Bruno went to bed around 12:45 AM, but I still can't get him out of bed early in the morning. I get him some coffee, and he eats the last sandwich with chorizo that I bought yesterday from a traveling baker. This baker stopped and honked in front of the houses on a street, prompting people to come out and buy bread. I was glad I could still get something on a Sunday. The sandwich is baked around a thick piece of chorizo, which soaks into the bread with the greasy tomato sauce from the sausage. But it’s delicious! Around 10:30 AM, we can finally leave Casa Goas, a pleasant place with lovely, helpful people. We're not in a rush, as we have only 50 km ahead of us. The road goes up and down, but there are no steep slopes, except at the beginning where we have a steep 5 km uphill. With fresh legs, that's always easier.
Surroundings of Abadin: a Romanesque church and the pinacles of the cemetry
Nearby, there's a beautiful Romanesque church that I photograph, as well as the pinnacles on the graves, which are even more beautiful than those we saw yesterday in Abadín.
After about 30 km, we reach Villalba, probably derived from the Latin 'Villa' (building or part of a city) and 'alba' (white). We enter the town because Bruno wants to see the Parador. Paradors are expensive hotels, usually located in old buildings (castles, monasteries, towers, etc.), with the aim of making restored cultural heritage profitable and thus stimulating the economy and tourism. We immediately meet an older, small man named Pepe, who will show us the Parador and the church. We set off with him as he explains. First, about the Parador, which is housed in an old medieval keep, a heavy defensive tower, the Torre de Andrade, part of the medieval fortress that has now been converted into a hotel with six rooms to relive the Middle Ages. A building next to it, made of old local stones, is also part of the Parador, with another 25 rooms.
Villalba: The town, Pepe and Bruno and the Parador
This hotel is in the middle of the small town, right near the Santa Maria Church, where Pepe takes us. It is a neoclassical church from the 19th century, dedicated to Mary. Pepe emphasizes that they just celebrated their great local saint, Santo Ramón, on August 31st. He explains that Ramón is the patron saint of 'mujeres embarazadas,' a somewhat peculiar Spanish term to refer to pregnant women. He is invoked because he was born when his mother died during childbirth, and he survived. He is depicted with a palm in one hand and in the other a monstrance with a host in it. Next to the church stands a beautiful modern statue of a man with his pregnant wife, referring to Saint Ramón. Pepe speaks to the priest, and we immediately get a stamp in our pilgrim's passport. We gratefully say goodbye to Pepe, and before leaving the town, we quickly grab another coffee.
Vilalba: the church of Saint Ramón. The statue of a pregnant woman and the interior of the church
The landscape becomes more monotonous, with more forests and fewer steep hills. After about 15 km, we reach Baamonde. Along the way, we see another beautiful Romanesque church from the 12th century, parts of which date back to the 9th century. The church stands a bit higher, and to its left are three beautiful Galician crosses. To its right stands a very large chestnut tree, loaded with fruits. Around it, there's first an iron fence and then a rope enclosure. Bruno is fascinated by the protection of this old tree, and as a researcher, he investigates further. He discovers that the trunk of this gigantic tree is hollow and that an iron door has been installed in it, with an image of Our Lady of the Rosary behind it.
Baamonde: the church; the 700-year-old oak and the sculpture of our Lady of the Rosary
On various branches and knotted parts, heads are carved, such as that of Santiago, an old man, even an angel, and surprisingly, a small cheetah. Bruno begins to search everything on his phone and examines the tree more thoroughly. He discovers that the tree is 700 years old and that around 1970, there were plans to cut down this old tree because it could fall onto the roadway. To save the tree, a local sculptor, Victor Corral, decided to carve various artworks into the wood of the tree, including an image of Our Lady of the Rosary, the patroness of Baamonde. When the road services wanted to cut down the tree a few weeks later, the people were outraged. They would not allow their patroness to be chopped down. So the tree remained and has since received a lot, even more, attention. Thanks to this artist, this centuries-old tree was saved, and it still blooms every year, producing many chestnuts. Other flowers also grow around the tree.
Baamonde: a sculpture of Christ in the oak and the door of the church
Suddenly, Bruno remembered that we still hadn't planted the flower bulbs that Mieke, the godmother of Rientje, had given us, and he suggested planting them here. We hope they will also add more color to this old tree. Every year, I look for a suitable place to plant some flower bulbs in memory of our Rientje and Bert, the son of Ignace and Annie, who unfortunately also passed away a few months after Rientje. He was a specialist in human rights, and trees also have to do with human rights, in the sense that people have the right to nature. Moreover, it was a mythical place, and there was also a cheetah carved into the tree, Rientje’s favorite animal. We decided to indeed plant the bulbs there, in memory of Rientje, but also of Bert and his sister Katleen, who passed away a year and a half after her brother. There are no words to describe the pain Annie and Ignace have endured over the past two years from the loss of their two children. The loss of our Rientje still hurts every day; the pain and sorrow of losing your two only children are indescribable and unbearable. There are no words that can ease the pain and sorrow.
Yves and Bruno plant the flower bulbs near the statue of the cheetah
After the bulbs were planted, Bruno and I had our lunch there: Spanish Ibérico ham and sheep cheese. We stayed there for a while next to the large tree, which provides shelter and shade and has meant so much to many people for 700 years. The artist has a museum in his nearby house, but we couldn’t visit it. So, we continued on to our final destination, 7 km further, at the edge of the Regional Nature Park of Parga, near the village of the same name.
Baamonde: surroundings of the oak tree
The beautiful gîte where we are renting a room is on a hill overlooking the nature park: a beautiful and peaceful environment. After a short rest in bed, I decided to explore the surroundings: nearby are the small remains of a medieval castle and another Romanesque church (with a Baroque tower on top). On the ridge of the choir roof sits a stone Agnus Dei, a lamb with a cross in its paw as a symbol of Christ the Redeemer, which is also a sculpture by Victor Corral, who saved the old tree. Several more of his sculptures are in the wall around the cemetery. Soon, we will have dinner with all the guests staying here. I don’t really like that, but there’s nothing else nearby, only nature. Tomorrow is our last ride of 75 km to Santiago de Compostela, and the day after tomorrow, Bruno will already fly back to Oxford. I will continue cycling to Muxía and Fisterra and hope to fly home on Saturday. After nearly 40 days, I will finally be home again with Magda, the children, and the grandchildren... I am really looking forward to it.
Parga: the gîte. Having dinner together with the other guests. The surroundings of Parda
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