We managed to get our laundry done, and oh, my! What a delight it was to feel and smell clean and dry clothes.

Afterwords we walked just a few blocks to a local restaurant for dinner. And who was sitting at the next table? The couple from Vermont we met a few days back, Kathy and Bob. Yesterday when we saw them they asked Mandy “How many years does your mom have?” Isn’t that a great way to think of it? She told them I turned 70 this year. Turns out they are 79 and 80! They are smartly sending their packs ahead, but they’ve been hiking from Lisbon, as we began. Inspirational.

That evening I decided it was time for something other than vegan and instead had a wonderful meal of grilled Bream. Yum. Plus, they were drinking what looked to be a good white wine so I inquired…I decided to order the same thing. Delicious!

We all went to bed and slept well with no snoring interruptions. Always a plus. Waking up I found no one stirring, which was a bit peculiar. I’d forgotten that once we crossed over into Spain we’d lost an hour, as they go by Madrid time, even though here in Galicia we’re directly north of Portugal.

What that meant is that even at 0800 when we started out, which was late for us, it was totally dark. We actually had to pull out our headlamps. And then the light mist kept getting heavier. So much for dry clothes. Pack covers came out, umbrellas went up. It was warm enough that we didn’t pull out the rain coats. The mist hung in low clouds over all the surrounding area, in an eerie way.

That’s how the day began and progressed on and off similarly. Rain for a bit, we’d come across a cafe, in for coffee, out when it slowed or stopped. Plus it was nothing but up and down. Mostly up the first half of the day. Made me happy I had practiced all those hill walks at home. Tiring. But then we got some downhills. They were so incredibly steep I had to go very slow with baby steps. They hurt worse, as one’s feet get pushed forward squishing the toes.

But the day wore on with the weather getting better. We ran across hikers we had met previously plus new ones, as the young man from China. He was a real philosopher.dd

Eventually we reached Redondela where we stopped for a foot rest. At this point, less than 100 km from Santiago, hikers are everywhere. Surprised me that this late in the season it is so. Of course we met some from before, including the young French man who had come into the albergue we were staying in mistakingly thinking it was where he had made a reservation.

But best of all, after sitting at the cafe and walking through the city, who should approach from the opposite direction but Neil, from Switzerland! With his girlfriend, of whom he had spoken multiple times! We were so pleased to see him again and to meet her. They decided with the weather forecast being what it is to abandon the hike and go enjoy themselves in Lisbon.

By then we were just a hop, skip and jump from our hostel. Seemed like all was well as we checked in. But not long into starting to settle in Karma found a bedbug crawling on the blanket! Yikes! He went to show the host then found another one and signs of others. No way did we want to deal with the results of a bedbug infestation in our packs or bites overnight. Fortunately the host readily refunded our payment and got us booked into the next hostel 1 km away. Disaster averted!

Next to us was Lisa from Estonia, who already had to deal with bedbugs a few days before, so she packed up and left with us. As we were plodding up yet another hill a local woman told us to turn around and look. Luckily Mandy speaks Spanish and could understand. And there was a lovely view of a bridge over the nearby river. Sometimes you have to look back and other times look up.

We’re all comfortably ensconced in the new place. I made us a pasta dinner to make it easy on ourselves. Now just time to rest and prepare for another day.

12.2 miles with 30,309 steps