A Restful Day By The Sea
It was a cornflakes kind of morning. I love the leisurely breakfast buffets where I can drink a whole cup of café before I even begin to think about eating. Then I can drink some juice and eat some fruit. This morning they even had little fruit shish kabobs. I should have taken a picture. Then I can go back for cheese, jamon, or other delights. Then I top it all of with a bowl of cornflakes. Of course, there's, at least, one more cup of coffee in the mix. All this consumed at a leisurely pace. Contrast this with a month of machine café and a couple of crackers or, most of the time nothing at all until I got to my destination about 2 pm. Many mornings I would think of all the times I had heard, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Oh well. If you only eat one meal a day does that qualify as the most important meal of the day? It wasn't like the Frances where I'd almost always run across a breakfast place after three miles or less, about the time my appetite woke up.
It was a drizzly kind of morning with just a misty moisture. After breakfast, I strolled around the grounds a bit taking pictures. The I headed into town to find out where the bus stop was located to catch the bus to Vigo and to see how long it would take me to walk there. It's not far, about a fifteen to twenty-minute walk. After I located the bus stop I wandered through town and found this path that wound around the point before. I saw this sign that said only peóns could walk here. I thought that was kind of rude until a check of my Google translator informed me that peóns in Galician (Gallego) means pedestrian. I had already decided that I would qualify to walk there, either way.
Before I got on the walkway I saw a shell beach with large rocks to climb on. Oh boy, it was like a kid and a candy shop. I headed down to do some tide pooling. There were lots of little muscles everywhere, much smaller than the ones at Crystal Cove beach where I spend countless hours with my good friends the pelicans, starfish, dolphins and Oscar the octopus. There were also little squishy wet looking creatures attached to the rocks that looked like the top of a peeled purple plum. I have no clue what they are. Most folks who have seen the picture I took think they are some kind of sea slug. Did you know that the octopus is a member of that family? I have learned so many things since I started spending so much time at the beach after my first Camino. Don't even get me started on the sex life of starfish, how they make baby starfish.
So I'm really enjoying this beach that is covered with crushed shells instead of sand. And as I was looking down at some shells, that looked like scallop shells that hadn't been crushed yet, I saw a piece of sea glass! I was so excited. This was just like home. So I spent a couple of hours walking and looking for sea glass. They have different colored sea glass. So I will bring some Spanish sea glass home with me for my collection. The sea weed was a very bright color of green, not the greenish brown of California seaweed. There are miles of sandy beaches too. I may try one of those tomorrow. And, John, there are sea walls with Big Thinkers.
After the beach I walk on the path around the point and watched waves roll in and break crashing on the rocks. I love the ocean. Some people love mountains, some love deserts. I like those places too, I enjoy them, but I love oceans. I love watching them, smelling them, and listening to them. Waves sound different in the night than they do in the daylight. It may come from growing up on a small island, but I think I have salt water in my veins. I really like rivers, lakes and babbling brooks and streams. Water moving, I think that is my connection.
I enjoyed being by the ocean so much, I decided to stay another day. I'll leave here on Friday and go to Santiago and stay at the Parador there one night, then head to Zamora and serving the pilgrims.
While I was at the beach there was a woman there with her dog. She was collecting something too, but she pretty much stayed in one place. I don't know what she was collecting but it wasn't muscles or the unidentified sea creatures. It reminded me though of the Snail Hunters I meant to tell you about a few weeks ago.
Snails are apparently a popular dish in Spain. When I'm walking both on the Frances and on the Via Plata, I will notice people, men usually, walking along hunting in the bushes. At first it baffled me, but then I figured they were looking for snails. I nicknamed them the Snail Hunters. At one point when I was walking by a stream, I saw what I think were professional Snail Hunters. There were three of them, that I saw and they all had on matching waders (rubber boots) and matching jackets. They were spread out hunting along this creek bed. Whenever I would see snails on the trail I would lean over a whisper to them to get off the trail so they don't get stepped on or run over by a bicycle, and to hide if there were Snail Hunters in the area. Snails lead a very dangerous life.
But I digress, once again. The path also had great views of the fort. Looking at the rocky cliffs invaders would have to climb, coming from they ocean, just to get to the hill leading up to the fort and then the tall straight walls of the fort that would have to be scaled while people are shooting arrows at you, dropping things on you and swing sharp objects at you; I can understand why you might want to go home and forget the whole thing. The fort must have been very effective defensively.
I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting my pictures, choosing which ones to keep and which ones do delete. I also investigated plans for the next few days and made an appointment for a massage tomorrow. My back has been bothering me ever since I stopped walking with my pack. It is so weird, but I have had a chronically bad back for forty years. Now it is riddled with arthritis and discs that have lost their grip. But on my three Caminos, I've had no trouble with my back. My regular doctor, my back doctor, my massage therapist and my chiropractor all think it makes sense but have different bio mechanical theories about why it makes sense. And it has been suggested, more than once, that I should just wear my pack around in my everyday life. lol.
Well it's almost midnight, so I will send this off into the inter webs and go to sleep. Night all!
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