Food

Well, what time is lunch? The answer is that it is entirely up to you. The Germans all seemed to get up at 5am and set off in total darkness so as to arrive before the day became too hot. Absolutely fine, but totally missing the pleasure of actually seeing where you are going which for me at least is a rather fundamental point of the exercise! They arrived at their destination in time for a sensible lunch and had the rest of the day to relax.

Others, such as myself, set off at daybreak and stopped for refreshment at frequent intervals, arriving in time for a late lunch, even by Spanish standards and a siesta before an early dinner and bed before eleven. I found that a couple of hours walk before breakfast was just about right and found several others doing just the same. A Spanish couple had fried chorizo and eggs with a couple of decent glasses of red wine for breakfast, my preference (as with many Spanish labourers) is Cafe con leche with brandy, but then it is a free world!

Lunch could be a bocadillo (loaf of bread filled with whatever your choice-supposedly a "sandwich") with beer or you could go for the "menu del dia", usually special pilgrim set menu, but anyway absurdly cheap at around €8 for three courses including entire bottle of wine; same for dinner if you are still hungry.

Also available at reasonable intervals, less so in Galicia for some inexplicable reason, are public drinking fountains (Fuentes) as well as occasional "honesty box" for cold drinks, fruit or whatever put out by the locals.