Wednesday May 8, 2024
- Starting Point: Santiago de Compestela
- Ending Point: Ourense, Spain
- Distance: 110 km (by train) + 11 km (by foot)
When I arrived at the cathedral in Santiago de Compestela yesterday, I barely stopped long enough to take a photo. There were far too many people milling about, and the whole scene made me feel anxious and claustrophobic.
One of the challenges of a multi-day (or multi-week) walk is the sudden transition from the countryside and quiet of your thoughts to the hustle and bustle of a popular tourist location.
I struggled mightily with these overwhelmed feelings when I arrived at the end of my first Camino back in 2018. And that’s probably why I immediately transitioned to the Camino Finisterre afterward. I needed the solitude to process my thoughts about the end of my journey.
This time around, I was more prepared. I ditched yesterday’s mid-day chaos for a quiet lunch spot and my albergue. And then I returned to the cathedral before sunrise this morning when there was nary a soul around.
You don’t really see the sunrise in the city because everything is built up 3-4 stories tall and sits close together. But I knew the plaza in front of the cathedral was likely to be empty at this hour, and I wasn’t disappointed. There were perhaps two other people there, and I got great photos without the mass of pilgrims and tourists that would undoubtedly fill the space in the next few hours.
After reflecting on my walk to Santiago in the empty plaza, I went to visit the cathedral to walk around the familiar space.
Fewer than a dozen people were sitting in pews enjoying the quiet morning, and it’s exactly the way I love to experience Santiago. Some pilgrims feel the fullest while in the company of others on a similar journey. They get that bond from a shared hardship. But I crave solitude when I arrive in Santiago, because I view my Caminos as a deeply introspective experience.
A thermal pool micro-adventure
After a small breakfast, I returned to the albergue to pack up my things before heading to the train station to grab one of the morning’s trains departing Santiago.
Finishing the Camino in 8 days’ time, rather than the 9 days I’d originally allotted, meant I had one full day before I needed to be in Salamanca to meet my best friend, Sean, and his wife.
With this extra day now staring me in the face, I had several options. I could take a bus out to the coast to see Fisterra or Muxia. I could relax in Santiago for an extra day. Or I was completely free to head anywhere else in Spain (though preferably in the general direction of Salamanca).
And that’s how I decided upon a day trip to the town of Ourense, Spain. I didn’t have any compelling reason for my visit there. Ourense was just a new place to see.
During both of my prior Camino treks, I’d ridden the high-speed train from Santiago to Madrid before flying home. And one of the handful of stops this train makes is in Ourense.
On my first train ride through Ourense, I had no clue which county the town was even in. The name looked French to my eyes, but I knew that couldn’t be correct. Yet I wasn’t 100% clear whether I was in Spain or Portugal (spoiler: it’s in Spain).
So now I was curious to see why the train stopped there. What was the deal with Ourense??
After a bit of research, I learned Oursense was right on the Minho (Miño) River – the same river I’d taken a water taxi across several days ago when I crossed from Portugal into Spain. Its unique location – near faults and fissures in the ground – means that rainwater seeps down into the earth to be warmed by lower levels near its core before bubbling back to the surface. This warm water is captured in a number of thermal pools, many of which are free to the public.
This geothermal phenomenon piqued my curiosity about Ourense. It seemed like a town worth a short sight-seeing detour. I might even get to soak my tired feet in so curative thermal waters!
Forty minutes later after leaving Santiago, I disembarked in this lovely town and set off down the riverside path to visit my first set of thermal pools – Chavasqueira. The private thermal pools at Chavasqueira were temporarily closed because of damage after the river flooded. But there were some free pools open down near the edge of the river to explore.
Sadly, these pools weren’t warm. There was a trickle of thermal water coming out of a pipe above the pools, but the standing water in the man-made pools was actually quite cold because they were filled with river water. This was not what I was expecting.
The only reason anyone was there today, it seemed, was to take advantage of the grassy spot beside the river to do a little topless sunbathing. And yes, the maxim still hold true… the majority of people sunbathing topless or nude are generally the ones you least want to see naked. And so, I continued walking west…
Next up was the blue metal hand pump at Tintiero, where I could rinse my hands in the sulfur-smelling water. Locals will often bring buckets to the pump and fill them up to take the curative water back home for a soak. This was interesting, but not exactly what I was looking for either. So I continued walking west.
The third place I passed was called Muiño de Viega. These thermal pools were the best ones yet, and even one person was using them. I dipped my hand into the water, and it felt luxuriously warm. Just like a hot tub! But I decided against submerging myself in these spas because the bottom of each stone pool was covered in algae, and I worried I might slip and fall.
My fourth, and final stop was at the thermal pools at Termas de Outariz. This was a private Japanese-themed set of pools. They were much cleaner and totally worth the €6.50 admission for a 2-hour visit. There was only one catch. The place had some rules:
- First, there was no photography of the pools (for privacy reasons). And I needed to leave a deposit for use of the lockers. No biggie there.
- Next, there was a requirement that patrons wear sandals or flip-flops between the pools to avoid falling. I was good there too. My town shoes were a pair of rubber sandals.
- Finally, there was no nude soaking. Patrons were required to wear clothing (i.e., swimsuits). That rule was fine with me. I didn’t want to soak nude with a bunch of strangers. But I didn’t exactly have a swimsuit with me on the Camino…
What I did have was a sports bra and a black pair of bikini underwear. These items covered as much skin as a two-piece swimsuit. And both my top and bottom were opaque enough so that people wouldn’t see though the clothing – even when it was wet. Nonetheless, I was careful to wrap my quick dry towel around my waist while walking between each pool (thank goodness I upgraded to a full-size towel for this Camino)!
I spent more than 90 minutes soaking in the warm pools, submerging my legs in the icy cold pool, and lying in the sun on this 70-degree Spanish day. What a nice reward to soak in the thermal waters of Ourense at the end of this fast-paced Camino.
Oursense
When I was done soaking and had some lunch, I made my way back to Ourense to meet up with the owner of the apartment I’d booked for the evening. This meant another 2-kilometer walk back along the river to the bridges that would take me downtown.
Several bridges went into the town itself on the opposite side of the water. There was a Roman bridge built of stone, and some more modern concrete arch and steel bridges. But the one that really stood out was the Ponte do Milenio (Millennium Bridge).
The Ponte do Milenio had these swooping white curves above and below the bridge decking. It was something that looked right out of an art gallery. And the wild part is how these pedestrian staircases were going up and down the bridge’s decorative curves!
After admiring the bridge for a while, I met up with my host for the evening. It turns out he was also the architect who designed the building I was staying in tonight. When the place was first built, he purchased two of the apartments for his adult sons. However, neither of them was currently living in Ourense right now (one was at university and the other got a job elsewhere in Galicia). So, he’s temporarily renting the apartments out on Booking.com.
As he showed me around the space, I was very impressed. The apartment was very thoughtfully laid out and there was even a large outdoor terrace to lounge on. Plus, my hosts left me a bottle of wine in the fridge to welcome me!
An apartment with a fully-appointed kitchen also meant I could cook dinner for myself instead of going out and eating solo. I made a quick trip out to the grocery and picked up all the fixings for a pasta dinner with fresh broccoli, tomatoes, and mozzarella!
And even though my Camino is now complete, I kept with my tradition of trying something new. This time, it was a bottle of Galician tinto vino.
