4 days to Santiago: Portomarin to Palas de Rei

Castromaior hill fort

On our way to Palas de Rei, we passed through Castromaior, where we saw the remains of a British hill fort.

There are plans to build a museum around it but at the moment, you can still walk right through it.

There’s also a great view of the Camino as it circles around the fort.

Corn sheds

We’ve seen these big stone things everywhere in Galicia.

Farmers use them to dry out their corn for animal feed. The corn goes inside and the heat of the day drys it out.

We also heard that they’re used to dry out other crops, like wheat and maize. And apparently, they’re high up so rats can’t get to the crops and eat it all.

The frames of the sheds are always made of stone but the sides and doors can be wood or air bricks.

A lot of people seem to take pride in having a nice one. We think it’s because you can always see them from the road.

Galician gin

We found a bar in Palas de Rei that made gin and tonics with this Galician gin.

The glasses also happened to be the size of a small fishbowl but we didn’t let that stop us.

Loo dancing

Most of the loos we’ve been to in Spain have lights that go out if they don’t detect any movement for a while.

That means if you do anything more than a 5-second wee, you find yourself in total darkness. The only way out is to dance around on the loo, flailing your arms around until the light comes on. It’s very unrelaxing.

Señoras

In other toilet news, Roz now finds it impossible to go to a toilet marked ‘Señoras’ without coming back singing the word ‘señoras’ to the tune of ‘Informer’ by Snow.

So that’s been a treat. And very much in keeping with the spiritual vibe of the Camino.

3 days to Santiago…