A quick bite for breakfast, typically hardy toast and coffee, before we
left Palas de Rei for the day's walk to Ribadiso.
Coming out of Palas de Rei in the morning, we came across this newer pilgrim
statue pointing the way down the Camino.
A little further on, the Camino got rather muddy past San Xulián, but we were
able to stay on high and dry ground. Coming into Lobreiro, we saw this structure
which looks like a miniature hórreo (grain bin).
Doug holds up a tympanum of Virgin and Child over the door of the 13th century
Romanesque Church of Santa María in Leboreiro. A legend has it that a statue of
the Virgin, now inside the church, once was mounted along the path through town.
One day the villagers decided to move the Virgin's statue to the church.
For several days after, the statue would miraculously disappear from the church
at night and re-appear beside the path in the morning! The villagers would then
take the statue back to the church, only to have it move back to the path the
following morning! Not until this tympanum was sculpted and placed over the door
did this mysterious, and unexplained movement of the statue stop!
Beautiful plants starting to bloom, on the left, while on the right, Doug stops
for a cool drink and a chance to soak his hat.
On the left can be seen, on the hills in the distance, windmills for
generating electricity. We saw several of these "wind farms" at various points
along the Camino. On the right, a freshly plowed field, a springtime sight.
Camino direction indications: left, a very nice shell motif on a house; center,
the Cross of Santiago on a waypoint; and right, a sign placed on a fence by
a local saying, "Feliz viaje" (have a joyful trip) encourages pilgrims!
Here we cross the Ponte Velha, a magnificent medieval bridge, into Furelos.
Shortly after Furelos, we come to the town of Melide, most famous among pilgrims
for the Pulperia Ezequiel. Pulpo, or octopus, is a speciality in Galacia! It
is made with a spicy sauce which includes paprika and ground chili peppers; and
it is delicious! Doug and Rolf pose outside the Pulperia.
Famous among pilgrims and Spaniards alike, the Ezequiel is set up to handle large
crowds by providing many picnic tables.
In the front is a large fireplace with steaming cauldrons of octopus. The cooks
take out the octopus and slice it up on the table next to the fireplace. On the
right, the baker prepares loaves of the crusty, hardy bread common in Galacia.
Here Doug, Dave, Rolf and Marion split an order of octopus, while Manuel and
his friends sit just down the table from us. Ken, from Australia, stops
by (as seen in the video) to say hello.
Pulperia Ezequiel video
The "before" and "after" photos of our order of pulpo. Marion picked up the
moniker of "little pulpolina" due to her adversion of the pieces with suckers!
After leaving Melide, we complete the day's walk toward Ribadiso, with a
delightful Xunta albergue along the river, "Rio Iso". In this photo, Dave
walks with Marion in heavy discussion all in German. Dave's fluency in that
language was very useful because there were so many German pilgrims. Dave said
he used more German than Spanish until he got to Madrid on the way home!
There were many things about the albergue in Ribadiso that were memorable.
One, shown on the left, was a small set of steps going down to the river.
Kenny, from California, stretches in this photo. We all had a chance to take
off our boots and soak our feet here. Marion, Krisz, Angelika, Cecilia,
Doug, Dave, Kenny and others took turns. The two photos on the right
capture a free-for-all among a group of Spaniard pilgrams further upstream!
Another great memory was of the Danish pilgrim who dressed like a clown, and
regaled the other pilgrims with familiar songs while he played a toy sax,
cymbals on his foot, and a toy banjo! The gals from Holland and Denmark
also enjoy the music.
Doug did a great job in editing both our videos in Ribadiso to come up with
this single, combined result!
We finished off this delightful day with a nice dinner down the road from
the albergue. From left to right around the table were Annie, Doug,
Annemarie, Rolf and Dave. Annie, Annemarie and Rolf are all German
pilgrims that we spent the last fews days with into Santiago, and
later, we saw Annie and Annemarie on the bus to Finisterre.
