Carral

Camino Ingles, Day 3: Betanzos to Hospital de Bruma

A  harder day than yesterday, with plenty of climbs, particularly towards the end. Luckily we’d managed to score breakfast before setting off: on the main square of Betanzos in the only place in town that seemed to be open early – naturally they were doing a roaring trade. We walked along with a fellow pilgrim, Birgit from Munich, for a while, parting after we’d had lunch at Presedo, about halfway along, in decent café stop adorned with large psychedelic paintings of knights and saints. I’ve also had to revise my long-held opinion about the wrongness of putting tortilla in a sandwich – ordered by accident, it was really rather good! The second half of the day was mainly through woodland, feeling more farmed than yesterday, with wide paths exposed to the afternoon sun, but still with spectacular views from the high ground, particularly through the patches of new growth. At Hospital de Bruma we had a quick look at the old auberge, before cutting across to our own digs at Meson do Vento, a couple of kilometres off the Camino route. Slightly less bucolic, Meson, strung out along a busy main road and soundtracked by the noise of passing lorries, had some definite ‘Big Tuna’ vibes. We hung out for a bit in the bar of ‘the other hotel’ (ours was a barn-like rooming place next to a café) and then went back there for a big, simple but tasty dinner in their canteen-like restaurant – accompanied throughout by the yelling of the same pilgrim group that we had earlier seen doing some impromptu (but very noisy) yoga stretches in the lobby. Luckily we escaped back to the bar before the singing started…