Camino de Santiago from Arzúa to A Ruá: A Pilgrim’s Diary (5)
The route on day 5 was again not very exhausting. Only 19 km till A Ruá with a few hills. Lush green fields, eucalyptus forests, passing beautiful old towns and the obligatory hórreos. There are a lot of pilgrims who walk the 39 km till Santiago in one go but definitely not amateur pilgrims like us!
Not far after Arzúa we passed a guy who made lots of wooden walking sticks in all sizes, some of them in a bit of “Gandalf the Grey”-style.
I could hardly stop myself from spending all day long taking pics of the many beautiful flowers on the way!
A bit after the town in Boavista, we randomly found one of the best restaurant for pilgrims on the way. Often, they are rather simple (both menu and ambiance). Restaurant Boavista is a beautiful stone-built house and you can enjoy your meal on the terrace overlooking a lovely garden with pond (including a croaking frog and fish). I ordered an entrecôte which I can absolutely recommend.
Since it wasn’t very far anymore and we had a lot of time in hand, we decided to take it very slow and chill on the terrace. Hence it came that we made the acquaintance of a group of elderly British women who tried to watch the Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. I would’ve not even known about it otherwise but the longer we sat beside them listening to their commentary, the more intrigued we became ourselves. Because of their bad internet connection, they slowly started to panic after some time, afraid to miss the bride. In the end, the six of ended up watching it on my phone till finally they entered the church. I don’t think we were ever so interested in any TV wedding before 😀 And as Mom put it so nicely: Die Freude, die du anderen bereitest, kommt zu dir zurück.
We slowly continued on our way and because we still had so much time left, we even took another (Coke) break close to Santa Irene.
We’ve reached A Ruá at 4 pm and realised that there is really nothing to do as it was a really tiny village. Our hotel and restaurant O Pino was amazing though and we spend the rest of the day chilling on the terrace, writing our diary and drinking vino tinto.
The dinner was one of the best I’ve had so far. I had a three course meal: Spaghetti with mussels and scallops – to DIE for! -, a veal stake with fries and then the obligatory Tarta de Santiago. Mom’s grilled vegetables were a bit boring apparently but the salad was very interesting with kiwi, avocado and what not.
The rooms were very nice as well, I can absolutely recommend it as last hotel on the way to Santiago!