Bike Ride Day 4 - Baiona to Pontevedra

When people plan long bike rides for me, I prefer that the most painful climbing take place at the beginning. Which it did today, but it also happened again at the end when I thought I had already finished my exercise for the day. I think I would have moved faster walking up the last mountain, but I was determined to say that I rode the entire way.

Today’s ride took me through Vigo, a large, very urban city in northwest Spain. As an aside, Vigo is so hilly that there are outdoor public escalators everywhere just to allow pedestrians to get around. 

I spent quite a lot of time in Vigo trying to find a store that sells bike mirrors to replace the one I hypothetically lost yesterday. None of the large, stylish bike stores I went to sold mirrors but each was sure that some other particular one did and it was “really close to here” so I went from store to store for over an hour, riding in traffic congestion, dodging people and delivery trucks, thinking that this was exactly the reason why people need bicycle mirrors. But no luck, so I gave up and decided to finish the trip mirrorless (which I hate because, to state the obvious, the only way to look out for traffic behind me is to not look where I’m going).

I rode out of town and was at the last bit of outskirts heading up the mountain and I happened to pass this small, very non-stylish neighborhood bike shop. I decided to stop, and . . . you know the rest of the story. Miracle or non-miracle? You make the call.

There is an official way to obtain Camino de Santiago “certificates” that prove that . . . actually I’m not sure what they prove, but people travelling the Camino like to get them. When you start your journey, you get a Camino “passport,” which you have to get stamped at least twice a day at a registered stamping place and then when you show up at Camino Headquarters (the main cathedral in Santiago de Compostela) a “passport officer” (or priest, I don’t really know), verifies your passport stamps and gives you a certificate. 

My take on this is as follows (thanks for asking). I hate to be seen as someone who assesses the piousness level of others, but . . . I feel like if you walk the Camino with an intentional spirituality and maybe stop at some of the innumerable Virgin Mary statues to do your rosary (assuming that’s what one does), then sure, stamp your passport. But if you’re just out to enjoy the scenery and after a long day of exercise you stop at a bar for a couple of beers and that bar happens to be licensed to stamp Camino passports (like this one), I’m not sure you should get full credit. For this reason, I’m traveling stampless.

Tonight I’m in Pontevedra, where feeding the pigeons is a thing. 

And from today: