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Published: October 15th 2016
Colexio Marianas Franciscana School
Friday morning and the kids are going to school as we walk the streets of Vigo.September 23. Friday, Vigo to Redondela, day 24, Hostel Antolin
Fitbit: 12.39 miles, 28,359 steps, 58 stairs. Garmin 12 miles.
After our rest day in Vigo on 22 September listening to the vibration hammers doing renovations at Hotel Junqueira, we were happy to have breakfast and be back on the Camino. We had planned on spending this day visiting the Islas Cies just out of the bay. They can be seen offshore in many of our photos. But the trip did not seem too inviting, as it is an overcast day, so we did not go. For our rest day we sat downstairs in the hotel bar and worked on blogs until lunchtime, then walked to the El Corte Ingles for their cafeteria and did some shopping. Much to the delight of the other three we got rubber tips for our hiking poles which dulled the loud clicks with every step they had been enduring. As Julian said, "I no longer can hear you coming and going."
Julian had determined from the city map and the Brierley book the route through the streets of Vigo to find the marked Camino route to Redondela. My Google maps indicated 18+
Karen taking photo of all of us at the first arrow of the day
Vigo is a city of 300,000 so we were very happy to have gotten onto the right streets. kilometers from hotel to hotel for the day, about 11 miles. The nice thing about the Google maps on the Nexis cell phone and Google Project Fi is that I almost always had a signal and could therefore see the street names as we walked. They frequently could not be found on the streets. Well, he was perfect in his navigation and we took a photo of our group at the first arrow.
It is one long ascent out of Vigo. For the next three and a half kilometers we climbed out of Vigo along a pedestrian mall, by a school and onto a nice country road through suburban homes. We had views of the bay with it's various shipping, aquaculture and commerce. A suspension bridge across a narrow part of this very long bay was changing in views as we traveled on the mountain side above and around the bay. Finally we climb until we reach a road and trail following the contour line of the hillside and travel many kilometers along the hills, looking down upon red roof tops and a big bridge in the distance. We seemed to be make a half circle round the bridge
The bread man with his van delivering to restaurants, bars and homes.
The consumption of bread in Spain and Portugal must be hundreds of tons a day. all day.
We passed some lovely forest trails with walkers, bikers, and joggers but no café or coffee shop. A few local folks did say we had to go down the steep hill to the road beside the bay but we did not want to have to go down and climb back up again. We saw many walkers and bikers on this Friday as they also enjoyed this relatively level wooded path on the hillside along the bay.
When we come down the hillside, we still can not find a coffee shop. We stop at one restaurant but it seems a little fancy and very pricey. They do not appear to really be ready for pilgrim lunch service (or pilgrims!). Julian and Moira are quite a distance behind us, so we wait for them and decide to continue on.
After 16 kilometers we arrived at a square in Redondela and see many pilgrims sitting out in the sun, under umbrellas, having lunch. We stop there and finally have our coffee. Many more pilgrims come pouring into this little square as we sit and have our lunch. This is the meeting point for the Coastal and Inland Portuguese
Caminos.
After lunch and a rest, our route takes us through town along a river filled with fish, under a very high railway viaduct and out to a little area in the countryside to the north of Redondela to the Hostel Albergue Antolin. We are now down by the water at the very end of this long bay that began several kilometers west of Baiona; and, it is a little chilly and breezy. This is a combo albergue hostel/hotel. The rooms are old; the baths have been somewhat updated.
Obviously we are going to have dinner here as we are quite a long way (more than 5 kilometers) out of town. We start out with grilled mackerel--delicious. We then have pork loin with mixed ensalada. This salad has purple-green tomatoes and they literally explode with sweetness in your mouth. For dessert it is nut pudding and it has almost like a custard consistency and is cut in wedges--so delicious with Harlan's vanilla ice cream! Since we are sitting at a table for eight we are joined by Chuck and Li from Vancouver, BC, Canada.
This was an unexpectedly lovely stopover. The dinner was the highlight! We had
Karen's photo of "finding the arrow!"
The next one Harlan took and edited a bit. a delightful waitress. The addition of Chuck and Li to our dinner table was wonderful. They provided new topics of conversation! My last memory of the day is leaving Moira and Jo at the table going over a mass of coins Jo has collected!
As a footnote to our two days in Vigo, our stay at hotel Junquera was such a forgettable experience that no one thought to take a photo of the hotel!
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