After finally sorting out the documents needed, and where to get them and then actually getting them, I walked past the Cathedral and down the Camino road about 11AM.  The day was cool, lightly overcast and about 68 degrees.  PERFECT.

The ‘Way’ is well marked and the first signs were within a half mile of the cathedral.  Additionally, the route has been marked on the ground and walls with yellow arrows.  No worries about getting offtrack for very long.

I came across this mill pond and wide spillway. The mill houses still are in great condition. I thought the pond with its wide spillway was really photogenic.

I saw more than a dozen people on the way to Negreira.  When I did the Camino Ingles in 2012, I only saw 5 other people on the trail in the 5 days.  While there were occasional footprints of others ahead of me, I figured there were less than 10 in total.  This route is going to be significantly more social than the Camino Ingles was in 2012.

Most people have grape vines on their property, not only for cover, but for hedges.  Mostly the vines grow up to horizontal trellis’ that are high enough to walk under.  So the grapes are about 7 ft off the ground.  But I saw lots of hedges like this also.

The grapes are beautiful red and ready for harvesting.  Click on the photo – it will enlarge – and you can see all the luscious grapes ready for harvest.

Towards the end of the day I saw a man harvesting his grapes under a trellis in his backyard.  After a quick greeting to him, he jumped down off the bench he had been standing on to reach the grapes, grabbed a bunch of freshly harvested grapes and passed them to me through the fence. He was quite animated and from what I could understand he was telling me his grapes were natural, no chemicals used and were the ‘Best’. The grapes were sweet, but not overpowering so, with a quick light sour tartness and full of juice. Absolutely delicious.

Getting into Negreira I checked into the Millan Hotel – 35 Euros for a large room with full bath.  Dinner was 10 Euros, with the normal two courses, dessert, wine (unending), water and bread.   Nice conversation with other people on the Camino, especially Erin for Austin, Tx.  Nice end to the first day.

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