Pontevedra by day… 
Same again by night
The walk from Arcade to Pontevedra was very relaxed and very enjoyable. We headed out after breakfast from our separate accommodation and met on the way and headed out of town and almost immediately we were walking on bush paths and alongside rivers. Although only a short walk of about 17km it was very enjoyable, not because of its length but because we were walking on bush trails alongside rivers almost the whole way.
We arrived at Pontevedra in pretty quick time and settled into our accommodation fairly quickly – Melinda becoming particularly excited as not only is Pontevedra a lovely city, being the second largest in Galicia, it has shops – and many of them! This immediately signaled a shopping afternoon which was only thwarted by “siesta”.
Pontevedra is located on an inlet opening to the sea and because of its fantastic location it was renowned in its time for the construction of wooden sailing ships. One of the most famous ships constructed in Pontevedra was Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria.
Having arrived relatively early in comparison to other days, we had a wander around the old town and discovered alleys and lanes built into what would have been the old town’s fortifications. Not much of the original fortifying wall remains, but what does is highlighted at the point where the new museum is located. The churches and public buildings, including the Monastery of San Francisco are amazingly well preserved. The city has won many awards since it made it’s old town car free – so many people, particularly after siesta, are out walking and enjoying street after street of cafes, restaurants and to David’s delight, craft beer taverns.
We visited one of the craft beer establishments and while David partook of beers, we enjoyed the local white wine. Dinner, on the recommendation of the tavern owner, was in a fantastic pulperia (restaurants that specialise in serving Octopus in Galicia) where we ordered tapas style seafood and finished off the meal with a tortilla. We wandered back to our accomodation with a light Galician drizzle settling in – one of the locals jokingly saying “welcome to Galicia in summer”. Pontevedra is again, one of those towns that we had never heard of, but would visit again. A great town and a great night.