Sunday June 2nd, Pontevedra to Armenteira about 22km

Sunday June 2nd Pontevedra to Armenteira on the Espiritual Route about 22km. Uphill. 😊

We left Pontevedra at about 8am and started out of town towards the optional Espiritual Route over a mountain and through the woods to Armenteira.  We departed Pontevedra over an old Roman bridge that is still used by car traffic today.u Three KM outside town we broke from the traditional Camino Portuguese and started on the much less traveled Espiritual Route to Armenteira. 

Our first stop of consequence was    Where we stopped for a meal at Combarro at about 11:00. We also did a little walking tour of the ancient fishing village before leaving the shoreside cafe for the walk up the hill to where we were staying in Armenteira. While a 1500 foot climb doesn’t seem bad doing it over 5km can be tiring. And we were tired and sweating a lot as we got out of the village on three short STEEP lanes over about a mile. Good for heart cardio exercise 😀. 

The ascent to Armenteira was over a total of 10km and the vertical gain over about 5km. This 10km offered not even a bench although there were some rocks and good old dirt to sit on. We arrive 2:45 minutes after starting our climbing and were able to check into place to stay for the evening. It’s weird as we think we’re the the only four guests in an ultra modern place - it’s movie eerie. 

After the normal showers and laundry we went back into the village and to walk around the monastery, attend vespers and then have dinner.  

Tomorrow it’s down the mountain to Vilanova de Arousa about 25km where we’ll spend the night and then take a small rigid inflatable boat about 20km upriver to Padron and our final assault on Santiago de Compostela. 

As always we’ll try to post some pictures in this and a following post.