Monday 10/2: Leaving Palas de Rei headed to Melide, we now begin to have shorter trips (16km) as we had originally planned to walk the next phase to Santiago and we have decided to cycle the rest of the way. The path to Melide is pretty straightforward: we are at 565 meters of elevation and will descend to 455 meters in Melide, we just have to go across 4 peaks and valleys in between here and there. Once again, the analogy with life is evident.
As opposed to other days where we felt pressured to cover a lot of ground and make good use of time, we agree to meander a bit.
We stop at Igrexia San Xulian: the Portuguese influence in the Galician dialect is evident in the use of “X” in spelling words with “s” or “j”.
We also see the first of many Galician “granaries” (the elevated structures with barrel tile roofs).
While the sun is shining and the weather is crisp, the dampness in the air has left a lingering haze over the valley.
And then we see the city of Melide. Unlike what we encounter in South Florida where (a) we don’t have natural hills that elevate your viewpoint and (b) when you do find some altitude like the top of the Rickenbacker Causeway bridge, the 360 degree view is of Biscayne Bay and city skyline – it truly is something else to come out of the woods on a mountaintop, be surrounded by rural farms and then see a city in the distance.
I know that there are implications for higher density in small cities, just as there is for sprawl that spreads the housing and the services that follow rooftops. Looking at how northern Spain has been balancing these forces while providing economic opportunities for Spaniards while maintaining its rural communities has been fascinating.