Betanzos

 Betanzos  

I had to wait until 8.30 when it was light enough to leave Pontedeume. The sun still hadn't risen above the mountains to the east but it was bright enough to see. I had checked out the start of the route out of town but the guidebook had warned that it was a steep ascent for 1.5 kilometres up Mount Breamo, so I hadn't gone very far to check the route the previous afternoon before turning around. 

After the first steep climb of the morning, the route levels out and goes through forest and across a golf course before climbing further into the mountains through forests before a long descent to Ponte Baxoi, one of the seven bridges that were built by Fernan Perez de Andrade o Boo, Andrade the Good, in the 14th century. 

I had seen more pilgrims in the first hour of walking than I had seen for the last two days. But then again, it was a Saturday, and the weather forecast was fine, so no surprises that the weather had enticed a lot of other walkers out onto El Camino del Norte to walk a little of the route at the weekends to complete the route to Santiago de Compostela rather than doing the whole route in one go. Not everybody has the free time to do it in one go.  

Coffee and refreshment options are not so well distributed along El Camino Ingles as for instance on El Camino Frances, but this farm had expanded and had a large mural on a wall of one of its barns that couldn't be missed and had developed a cafe with tables and chairs set out in the sun. 

El Camino dips down alongside the river and under the notorway with a lot of traffic noise before weaving its way through Mino overlooking the sea.

There are several views of the sea and a lovely sandy beach but El Camino follows the river upstream...

...to another bridge built by Andrade the Good.

The route continues and passes the Ponte  de Porco, the Boars Bridge, another bridge built by Andrade the Good and called the Boars Bridge as the boar was the symbol of the House of Andrade. The guidebook advises that there is a carving of a boar on the parapit of the bridge and whilst I looked for it, I couldn't discern any boar but then again, the bridge had been rebuilt for modern traffic and perhaps I was just looking in the wrong place. 

After another hill and more forest, the route crosses an agricultural area with fields of crops, pastures, cattle and horses grazing before descending back to sea level and the bridge over Rio Mandeo into Betanzos. 

I walked through the old town to the main plaza, which an hour earlier had been crowded but after lunch in a local restaurant, the place seemed to be empty as it was time for siesta...

...a stack of motorbikes, gathered together for a meeting of enthusiasts with some archetecturally interesting buildings behind the bikes...

...and some childrens fair ground rides set up in the plaza but again empty as it was siesta.