A run for our money!

I debated whether or not to bring my running gear to Pontevedra. In the end I did. Correct decision. This is a runner-friendly place. I get up in the morning, turn right out of the hotel, left down to the river and then along the river path, past the "singing" bridge, the one with all the cables that vibrate in the wind, and along to the pedestrian bridge. There I cross the river and run back along the other side, dodging sprinklers as I go. 

Along the way, I cross paths with numerous runners. It's quite unusual around O Monte de San Juan, in Vigo, to see any other runners at all. Here you see loads. And the place is geared for it. As you come back across the singing bridge there is a track for cyclists and another for runners. There is also an unlabelled track for all other footsloggers. Very organised! 

I intend to extend my run a little but this morning was not the occasion to do so. I needed to be sure that we were around in time to go down to the bus station with our friends Steve and Jackie. When they arrived last week they bought return tickets from Oporto to Vigo, thus restricting themselves to the 12.00 bus from Vigo. Now, according to the Autna website, there should have been a bus at 11.30 from Pontevedra. We just wanted to ensure that they got tickets from here to Vigo without problems and would be able to continue then with their Vigo to Oporto tickets. That should have been straightforward!! Well, you would think so!! 

When we got to the bus station, at about 11.10, we looked at the departures board: no bus to Oporto. On enquiring, we discovered that there was indeed no such bus. The Autna website lied!!! Last year there were definitely buses from here because I caught on. I did, however, have immense difficulty buying a ticket for said bus. Anyway, today we went into overdrive to find a solution. We asked at the alternative bus service, Alsa, who have a ticket office in the Pontevedra bus station. Yes, there was a bus. It left at 12.45. BUT, there was only one seat left on that bus!! How very annoying. After much running around finding out about trains and so on ( fortunately the train station is just across the road from the bus station) we decided the best option was a taxi to Vigo bus station. 

So, off they went in haste. And they caught the bus. The last we heard of them they were going through Tui. 

Later today I am off to Santiago with the boys from the chess camp. I wonder if it will rain. Santiago, after all, is reputed to be the rain capital of the region. It can be sunny on the coast and wet and drizzly in the saintly city. 

At breakfast time this morning I overheard one of the girls working in the bar commenting that it looked like rain. Her expression was, "Tiene pinta de querer llover, ¿no?" "Pinta" is one of the ways of saying face. You can say someone looks a bit ill by saying, "Tiene mala pinta", literally, "he has a bad face". Of course you can do the opposite and say someone looks well: "Tiene buena pinta". So the weather had a face that looked as though it wanted to rain. Lovely. 

However, the cloud has shifted now and the sun is out again. So all is well.