We had a day off from walking the Camino and decided to spend the morning exploring Cambarro, the little town outside of Pontevedra where we were staying. The old quarter has tiny criss-crossing cobblestone streets and many ‘”hórreos” (raised granaries), “casas marineras” (sea houses) and crosses. There were lots of tourist shops selling all kinds of trinkets, it reminded us of Sausalito but with a more laid back vibe.
Michelle found more exercise equipment to play on and we watched kids playing balomano, the Spanish version of handball, which looked like a cross between soccer and basketball. It was cool seeing the coed players really get into it in a positive way.
We took the bus into Pontevedra for dinner and grocery shopping. We got to see the elite women’s triathlon biking and running sections – those women are amazing!
Dinner was grilled octopus, a first for both of us, and croquettes. They were both delicious! We were also supposed to have a ‘tortilla’ (Spanish omelette), but it took so long to come out (an hour!) we had to leave and didn’t get to try it. That’s on the list of food to try before we leave Spain.
We checked out the bridge lights then headed to the bus stop to get the last bus back to Combarro. Incredibly enough, even with an event that drew over 5,000 competitors and their supporters, there were no additional buses put into service! The bus did not stop for us so we decided to get a taxi with a woman from Ireland who had come over for the triathlon and was staying near us. That took forever as demand was high and they don’t have any ride share services in Pontevedra. We almost started walking back to the hotel (a 1.5+ hour walk!) but were luckily able to get a taxi. We were very happy to collapse on our beds that night!
Neither of us are big city people so we were very happy thinking about the rural walking ahead of us.
