September 20, 2019
Cambados
On our first night in Santiago we slept poorly because of the unhappy convergence of jet lag and street noise that continued long into the night. Our second night was even worse - the noise outside never really stopped, even though we’re five floors above the street and protected by windows that block out most of the noise. By the time we finally give up and head down to breakfast, Rachael is feeling so sleep-deprived that she’s almost nauseous. When Rocky isn’t sure she can face breakfast, you know there’s a problem.
Over breakfast, I upload the photos from yesterday’s tour. As I look again at the photo of the couple in Alameda Park whispering to each other along a concrete wall, I have an epiphany about the street noise and our room. Our window faces straight up a long street whose sides are both uniformly lined with tall, flat surfaced buildings. It’s a sound cannon, channeling all of the local sounds from blocks around straight at our window. I’ll bet if we were shifted two rooms in either direction, it would be much quieter.
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One of our intentions for this tour was to approach it with more flexibility than we have in the past. With that in mind we’ve changed our plan for today to align to the realities of the local weather situation. After several weeks of excellent weather, the rains are due to arrive later tonight and soak northwest Spain for the next two weeks. As today looks like the best riding conditions we’ll see for awhile, and since we want to get some sleep in a quieter place anyway, we decide to cancel our third night in Santiago and hit the road.
Off to Cambados!
Cambados is a small coastal town south of Santiago, in the Rías Baixas: a series of four estuarine inlets between Santiago and Portugal. The route we follow today is inland and generally follows the Portuguese Camino, the pilgrimage route from Porto north to Santiago. Throughout the day we will regularly pass walkers going the other direction, Santiago-bound.
It’s a remarkable route, with most of the day spent on slender low traffic lanes that pass through a scenic agrarian landscape unlike any we’ve seen before - green, lush, with oak forests interspersed with small holdings raising crops of all kinds - vegetables, corn, vineyards. Intermittently we find ourselves on busier roads for a few miles where no quieter alternatives exist, but they’re all quite safe. This is the Camino, and even where it follows these busier roads there is an adequate margin.
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An excellent first day of the tour. After we arrive, we both nap for awhile and then I step out to explore the town while Rachael continues catching up on some badly needed sleep. We’ll be in Cambados for two nights, planning to sit out the expected squall tomorrow, so we’ll save what I saw for then. Plan on coming back to look though - Cambados is beautiful!
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Ride stats today: 37 miles, 1,500’
Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 37 miles (60 km)
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