We got off to an early start, but there was plenty of street lighting as we left Melide. The sun was rising and the clouds turned a glorious pink! Part of it was visible as we rounded the corner at Santa Maria de Melide. This church dates to the 12th century but unfortunately, was locked.

We traveled on through farmlands and came to another split in the road. The path to the right went over a rock formation bridge and the road to the left was for cyclists. It was 300 meters longer but we chose to go that way. We just didn’t know what the rock bridge would be like! After joining up with the other path, we continued on to Boente. We came upon the Church of Santa de le Boente. The altar was beautiful.

We had two steep hills before entering Arzua and we are hoping we are finished with the steep hills! We stopped at a restaurant in Arzua for lunch. There were three groups of pilgrims, including us, sitting outside. One of the others said, “Since we are all speaking English, where’s everyone from?” One woman said Boston and Mike asked where. She said Cambridge and he replied that he was born in Cambridge City Hospital…a few years ago. She began in St. Jean 36 days ago and the other two women had been walking 41 days! They began in August! They were thrilled to think they’d be in Santiago in two days! While walking, we met a woman from Canada near Niagara Falls and she did the Primitivo Camino. She said she went three days with no shelter in driving rain and on very thin trails on cliffs. I don’t think that one’s for us! We have met a man from Superior, Wisconsin. He walked the Camino Frances last year at 79 and is doing it again this year. We’ve stayed at the same hotel twice now and have had pleasant conversations with him. He normally walks much more quickly than we (I really) do. But today we left the hotel first to begin walking. He caught up with us later and said he’d missed the sign and gotten lost. It added an hour and a half to his walking today. He walked with us the rest of the way and we suffered through the steep hills together!

We came into Arzua and the countryside we left behind was beautiful! It is definitely getting more urban!

Tomorrow is our longest day of walking…19 KM! Since our hotel is on the far side of Arzua, we are hoping we covered a little of that today. We are beginning to see signs for Santiago along the roads. We are getting closer! As we pass the km markers, we cheer each time we get to a new series of numbers. We began at 112 KM in Sarria and we are now at 38!! I can’t believe we are almost there! We have gotten into the rhythm of sleep, eat breakfast, walk, eat dinner and repeat. When we begin in the morning, it’s nothing to walk 3-4 miles. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…