Day 9, Rest day in Pola de Allande

Friday, 11 September, a rest day

We have decided on a rest from walking today. Pola de Allende is a reasonable size town and I want to give my blisters a chance to heal.

So not a lot to write about, but I will explain the Pilgrim meal we had at the Hotel restaurant last night. €26 for non pilgrims and €20 for pilgrims. Four courses consisting of soup of potato, kale and beans with a basket of bread, then a vegetable frittata with tomato sauce (more like a thick tomato soup), next shredded roast veal wrapped in cabbage, followed by a choice of four different desserts. We chose the lemon cream dessert. All this accompanied by a one litre carafe of red wine and another carafe of water. I only thought to take a photo of the dessert but it was all very good.

Today we have had a wander round town, bought some fruit etc from the supermercado (we have also bought supplies for avocado and ham sandwiches for our evening meal), and had coffee at a cafe where we met a group of a dozen or so motorbikers from the UK who are travelling about 300 kms a day finishing in Porto.

The church of St Andrew has a Mass each evening at 8, we think. We will go there this evening.

Monument to the emigrants who went to the Americas. The exact same monument is in Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, Central America..

A lovely 2 hr lunch at the hotel. Ensalada, tuna and asparagus Spanish omelette, alberino vino, and chocolate tarte and cafe con leche. Could easily live in this town and eat here each day. The menu is extensive and the cooking is first class. However, tomorrow we move on to La Mesa.

Again only remembered to photograph dessert. Delicious with the coffee. The Spanish omelette was worth a photo as it was better than any we had encountered before but sadly we had eaten it.

View from our table in restaurant. Note the houses at the top of the hill

The weather is heating up again, 33°, so the plan from here is taxi at 9.45 am tomorrow to Berducedo (€30) then walk 4.6 km to La Mesa where we have a private room with shared bathroom. Partly taxi and walk to Grandas de Salime on Sunday, where we are in a dormitory with one top and one bottom bunk, then on to A Fonsagrado for a nice hotel with private room with own bathroom. That takes us to Monday. A bit more effort is needed for the bookings but is our preferred way as we like the flexibility of booking as we go.