O Cádavo to Lugo

This was a long stage between O Cádavo and Lugo so we walked to Castroverde and got a bus to Lugo, the largest city on the Camino Primitivo, which is famous for its Roman wall and the Cathedral of Santa María. It is the only city in the world to be surrounded by completely intact Roman walls, which reach a height of up to 15 metres in places. The Catedral de Santa María is a basilica erected in the early 12th century.

We set the alarm for 6, had a quick breakfast and went off at first light. We had intended to take an alternative to the main camino, but missed it somehow, which was lucky because we got to Castroverde quickly on a mixture of newly prepared tracks and old walled paths. Once there, we had coffee with fellow pilgrims (including Sela and Lena) and got a stamp from the council office, but more interestingly a stamp from the photo shop where the lady then opened the church for us and showed us around. Santiago (Saint James) is also the patron saint of Castroverde, and in the church there was a statue of him on horseback putting muslims to the sword, which is carried around the town by six men on his saint's day.

We made our way to the bus stop by the pizza bar and had coffee and chocolate pastry, before squeezing onto a packed bus to Lugo. We were glad we had taken the bus when we saw the long busy road the bus took through built up areas to get to the edge of the old town, and we got there just in time for Sue to go to mass and Angus to check out the tourist office and sit in the shade to do some planning. After that, we went together to the exhibition above the tourist office about the origins of the town, its roman walls  and its history to the modern day.  Hungry after all this activity, we found a pizza restaurant, a rarity in this part of the world and enjoyed a meal. Thus strengthened, we walked round the 2km on top of the walls on a broad track, meeting Monika, an Estonian lady we had met earlier on the Camino. We had been wondering what had happened to each other, and so we caught up on our stories! Then time for a coffee and cider before taking an audio tour of the Cathedral, a fascinating place with it's own unique style.

Deciding that we had done enough sight seeing, we headed down to our very basic room in a hostel by the roman bridge. In the evening we went for a stroll to buy some provisions and do some Qi Gung exercises, ate a delicious supper of cold left overs and collapsed to sleep.