Sunday evening in Ourense. For some reason I'm exhausted. It might be because today was disappointing. I'm a real weather watcher lately and after several gloomy days I was expecting it to be very nice today. All the weather sites agreed that it would be be mostly sunny all day. I left the house I was staying in at around 10 this morning. It doesn't get light til around 9. The town I was in is called Xunqueira de Ambia and it was old and quant - compact with three bars.
I stayed at a Casa Rural called Miraval. I've never stayed at a crappy CR and most of these country houses are really nice. They're especially pleasant off season because chances are you'll get the whole house to yourself. Miraval was exquisite. I think it was originally built is 1356, then rebuilt in 1776. From what I could gather from the caretaker, Maria, it's owned by a family in Madrid and is literally their country house. Maria lives on the bottom floor and takes great care of the place. Live plants all over, spotless windows, etc. The family has eclectic tastes. It's was like a cross between a museum and spotless, tasteful Adams Family house. As an example, when I called to ask about a room, Maria was somewhere else and had to meet me there. The key to the place is like eight inches long. I'm guessing its the original door and hardware from the 18th century. It's a Dutch door with a modern lock on the top part so she detached the top from the bottom and showed me how to unlock the top, push it in then unlatch the bottom. Anyway there were lots of old-time touches like that.
Anyway, back to the weather. It was foggy like a Nantucket morning all the way to Ourense - and the whole day was on roads. Not long, but an unpleasant five hours.
It's about 100km to Santiago so I should be there on Thursday. I could pull a 60km day (or two 40 km days) but the way I feel now, it's unlikely.
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