Day 9: Rest day - Melide

22 May:
Patricia had suggested a rest day, and with the few extra km they have walked, and a bit of tweaking the mileages from now on, we chose today as our free day.
We would leave Bolboreta to go to Melide so we got Angela to organise two taxis for to take us to Pambre Castle after breakfast. Built in the 14th c it is one of the few military castles that survived the Irmandinos uprising of 15th century.  The Irish lady decided to come along after all so we had a full complement in the two taxis.

The castle gates were closed when we got there but at 11am a car arrived and a woman opened the gates so that we could go inside. One can only imagine the power of the nobility over the peasants and the hold they had over agriculture in Galicia from these castles, built on high bluffs looking over hills and valleys for miles around.
An interesting finding for me was a mason sign in a stone right next to the entrance that I have also seen in Santiago cathedral. Was it the same mason?  Was it his son? The registered signs were passed down from father to son and were unique to each mason.  This was Bob's favourite outing on the walk and he said afterward that it was a highlight for him.
After exploring the castle we dropped Adrian back at the albergue together with Malcolm from Australia who we had invited to join our outing. Then we were taken to Melide and the Hotel Carlos which is run by a friendly family who have been there since 1996. Our rooms weren't ready so we sat outside in the sun and ordered a snack for lunch.

Pat and Janet like to have their main meals at lunchtime. (Pat says that they have their dinner at about 4h30pm at home in Texas.)  So they don't usually have an evening meal.  Reinette doesn't like to eat at night either but she will join the group and once she sees what they eating, she will relent and have something to eat. Bob needs to fill his tall frame so he can have breakfast, lunch and dinner. He says he used to eat twice as much as he does now and that as he has gotten older he has become about 3" shorter.  Adrian likes to have breakfast and will have dinner most nights. The Irish lady often eats in her room and does a lot of grocery shopping but she enjoys having lunch and/or dinner with the group when possible.  I rarely have the Spanish breakfast which is mostly bread and coffee but I like to have dinner with the group at night.

Day 8: Campanilla to Melide

I spent most of yesterday working out a new walking schedule that would include another rest day. I decided that the day after staying at Albergue Bolboeta in Casanova could be the best day.
On Tuesday morning Xacotrans came for our luggage and the taxis came for the group to take them to Campanilla/Coto. 
After a few days rest the Irish lady thought she might be able to walk if the road was flat and even.  I got the taxi to drop us within 100m of Bolboreta and we walked down the road to the albergue. She wanted to keep going so she turned and walked back along the flat part of the road.

Bolboreta is a lovely stone Casa about 2km from the Camino path at Casanova and is in a gorgeous, rural setting with forests, fields and a tiny village close by.
Our rooms weren't ready so we sat outside in the sun and the owner brought us coffee and little cakes.  I was telling her about our small group that stayed there in Sept 2011 and my phone beeped. It was a message from Bell Russell, one of the pilgrims who had stayed there with me on that trip. I haven't heard from Bell in a year so it was serendipitous to get a message from her at that moment!

The rest of the group arrived and we checked into our rooms. Adrian wanted to check out an alternate route to Coto so he, Reinette and I did a long walk through the village, up along a tarred toad, all the way back to Casanova and the albergue.  We had a lovely communal meal at the albergue and made plans for the next day.  Pambre Castle, one of the best preserved military castles in Spain, is just 4km away so we decided to get two taxis to take us to the Castle and then to Melide.

The Irish lady wasn't interested in the castle so she would have a lie in and we would come back for her afterward and drop Adrian off so that he could do an extra walk.
When we finally put the light out in our room Reinette and I just laughed because it didn't make any difference with the sun still shining outside.  Eventually the sun set and we had a lovely glow in the room with a rising moon  over the forest.