Walked today: 8.5 miles
Walked Camino 2019: 375.8 miles
It was dark enough for a headlamp when we left Lestedo this morning. A few minutes later we looked behind us and saw a pretty sunrise in the making.
As it got a little lighter, 
we saw this fellow who wanted to go with us to Santiago to get a Compostela, too.
But we told him that they don’t give Compostelas to dogs, which he seemed to accept, reluctantly.
We walked on through forests 
and along small roads 
until we reached Palas de Rei, (pop 3743), 
an apparent nest for pilgrims.
We stopped for breakfast after being refused at one restaurant who decided they were no longer offering breakfast at 8:25. We were served at the second restaurant 
and chatted with a guy in a kilt from Cambridge, England. We later saw him as he passed us 
and the pilgrim glut on the way out of Palas de Rei, one of our least favorite Camino towns.
We ignored the herd through several small villages 
and gradually through attrition or rate of walking, we regained some breathing room 
until we stopped at the bar/restaurant of Campanilla for lunch. It was packed mostly with resting pilgrims, occupying the outdoor tables and chatting with one another, 
but not buying anything and the others were lined up for the restroom. The restroom line was about 15 pilgrims long and increased and decreased as we watched. We entered the empty restaurant and were happily greeted by the owner when we ordered salads for lunch. We then found a seat and enjoyed a nice lunch as the crowd gradually diminished as the pilgrims disappeared, as we later discovered, into a huge tour bus waiting a few hundred yards up the path.
While we were eating lunch, we chatted briefly with two young ladies from Spain 
who had started the Camino in Sarria a few days ago with their three dogs. We jokingly asked them if their dogs were pilgrims and they laughed and said, “si”. We also asked if the dogs were going for Compostelas and they jokingly, we thought, said “si”.
We finished lunch, and walked another half mile to a small grocery store in O Coto and called a taxi to take us to our hotel in Melide.
During the 4 mile ride to Melide, we mentioned the compostelas for dogs and the driver, laughing, but seriously said that dogs can receive a compostela for walking the Camino! Sorry, pup, we didn’t mean to mislead you.
Our hotel “pencion” is incredible. 
It doesn’t have food, but mostly everything else, 
including a pool, which Jim sampled this afternoon. 
Our room is huge and the bathroom shower was so complicated 
we had to get the receptionist to give us a short course on how to operate it.
We did our chores and Jim walked into town to replenish our euro stash. Linda stayed behind to nurse a blister she aggravated during today’s walk. 
Jim returned with “takeout” pizza, pimentos, pulpo and a (3.60€) bottle of wine for dinner.
We ate our dinner in the dining room and chatted briefly with s couple from Melbourne, Australia. They also sampled our pulpo and pimentos.
We retired to our room for the evening after the longer than normal walk.
Jimandi 