Up and Down in Galicia

We left Portomarín in fog and mist that persisted for several hours. There’s something magical about the misty Galician forests that even highway walking can’t dispel. The dew condensed in hair and beard, and fell on us from the trees.

The day was constant hills.

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly exploring the Celtic pre-Roman ruins of Castromaior. Inhabited from about the fourth century BC to the first century A.D., it was a village larger than some of the modern ones we’ve been walking through.

And then more hills.

We had our credentials stamped by a blind man in a chapel dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene and built from the stones of a collapsed Templar church.

The maps and guide books show our final distance today as between about 16 and 17 km, but our Fitbits had it closer to 21.4.

(Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)