May 9th and 10th - Foz, a 'rest' day

Our hotel, just outside Foz, was very modern with the rooms all named after composers. Ours was 'Mozart'. We actually had a kettle in the room and the heating was on, lovely and warm and good for drying clothes as there was a radiator in the bathroom. We had arrived at lunchtime on the 9th but the restaurant was not open yet for the year. However the staff were only too happy to make us a tortilla and went out of their way to make us welcome. We took a short walk after siesta downhill and found that the yellow arrows were on the road here, useful.

On the 10th, our rest day, we decided to walk into Foz itself and followed the yellow arrows down to the coast road where they turned left (a triple arrow sign) but we turned right along to the coast path. This was stone slabs and although quite attractive at first we soon came to dislike it because it was so hard on the feet.

This day we followed it for some time before taking the road again where the path went round another headland. Beautiful scenery but we were getting hungry. After walking along the sea front we found a restaurant (Costumes do Mar) run by an Argentinian and had a genuine Argentinian asada for lunch. Wonderful. Another one of our memorable meals.

We then walked along the front again to the church of Santiago which was open so we were able to go inside briefly. Returning to the harbour and the play area/park we found the bronze statue of the fish-wife and then the three stone men, reminiscent of ' last of the Summer Wine'. The total walked for this, our rest day, was now over 9kms so we took a taxi back to the hotel.

Views along the path

The coast path and church of Santiago

The fisher-wife and the stone men

San Martiño de Mondoñedo

The Basilica of San Martiño de Mondoñedo dates originally from the ninth century. Founded in 870, by Sabarico, it was the cathedral from then until 1112 when Queen Urraca moved the bishopric to Villamajor de Brea. The new cathedral taking its name Mondoñedo from the site of San Martiño Mondoñedo. There is evidence of an earlier church from the 6th century but the present basilica dates from the 9th to 12th centuries and is Romanesque. There are ancient wall and ceiling paintings as well as carvings. The building was restored in 2007.

The tourist office, which is behind the church and was open when we arrived, holds the key to the basilica. Our guide was very helpful telling us about the history but also leaving us to walk round quietly too.

May 9th - Barreiros to Mondoñedo

When we set off our host advised us to continue along the road through San Cosmé rather than retracing our steps to the FEVE bridge. He said that the route came up to the road about 1km from the Moderno so we took his advice.

The signing was good until after Vilaronte. We stopped in the cafe-bar in Vigo (Vilaronte) and bought some bread as well as our drinks, then walked up the hill to the marked left turn. The next turn should have been signed right, but it had gone so we walked about 2kms out of our way before we could see from our map that we had strayed. It did mean that we saw a curious statue (like an Easter Island type head) outside one house. Retracing our steps we passed both the sign for A Rúa and the carpentaria again before finding our turning, helped by a local. On our way down there was a 'double' right turn and we should have taken the second - a road straight uphill, without going past the carpentaria at all.

This was a longish steep section coming out at a cruceiro. The very helpful lady at the house pointed on down the road (again marked) and chattered on in a mix of Castillano and Gallego - very happy to see 2 pilgrims going to Mondoñedo and San Andrés. The latter was a great talking point on many occasions, most folk don't walk there but have transport. Finally arriving in Mondoñedo we followed the sign round to the back of the cathedral to the information office for the key.

This was a good walk although on the road for some distance and hopefully when the new gateway at the road junction is completed the sign might be restored. The detour made us decide to take a taxi from Mondoñedo to our accomodation because of the time and concern over the signs being missing again.

May 8th - Devesa to San Cosme de Barreiros

After breakfast in the cafe at our hostal we set off on the road back to As Catedrais to pick up the signs - arrows no 'fish' yet. The cliff path is boarded for a time from As Catedrais car park, then a yellow arrow points across the road. The signing needed watching as in some places it was hard to see (obscured by a hank of binder twine hanging up in one place!). However we found our way fairly easily and enjoyed a cafe con leche at the Casa Amadora in Santiago de Reinante (at Km 566 on the N634). Very enthusiastic owner who gave us a double sello. The yellow arrow had pointed right just before this, down the side road and was 'keep straight on' for some distance.

