Camino de Santiago from Melide to Arzúa: A Pilgrim’s Diary

The morning started with a surprise: no pain. Am I still alive? Have I lost my legs overnight and that’s why I couldn’t feel the oh-so-familiar pain in my muscles?
Nope, still there. Strange.

After almost dying a day back and hardly being able to walk back to the hotel from dinner the day before, I couldn’t believe it. It’s like a part of our pilgrimhood went missing. It’s supposed to be a “Leidensweg” after all, a way of suffering that Mom never got tired of repeating.

We started the day rather late once again and with another heavy breakfast which was served in the bar/restaurant opposite the hotel. No buffet this time but they served us freshly toasted bread, lots of jamón and cheese as well as some delicious and huge croissants. When they passed by a second time with a whole tray of quite fresh ones, I couldn’t resist getting one more. (Do I even need to mention that I gained a lot of weight during this trip? But I suppose after reading mostly about food here, you’d figured 😀 )

The next thing on our list was to get stamps for our pilgrim’s pass from Capela de San Roque which had been closed already when we arrived. We couldn’t just keep on collecting only hotel stamps, it was a Catholic pilgrimage after all. Done by Protestant amateur pilgrims who still couldn’t remember what made them do it in the first place. It definitely wasn’t to touch St James’ golden cloak in the cathedral, that’s for sure. Whatever the reason was, the official stamps from the churches are just so much nicer than the hotel ones.

Now to the most important act of the day: finding a bakery which sold Melindres (sugar-topped pastries), Amendoados (almond cakes) and Ricos (butter-based pastries) which I had read so much about and which were specialities of this particular town. We unfortunately only found places where they sold it already packed and not freshly baked, but still, mission accomplished. Our absolute favourite were the Amendoados, another addition to the almond heaven we were in, being surrounded by our all-time favourite Tarte de Santiago daily. (I blame at least 1 kg I gained purely on this one 😛 )

Since we’d not had the chance to take a stroll through the older part of Melide yet, we took out some time before continuing on the Camino. At the Praza do Convento we found a small shop selling local liquors and sausages – finally! I didn’t let the opportunity slip and fully went for it. Salami, chorizos and a duo of herbal and coffee flavoured liquors. The only problem: Since our luggage had already been picked up, I had to carry all of it in my backpack. After carrying hardly anything with me for the last couple of days – the heaviest item being the water bag with maximum 2 l of water at one time and a light jacket – this was a good practice to come close to the real pilgrimhood. Luckily, I had learned out to adjust the backpack properly by now so that it was doable.

Leaving Melide, we, first of all, passed the viewing point O Castelo where the old castle once stood. One indeed gets a lovely view over whole Melide. It’s a pity we were too tired the day before to come there in the evening.

The Camino itself was once again scenic, through many eucalyptus forests, fields, up and down at least nine hills. Every single time we thought it must be the last but no… they were not very steep though so it wasn’t even too exhausting. Mom finally tried out her walking sticks for the first time – her arm was hurt the last couple of days so she hadn’t been able to use them before – and all of a sudden became unstoppable, overtaking everyone and leaving me behind eating her dust. I have to admit, as much as I had made fun of them in the beginning, these sticks had become indispensable for me within the first day itself. The moment I walked without them for a bit my knees started hurting.

We took a break at Rivadio, having my first Empanada filled with jamón, a home-made chorizo and a tortilla once again. It wasn’t long after that till we reached Arzúa.

After checking into our hotel Casa Teodora, which was one of the best restaurants in town as well, and after only a short break, we went out to explore the town. There wasn’t much to see, so we just went up and down the road for a bit mainly checking out menus. Only a day later, we’ve realised that we missed out on the nice part of the town, but nothing one couldn’t see when continuing on the regular Camino. We ended up sitting outside Casa Teodora in the sun (unfortunately at the main road), writing postcards and our diaries while having a cheese platter with the famous Arzúa cheese. There was not much room for more, unfortunately. In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t eaten so much before as the menu sounded absolutely promising. On the other hand: maybe it was good to take a dinner break for once. ^_^