The streets of Santiago were dead quiet when I left my pension at 7:15am this morning. It’s a cool, grey day with rain promised around noon so I didn’t want to start too late. I swung by the cathedral for a departing selfie and popped into the amazing Parador next to it for a Santiago stamp to start my new pilgrim’s credential.

After just a mile of city streets and suburbs I was out in to the country and right into a delightfully dark and forbidding forest. My first thought was that any pilgrim who started before dawn would have a difficult time seeing the trail. Soon enough I climbed up into the open with bracken and brush lining the obviously maintained, but still natural-feeling path.

There was quite a bit of road walking this morning, the landscape here seems to consist largely of good-sized properties with very nice homes and well-maintained land. It actually reminds me a lot of Vancouver in terms of the same kinds of trees, roses, hedges, rhododendrons & hydrangeas, and the style of architecture (more Anglo-western than European); yet it’s very sleepy here, it’s 8:30am and there’s no one about, perhaps these are just expensive weekend retreats?

9.37 kms the Camino left a nice graveled walk through an eucalyptus forest to meet a proper 2-lane road and low and behold, a bar! Perfect time for a coffee and a sit-down rest. A lovely pair of old dears who I passed at the beginning of the forest have come in for a coffee, I like to think this is a morning ritual for them: a nice walk, a coffee & chat, and toddle home.

Several pilgrims were here already, and more than a dozen arrived while I’ve been here, and there’s some that passed me that must have gone on. I think this camino will prove to be very popular. I’m glad I have reservations for my accommodations.

There’s been some long inclines today, fortunately not overly steep but enough to get this sedentary heart pumping. Slow and steady was my mantra. I even got complemented on my pace by a Swiss-looking pilgrim (wooden staff, Tyrolean felt hat)! I’m sure my body will be glad it wasn’t a long stage today when it’s all over.

17 kms I turn the corner around a building and a stunning long medieval stone bridge over wide river comes into view. There’s a weir on one side making a small swift running waterfall and a large home/castle/monastery/? beyond. It’s very picturesque but it just started to drizzle in earnest so sticking around wasn’t a pleasant option.

Twice now light rain has made me rig up in my raincoat and poncho only for it to stop moments after. The day has turned a bit chilly so glad of added warmth of the extra layer.

21.5kms and at 12:45pm I arrived at the edge of Negreira and Hotel Millan. I booked my room online without seeing a picture of the building, it’s a big edifice on the main road and I fortuitously arrived moments before a big tour bus invaded both the lobby and the restaurant. I think I got my order into the kitchen just in time; the dining room went from looking like something from the Shining to jam-packed with gaggling older Spanish tourists.

Look at this Galician hospitality: my own bottle of wine, my own basket of bread, my own tureen of soup, and this is the first course!

Roast chicken, roast potatoes and veg for second, so good it made my legs tingle! Or maybe that’s all the hills catching up with me….

My room is a large and basic with a very cheerful red bathroom. It was impossible to do my hand laundry in either the sink or bidet so I had a good, long bubble bath with my day’s wear soaking along with me! Worked a treat. And I have a private balcony without any furniture so I made my own drying racks. As needs must!

I’m as loose as a goose now after a huge lunch and a hot soak, I’ve no inclination to explore Negreira. I think I’ll have my first nap of the trip, try to make up my lost sleep of the last two nights.

1756’ gain, 2141’ loss, 13.3 miles total