Shortly after leaving here we passed a very nice little house with old farm implements in the garden and hanging by the door. We stopped in a picnic area for a 'bocadillo' (sandwich) which we had brought with us from another cafe bar. A strong wind blowing in our faces made walking, mostly on the road, harder than it might have been so we were glad to reach the turning to San Cosmé de Barreiros (a signpost) and to leave the yellow arrows for a time. These point cross the FEVE and the route continues round the ría.

The Cafe-bar Moderno in San Cosme was again a very friendly and helpful place and we had a good menu del día, which was Sopa Gallego followed by braised tongue and 'tortilla' (omlette). This was all followed by cake after siesta so we did not need much at all for supper. The sello here was a scallop shell designed for the cyclist's club.

A short walk around the town gave us a view across the ría towards Foz and also a view of the fairly modern church of San Cosme. Total of 11kms kms today (excluding 'sightseeing').

May 7th - Rinlo to As Catedrais and Devesa

We planned our start to see the arches at the beach of As Catedrais, although sadly some were destroyed in the major storms of recent years. The tide times meant that low tide was at lunchtime (13.00) and we wanted to reach As Catedrais by then. Walking round the headland would have added several kms and as we did not want to walk the fairly busy road we took a taxi to Rinlo to start our walk from there.

The little port of Rinlo is just west of Ribadeo and made a good starting point. The first part was well signed with a yellow arrow and the red marker posts and signing too. It is 8kms to As Catedrais along the cliff tops, past the old shell-fish farm built in 1904. It had a dam, creating tanks, built to protect the lobsters and other shell-fish in a contained area making them easy to harvest. Now derelict it is a historic monument.

A lovely walk and we reached As Catedrais with time for a drink before going down the steps in the cliff side to the beach, going along as far as possible without taking our boots off before climbing back up the steps, then had lunch at the cafe. We backtracked a short way along the road and under the FEVE to go to O Lar de Carmiña at Devesa for the night - a total of 10.8kms for the day.

The journey - 2nd to 6th May 2015

We left home on May 2nd for Plymouth and the ferry to Santander which sailed on the 3rd. We met 6 other pilgrims on the ferry, 2 going to Burgos and 4 heading for Barreda to start their walking. The ferry arrived on time on Monday 4th and we had the rest of the day in Santander before travelling on to Oviedo on the 5th and Ribadeo on the 6th May.

In Oviedo we stayed in a pension near the station but ate in the Cafe Cristina, as in previous years. The Cathedral now charges an entry fee at the West door so it is no loger possible to visit the Cámara Santa or the church itself without paying. This was very disappointing but we did get our credenciales stamped. (Since coming home we have seen that the cathedral website says that free entry is allowed for prayer and we feel that the girl on the desk was therefore not aware of allowing pilgrims at least into the main church. She was quite clear that we had to pay because we questioned it!).

The FEVE from Oviedo to Ribadeo has a 15 minute change to its time, leaving earlier than before at 7.30am. - no timetables available so we relied on our old one for the list of stations. The changes do mean that the train now runs to time! In Ribadeo our hotel was in the main square. We walked down to the albergue in the afternoon to drop off our English paperbacks but saw no other pilgrims. The old house in the square has been at least partly restored since last time we were here and is looking much better. We washed a few of our clothes and organised our packs ready to start walking at last.

Still walking and waiting........

The training has been going well after a slow start to the year. The packing weights are comfortable and the new boots too. We have found accomodation for all our planned stages and the ferry is booked. The waiting time until we leave always seems slow and we could pack and repack to check that nothing essential is left out. We have collected some euros on a 'cash card' as the rate is good at the moment but will get more as we leave. The cash card is good as it has no link to our actual accounts. This time we have the new multi-currency cards so trust that they work as well as the old single currency type. So we wait patiently, keep walking..... and the time will pass........Then we will be following first of all the 'fish' sign for San Andrés and after that the 'shell' for the Camino Inglés.