Thanks to yesterday’s double stage, I had a day off today. It was just as well, the inhabitants of a neighboring room decided to have an hour long argument at 2.30 am (it may have lasted longer, but at least I fell asleep). They started again 7.00! I’ve spent hundreds of nights in hotels and never experienced anything like it. It felt like that everybody around them were banging on the walls and doors. But it didn’t help.
After breakfast it was time to do my laundry again, before spending a few hours walking around the old part of town. My hotel was in the commercial district, just 2 minutes from the old town and all the sites. Pontevedra is named after a Roman bridge that crossed the River Lerez until it was replaced by the current bridge in the 12th Century. The historical part of town has many large squares and most of them are packed with people drinking coffee, beer and wine and eating tapas.
I visited the round Capela da Virxe Peregrina …
the Basilica Santa Maria …
the San Francisco convent …
the market…
the ruins of a gothic Cathedral Santa Domingo …
and just walked around town.
It’s a nice town, evidently famed for its gastronomy (as many towns in the Mediterranean) and busy night life, but probably not worth spending more than a day here.
I had a very late lunch (menu of the day with 3 courses, beer and coffee for 15€). And that was about it. I wandered around the commercial district before going back to the hotel.
It’s good to have a day off every now and then, but it’s these days I feel most restless. The days I walk, there’s a routine, Sleep-walk-shower-eat and repeat. On days off, on the one hand I shouldn’t walk too much as it’s a rest day, but on the other hand, I don’t want to sit in a hotel room all day.
From here, there are 64,5 kms to Santiago de Compostela, so I could be there on Sunday. But tomorrow, I will take a detour following the spiritual variant over Monte Castrove (437m), and a boat on Monday to Padron to get back onto the Camino Portugues.