???'s name is Kat. I met the Philippines gang at an Italian place which seemed to be one of the best options in town. There don't seem to be any places the locals eat here. It's all catering to peregrinos and it feels like a rip-off. In Portomarin there seems to be a level of contempt I haven't felt before.
I booked a very reasonably priced 4 star hotel not far from the Cathedral for two nights for about the same price as one night in the Comfort Inn in Goderich, Ontario. Robert pointed out that if they had to have "comfort" in the name it probably wasn't. I am now committed to making Santiago two days from now.
Last night I heard rain all night. I got up with my 6am alarm but I was moving slow. It didn't help that my phone SIM plan ran out at 28 days and I needed to re-up. Thanks to Google Translate I was able to figure out the code I needed to send to downgrade my plan and pay for it. Unfortunately, GT also translated the words it had to text and it didn't work with the translation. Orange sends me a text in Spanish I ignore and then my Internet barely works and I get the message.
I was in the bar across the street getting coffee just before 8am. Wayne walked up and got a coffee. I was ready to go and headed out knowing I would see him later. It was raining but not too hard. At the end of the street I paused under a parking lot roof and suddenly the rain came down hard. Missing that dump made the day a bit better.
I headed out of town and crossed a bridge where I found confused pilgrims looking at a choice. Somebody saide right is shorter and I went right. I found out later Wayne when left and it was just longer. Usually, shorter means more climbing but not this time.
The rain was coming down pretty hard all the time. I was walking on the road beside the path to avoid the puddles. After a particularly hard bit of rain I decided it was pancho time. The on pancho is hot but I was getting cold. First slightly less rainy spot I got it on but needed the help of another pilgrim to get it on place.
A little later Wayne caught up to me and we walked together for a few hours trading glory days rugby stories. The rain was heavy, lighter, heavier, really bad and lighter again. We were soaked. At a cafe we saw Geo and Kat, Yaz was on the bus with a bad knee. At about the half way mark it mostly stopped. I was getting tired and Wayne powered ahead. Not many pictures of the rainy bits because ... just try to use a phone with cold wet hands.
Now that it wasn't pouring I could see we were in rolling farmland with cows and many little hamlets of stone houses. Lots of farm smells, of course.
Even though my feet were soaked, I could tell the Compeed patches I put on my feet were helping a lot. My feet felt better than the last few days and the soreness I always feel in my right foot from when I broke it in grade 7 didn't happen. I think preventing the collapse of my foot by half of a millimeter made a difference.
The walk without rain was a walk and then I was in Palas de Rei. I found my pension and cleaned up as quick as I could to get some food. A nearby place fed me and I was headed back to my room to blog. I ran into Jim and as we were saying hello Wayne walked up. So many beers and a few wines and dinner later ... here I am. Time for bed. Clicks change tomorrow? All I know is 29km to do and 40 the next day.
Did I mention the water in Galicia is kind of brown? I still drink it out of the tap, but it is a funny color.
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