Silleda

May 5, 2022

Today started off with a longish climb (again!) but the N-525 was very quiet and it was a relaxed ride to the highest point of the day. A long descent followed through scenic countryside until the largish town of Lalín. The road got busy from here onward but we felt OK in the wide shoulder and didn't think about diverting onto the Camino.

A lavadora. A place where, in times past, the women of the village would gather to wash clothes and gossip (Leigh's words, not mine - I only suggested that they might be calling someone a scrubber behind her back). These days lavadora is the Spanish word for washing machine. So much that has been lost.

Two dimensional bell towers like this one are typical of what we have seen.

After leaving Lalín we stopped at a restaurant on the Camino in the village of Bendoiro for a late second breakfast that would serve as lunch as well. Just before we left a group of about ten pilgrims arrived sans backpacks or bicycles. They probably have a meat wagon to carry their luggage or use a service to send it ahead of them. Given that one of the pilgrims in last night's digs had also forwarded his backpack and that the other group there had caught a train for much of the distance, I felt that Leigh's fear that we weren't "real" pilgrims was unfounded.

A nice pilgrim statuette just before Silleda.

We are staying in a nice albergue in Silleda. A double room - no dormitories here - with a great view. Tomorrow we have just over forty kilometers to go to the Cathedral in Santiago. The challenge will be to find a balance between the easier riding on the N-525 and the calmness that we may find on the Camino itself.

Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 1,475 km (916 miles)

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