March 10 – After our adventure yesterday, we decided to take a break from walking today. The forecast was heavy rainfalls and storm for Portugal and Galicia Spain. We are now in Galicia so the prudent course of action was not to walk in case there is a repeat of yesterday’s events.

Karen wanted to take the bus to our next stop on our Camino Portugal which is the town of Redondela. Funny thing though. Finding a bus to Redondela was an adventure in itself. We finally obtained information that we should take a bus to Vigo and then take a bus from Vigo to Redondela. I was not convinced this was a good decision but as we were not walking today I was open to a new experience.

€3 for the both of us to Vigo and another €3 from Vigo to Redondela. When we arrived in Vigo, we had to wait an hour for the bus to Redondela. While waiting we were treated to a wonderful spectacle of stunt roller blading practice. Yes, the kids set up a practice court right in the bus station itself. They must have obtained permission to do so.

Here’s Karen waiting for bus.

On our way to Redondela we felt like tourists on the Hop on Hop off tourist bus as the bus rode on a coastal vista road. Here are the pics.

We reached the town of Redondela by 1pm. There we found our Albergue where we are staying for the night.

Right after we checked in and unloaded our backpacks we headed out to the Samoa Restaurant for lunch. It was highly recommended by the Albergue owners. No cooking for this day. We played your regular tourists with the sightseeing and continued with the roles of splurging at a restaurant. So glad we did as the food was incredible. I enjoyed the vegetarian lasagna so much that I would have ordered another if I did not have to eat the rest the dishes we had ordered with it.

Patata Bravas, Spanish Tortilla and Lasagna Vegetal. Hey Miki, yum yum in my tum tum!LOL.

Right after lunch, we had a brilliant idea to walk off the food by looking for the Camino Arrows at the entrance to town and walking the way back to our Albergue. I felt that this would remove some feelings of guilt for not walking the scheduled full stage on the Camino today.

Here’s what happened. We were retracing the arrows backwards and Karen saw Gertrude at the entrance of another Albergue. Remember Gertrude? She is the 68 years old German lady who is walking the Camino alone. We are reunited.

This is the magic of the Camino. You meet people and then they walk on or you do. Then after a day or so you get to see them again if God permits. We were so happy to see our Camino friend again. She was hungry so we took her to the restaurant that we had just been to for lunch. Though we were stuffed, we took the opportunity to order Churros and Chocolatte for dessert just so we could accompany Gertrude as she ate her lunch.

Karen also ate her first Churros. She has never had it before.

So the above spells out our Camino adventure for today. Though we did not actually walk the roads today, I still felt we were on the Camino De Santiago. We were only having a different experience that suited us better. Remember that everyone walks the Camino in their own way. I am loving how my Camino is unfolding for me.

Hasta Luego Calgary! Tomorrow we will walk the roads from Redondela to Pontevedra unless God says otherwise. I am ready. LOL.