the next morning was a feast- plus a sunny sky under which we moved on to Caldas de Reis.