Roman Baths & Bridges

It was a tough start to our day in Ourense. Foolishly I had two cafe con leches around 8 pm plus when Kerin, Elaine, Joan and I got around to going out for dinner around 9:30, we ending up in a noisy bar with a equally noisy group of Spaniards, watching a Barcelona vs. Real Madrid football game, and before we knew it, it was 11:30 and all I'd had to eat was an agua con gaz and Joan a cerveza. That plus when we got back to La Rotonda, our hostel in town, it too was noisy until around 2 am. Bottom line = only 3 hrs sleep!

So this morning, we felt crappy. An egg & mushroom bocadilla plus some orange juice and around 10 am off we went to explore the old town of Ourense. The Minho river divides the town, crossed by a huge stone bridge, built by the Romans around 2,000 years ago. Just downstream is a sparkling new modernistic wonder, all curves and "wow - look at that" comment producing. Wonder which one will still be standing in 3017?

We walked about a mile into the center, searching for the hot springs that made this area famous. We found Burgas, an old Roman Bath, tucked under an overpass, quietly still pouring out steaming hot water. The baths were closed on Monday but local folks were still stopping by to fill up thermos flasks or wash their faces. I dabbed steaming hot somewhat mineral smelling water on my tired eyes and Joan washed her aching knees. Thankfully, my eyes did feel much better; the jury is still out on Joan's knees.

We wandered through back alleys towards the cathedral and attendant minor churches, finally stopping at a huge church built in 1730. Inside was darkly lite and quite busy with confessions and a service about to start. It brought out my "inner Catholic"; Joan of course knew exactly what was going on, a gift from 9 years of St
St. Charles parochial school in Woburn.

Then we got lost! We wandered down a busy pedestrian-its street that we thought ran parallel to the street we took into town. Wrong!  When we reached the bottom of the street at the river, it was nowhere near our Roman bridge. After Joan took a detour through a parking garage looking for some sign of our Roman bridge - ah ha! - there it was, about a mile downstream. The lesson from all this?
1. Use your map!
2 Don't take what appears to be the easy way without checking that it goes where you assume it goes
3. Remember Rule #1

Tomorrow we - Elaine, Joan & I - head up to Cea. It's 20 km and the forecast is for 75 degrees and cloudy/sunny. Our packs weight in at around 13 pounds but adding water and food bring us to 15 pounds.