Lugo to Chantada - 5 October 2018

5 October

Well, after a month away, my husband has finally found the kitchen and prepared tea last night. Lovely avocado, cured ham, cheese, tomato and pine nut salad! We need to stick to the spirits, both felt quite drunk, and legs unstable after sharing our bottle of fizz. Does that mean we’re not alcoholics at all, and possibly light weights?!

Note from Tintin - Kay hasn’t found the cassette toilet yet though!

Thought we’d get up and get going earlier this morning - wasn’t worth it - nothing really opens till 11am! Was only about 7° this morning, so pleased we needed to ride up a really steep long hill to get back into the town!

Lugo is the oldest city in Galicia, and was founded circa 14 B.C.  When it had been standing for about 300 hundred years, a wall, more than 2 km in length was built around it and crowned with 85 formidable towers. Lugo’s Roman wall is the only one of its kind throughout the Roman Empire which retains its circular structure intact. Was registered with UNESCO in 2000 on the list of World Heritage Sites.

Was very quiet when we first arrived. Took it in turns to go inside the huge cathedral, Santa Maria, as no where to lock up our bikes. Tintin was accosted by an old lady who told him he was a pilgrim, and did he know how lucky he was to be walking in the footsteps of Saint James - she lost interest when he said he wasn’t a Catholic...huge place, but quite dark - and to me felt a bit sinister. Was waiting to be told off by a priest as I was wearing shorts. Later went back in, and crowds were queued up to take holy communion.

We had wondered why there were so many police around, and road diversions - turns out to be a festive of San Froilan - and lasts from 4 to 12 October! Plus the fair, busy place.

We wandered around, bought some freshly cooked churros from a stall, €3 for twelve. Remember Sarah talking about them when she was living in Malaga - so would be rude not to try! Were good! Just with sugar, maybe needed the chocolate!

There were lots of stalls selling their homemade wares, leather goods and jewellery mainly. Interestingly enough, all the main shops were closed, surely not for the eight days of festival? Was during their opening times we were looking too!

An ensemble were due to play at 12.45, and we’d heard them tuning up from about 11.30 - so thought we’d hang around to listen. Went up on the walls around the town to take a look, very wide, covered in sandy stuff - lots of people jogging - even in the heat. Hard to know what to wear when it goes from 7° to 28° in a matter of a few hours!

Sat and baked in the sun with crowds of others waiting for the music to start. They were at least 20 minutes late starting, but after a very short while, we’d heard enough and left! Really not worth the wait!

We walked down some of the paths taken by those walking on the Camino, and saw a few people crossing the bridge by Dave early morning. If you start from St Jean Pied de Port in France and walk the whole way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain it’s over 500 miles, would take 30 - 35 days walking between 14 to 16 miles per day! Fair play to them!

Think we would have enjoyed Lugo more if there hadn’t been a festival on! Easy free wheel ride back to Dave for lunch.

I drove for about an hour to:

Chantada - N42°36.360’ W007°46.796’ - free

Described as 3 level bays under trees overlooking a river and very pleasant riverside park. Has a river walk/cycle path 400m to an interesting town with every amenity. Such a shame that stupid Co-Pilot wanted me to drive down said path! Luckily Tintin navigated a way that Dave could fit! Currently we are the only moho here, the French van has just left. Too hot to go exploring now (5pm), so will leave as something to look forward to tomorrow.

It’s really nice listening to music more often. At home we have the radio on all the time as background noise, but here we’re listening not just when driving. Reliving our youth with some oldies!