Distance travelled today: 26.4 km, 16.4 mi 
Total distance walked: 228.2 km, 141.8 mi 
A quick bite for breakfast, typically hardy toast and coffee, before we left Palas de Rei for the day's walk to Ribadiso.
Coming out of Palas de Rei in the morning, we came across this newer pilgrim statue pointing the way down the Camino.
A little further on, the Camino got rather muddy past San Xulián, but we were able to stay on high and dry ground. Coming into Lobreiro, we saw this structure which looks like a miniature hórreo (grain bin).
Doug holds up a tympanum of Virgin and Child over the door of the 13th century Romanesque Church of Santa María in Leboreiro. A legend has it that a statue of the Virgin, now inside the church, once was mounted along the path through town. One day the villagers decided to move the Virgin's statue to the church. For several days after, the statue would miraculously disappear from the church at night and re-appear beside the path in the morning! The villagers would then take the statue back to the church, only to have it move back to the path the following morning! Not until this tympanum was sculpted and placed over the door did this mysterious, and unexplained movement of the statue stop!
Beautiful plants starting to bloom, on the left, while on the right, Doug stops for a cool drink and a chance to soak his hat.
On the left can be seen, on the hills in the distance, windmills for generating electricity. We saw several of these "wind farms" at various points along the Camino. On the right, a freshly plowed field, a springtime sight.
Camino direction indications: left, a very nice shell motif on a house; center, the Cross of Santiago on a waypoint; and right, a sign placed on a fence by a local saying, "Feliz viaje" (have a joyful trip) encourages pilgrims!
Here we cross the Ponte Velha, a magnificent medieval bridge, into Furelos.
Shortly after Furelos, we come to the town of Melide, most famous among pilgrims for the Pulperia Ezequiel. Pulpo, or octopus, is a speciality in Galacia! It is made with a spicy sauce which includes paprika and ground chili peppers; and it is delicious! Doug and Rolf pose outside the Pulperia.
Famous among pilgrims and Spaniards alike, the Ezequiel is set up to handle large crowds by providing many picnic tables.
In the front is a large fireplace with steaming cauldrons of octopus. The cooks take out the octopus and slice it up on the table next to the fireplace. On the right, the baker prepares loaves of the crusty, hardy bread common in Galacia.
Here Doug, Dave, Rolf and Marion split an order of octopus, while Manuel and his friends sit just down the table from us. Ken, from Australia, stops by (as seen in the video) to say hello. Pulperia Ezequiel video
The "before" and "after" photos of our order of pulpo. Marion picked up the moniker of "little pulpolina" due to her adversion of the pieces with suckers!
After leaving Melide, we complete the day's walk toward Ribadiso, with a delightful Xunta albergue along the river, "Rio Iso". In this photo, Dave walks with Marion in heavy discussion all in German. Dave's fluency in that language was very useful because there were so many German pilgrims. Dave said he used more German than Spanish until he got to Madrid on the way home!
There were many things about the albergue in Ribadiso that were memorable. One, shown on the left, was a small set of steps going down to the river. Kenny, from California, stretches in this photo. We all had a chance to take off our boots and soak our feet here. Marion, Krisz, Angelika, Cecilia, Doug, Dave, Kenny and others took turns. The two photos on the right capture a free-for-all among a group of Spaniard pilgrams further upstream!
Another great memory was of the Danish pilgrim who dressed like a clown, and regaled the other pilgrims with familiar songs while he played a toy sax, cymbals on his foot, and a toy banjo! The gals from Holland and Denmark also enjoy the music. Doug did a great job in editing both our videos in Ribadiso to come up with this single, combined result!
We finished off this delightful day with a nice dinner down the road from the albergue. From left to right around the table were Annie, Doug, Annemarie, Rolf and Dave. Annie, Annemarie and Rolf are all German pilgrims that we spent the last fews days with into Santiago, and later, we saw Annie and Annemarie on the bus to Finisterre.
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