Day 4 - Palas de Rei to Melide

The last posting indicated that the hotel was owned by a small nearby restaurant.   This morning, we ate breakfast at that restaurant.   The menu:   croissants, toast, coffee, and orange juice.   That's it!  We weren't sorry to say goodbye to that establishment!   The people seemed nice - but we've paid for better accommodations than that!   They may be hearing from us - and also the travel agent.

The walk today was much shorter, only about nine miles (the first two days were about 14 miles).  Early on, I encountered the following graffiti on one of the signposts:

The text reads "Don't count KM, KCal, or steps, but Experiences".   This proved to be a good prophesy for the day.

Fairly soon after that, I met up with a woman named Lauren from Oregon whom I'd seen in the hotel on Monday and on the trail yesterday.   She was speaking in English with a woman whom I learned was from Spain.  I stayed with them for a while, and then Lauren stopped at a restaurant to wait for her friend, and the Spanish woman and I continued.  I learned that her name is Silva, and that she is from Southern Spain in Marbella (I think).  She is a fellow vegetarian.  We spoke for a while, about 90% in English and 10% in Spanish.  When I stopped to get a Coke Light (European reformulation of Diet Coke) she spoke to the proprietor in Spanish faster than I could follow.   In the end, he ignored the 5-Euro bill I was holding and took the payment from her!  I learned also that she was much better prepared than I am - she used the skim milk that she bought to mix in a protein formulation that she brought along with her, and had a small but healthy breakfast!

After that, we encountered the woman from Venezuela that we'd seen on Monday who was fighting muscle cramps; she was with her friend from Connecticut.  We chatted briefly - one pair in English and the other in Spanish - and then moved on.   Next, we met up with another woman whom she was chatting with in Spanish.  I understood nothing until I heard her talking about me (19 people from the United States - things like that) - and then said in English "That's the first thing you've said that I understood - talking about me!".   Our new friend said that she spoke English also - she was born in Germany to Spanish parents, has moved back to Spain, and works for a company with English-speaking customers, so she is tri-lingual.   Her name is Anna.

The three of us stayed together for a while, and then were passed by another woman.   We greeted her with "Buen Camino" which is the usual greeting, and her response was in a decidedly un-Spanish accent!   It turned out that she is from Ireland.   She was walking at a pace reminiscent of Giovanna or Katherine (known in Hiking Club circles as very fast walkers!), so we left Anna and Silva behind.  It turns out that her name is also Anna, and she speaks no Spanish.  We chatted for about a half hour, and encountered a place with a long line for getting our El Camino passports stamped.   I decided to wait on line to wait for Silva and (German) Anna, and Irish Anna kept walking along.

It was a long wait.  Finally, Anna came up - alone.   She told me that Silva had developed a muscle cramp about a kilometer back, and that Silva told Anna that she didn't need help.   By then, we were only about two kilometers from our destination - and it was a much shorter hike than the previous days - so I turned around to see if Silva did need some help.   On the way back, I encountered Joe, Peter, Sylvester, and Barb from our group - they hadn't seen anyone nursing a bad leg.   Then I ran into the women from Venezuela and Connecticut - neither had they.  I stopped in a roadside restaurant hoping that Silva was resting in there.   The proprietor (who spoke no English) patiently listed to my labored explanation in Spanish of whom I was looking for - and she hadn't seen her either.   Another quarter mile or so, and I gave up and went back on my path.  There, I met a delightful gentleman from Brazil who had lived in Detroit for a few years, and we chatted until crossing over the bridge into Meride.

This gnome plays the saxophone!
I wonder if my son Leon could
play a duet with him some day!

Here are some pictures from along the way:

Shiatsu is a Japanese technique that is
a distant relative of massage therapy or
acupuncture.   I guess someone figured
that a person hiking for the past month
might need some therapy!

At this station, they would stamp
your El Camino passport for free,
or for one Euro, provide a stamp with
sealing wax and a token - mine was
a horseshoe.   It is a fundraiser
for the ParaOlympics

This is Anna from Germany.

This is the town of Meride, as seen from
the bridge that crosses a small river
just before entering town.