Bandeira to Pazo de Galagos

We left the Hotel Victorino around 9:00, on the next to last day of our walk. Bandeira was a strange little place. It looked like it had sprung up from nowhere in the middle fifties. The architecture was all similar – kind of drab, plain buildings that made me think of pictures of Soviet Union cities. And many of these buildings were empty.  If I were to generalize, I'd say that the old Spanish villages we've seen, and the old parts of larger villages we've been through, are just as attractive as what we've walked through in Ireland. We haven't seen a lot of it, but my take is that modern Spanish architecture is real attractive. But there's a period in between that's pretty drab. I think it's what was created in the Franco era. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm thinking John Nelson might have some insight on this. John?  

But leaving Bandeira we were quickly out into the beautiful Spanish countryside. High clouds, and a cool breeze.

Later in the morning we were going through the outskirts of a little village and saw a little delivery van stop in the driveway of a home in front of us. She got out of the van, walked up to the front door, and hang a bag with a large loaf of bread from the doorknob. Then she got back in the van, drove down the street a few houses, pulled over in front of a driveway, and beeped the horn. The lady of this house was home, she came out and spoke with the bread lady a minute, then went back inside. The bread lady drove on out of sight, but for the next ten minutes or so we could hear the occasional beep as she made her morning deliveries. We've learned that bread is an important staple in Spain – you sometimes get half of a large loaf with your meal.

Our route for the day took us across the Riu Ulla, crossing at the Ponte Ulla. As we got close to the river we started dropping down to the river on a pretty steep, curvy lane. Really glad we weren't going up this route, it was as steep as our uphill out of Ourense was, and longer.

We crossed an old bridge (the Ponte Ulla), into a little village of the same name, then started a long but gradual uphill toward our place for the night.

The Camino de Santiago is extremely well marked. At every intersecting road, lane, or trail, there is a yellow arrow. Sometimes the arrow is on a Camino marker, sometimes it's on the. I side of a wall or barn, but there is always a yellow arrow. I brought along some maps and a trail guide to make sure we didn't get lost, but reallly haven't used them much. It's really really hard to lose the way on the Camino de Santiago.

Just outside of the little village of Ponte Ulla, we lost the Camino.

But the advantage of following a trail that has markers on every intersection is that when you come to an intersection and there is no marker, you know something is wrong. So when we came to an intersection with a road going off to the left, and no marker, we stopped. We only had to backtrack about a hundred yards to where we could see a yellow arrow pointing up a narrow lane that we had missed. 

Climbing out of Ponte Ulla, the fireworks started. Literally. Not far off in the distance. This was a Sunday afternoon, and we suspected it was a festiva. We spoke to a man by his yard and were able to glean that it was a two day festiva

that would last into Monday. Spain is a country of many festivas.

Our goal for the day was the Pazo de Galegos, about a kilometer off the Camino. We had pretty good enough maps that took us off the Camino to the Pazo. Turns out “Pazo” means “manor house” and this was the manor house of Antonio Lopez Ferreiro, a canon of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, and discoverer of the tomb of Saint James. Today it's restored, and a hotel an restaurant that's part of a winemaking estate, that specializes in alborinos – really nice albarinos. And the whole place is beautifully restored. Since we're staying here as part of our package with MacsAdventure, I can't tell you specifically what we're paying. But I looked at their published prices and I'm guessing you won't find a nicer $80 room anywhere.... which could lead me to another discussion about the awesome $2.00 glasses of wine and $15 meals we're experiencing. But I'll leave that for another time.

We came down early for dinner (8:00) and met Manuel, the owner of the estate. It was awesomet listening to him talk about his winery (this year's harvesting of the grapes begins Wednesday, when the sugar content of the grapes should be perfect) and the history of the estate. Great experience. One of the vines on the property has been inspected for age by the University and is certified to be over 500 years old. That means this place has been producing wine for at least that long.

When we went into the restaurant we heard a strange sound – American voices. Just a couple of them. We'd heard Hungarians, Italians, French, and Spanish all speaking or attempting to speak English over the last several days. But the last American voices we'd spoken to were a couple of ladies from Oregon, struggling their way up Gammy's mountain outside of Ourense the first morning of the walk.

The voices we heard were coming from – you might guess – a couple of ladies from Oregon. And not the ones we'd passed on the hill. These gals are driving around Spain, one of them going to a wedding shortly in Austria, one for whom this is a planning trip for walking the Camino next year.

Marty and I are now full of advice on the Camino, so we had a great meal at the Paxo, shared our hard earned expert advice, listened to some American being spoken here, and made some friends.