Arzua 18.5 miles

We left Palas del Rei about 645 am. We could see an almost full moon when we woke up.

Today was again perfect walking weather with the sun partly shining. Even though it was a long day, it seemed to go by quickly, since we are so close to Santiago. I’m not quite sure why, but our path seemed desolate compared to yesterday so it was quite nice and much more quiet.

The scenery was amazing and it was a nice path through arches of eucalyptus trees that smelled so good. We had an altitude gain over 1800 feet with the rolling hills, which we think are going to get easier in the next two days, I mean the hills.

We saw many farms and cows and sheep. This area is famous for cheese and supposedly the dairies along the way give samples but we have yet to see an open one. Arzua has many cheese show to sample so the next time I’m here I will sample some.

According to my guidebook, Arzúa (pop. 6,011) is still in the heart of ancient dolmen and castro territory with a firm human presence since the Neolithic some 5,500 years ago. Along with native Iron Age peoples (here some 2,500 years ago), Romans also settled here in 20 BC. The 12th-century Codex Calixtinus refers to Arzúa as Vila Nova, new town, but the name Arzúa likely existed before (possibly as Arçua) and may come from an ancient Indo-European word meaning moving water. Today, Arzúa is one of Galicia’s most important agricultural and herding centers. They say now it’s modernized and most of the medieval parts no longer exist.

We strolled into town around 230 pm and quickly headed to a laundromat and since we were famished we went to the closest restaurant while the clothes were washing and had a pizza, salad and a hamburger.

Our hotel is comfy but we still headed out to the evening town Mass which was 2 minutes away from our hotel. The weather changed to misty rain and a little more chilly.

We plan to get an early start tomorrow. It’s very bittersweet being so close.