Still on the way

Two Horreos which are everywhere
in Galicia. They were
originally for grain storage.

 Today we awoke to the news that the weather was supposed to be mainly cloudy but not a high chance of rain. Well that prediction was not quite accurate. We did set off from Palas de Rei under cloudy skies but within a kilometre the heavens had opened (though not to the extent of recent Queensland weather) and the solid light rain continued for virtually our entire walk of 15km to Melide. While we may not end our time on the Camino by walking hundreds of kilometres, today did seem in some way that we were genuine pilgrims as we plodded our way along in the rain through the mud and puddles.

It was somewhat of a relief that today was only a short section and we did not need to traipse on in wet clothes for the afternoon. We were able to get to our accommodation and organise laundering of clothes before some lunch and then deciding to embrace the Spanish tradition of the siesta. Melide when we arrived was abuzz with people everywhere, markets, all the shops open (which surprised us on a Sunday) and everyone doing a roaring trade. We retired to our room for a catnap, reappeared an hour later at 3:00pm and it was a ghost town. The markets were all gone, the shops closed (one of the cafes still had people sitting outside with coffee cups but it was closed – presume the customers eventually headed off and left their cups on the tables) and very few people apart from some peregrinos were walking around town. We eventually found somewhere open to have a coffee but it was very strange.

Basket outside church in Leboreiro

Given that we were able to get our clothes and boots pretty much dry we really are fine to do it all again tomorrow when the rain may be heavier (storms are predicted which hopefully may not occur until the afternoon and we have the possibility of beating them). We are going for the added protection of ponchos tomorrow so that we can keep our trousers dry.

We ended up missing the American group in Melide today who we were walking with at one stage in the morning. They were going to celebrate Mass in English as they had a priest as one of their pilgrims but since we missed them we headed to Sunday night mass at 8:00pm. There was a hitch however as when we arrived everyone was waiting outside as there was a funeral in the church. The funeral finished about 8:15 and then we all headed in to the church for mass. We had seen somewhere that there is a custom in Spain of the funeral being within 24 hours of the person dying and obviously Sunday night mass can wait until after the funeral.

We returned to our accommodation Pension Berenguela to continue the adventure where our hosts did not speak a word of English and we speak probably even less Spanish. Somehow we managed to get our rooms, the laundry done etc all with not a great deal of fuss. Some basic words and sign language goes a long way. 

Love to all

S&E