Camino de Santiago – Day Five (La Bodeguilla de San Lázaro)

As we reached the suburbs of our destination of Santiago de Compostela we decided to have a leisurely lunch stop. There were numerous reasons for this, primarily because we were hungry, but I think Sarah needed to calm down after her incident involving a man and a dog.

The decision was that we’d sit in the cold outside rather than be comfortable inside, so we sat on the terrace area. The restaurant seemed moderately busy and was well reviewed, so all boded well. It’s well-sited as it’s on the Camino route, so there was a mix of walkers and locals.

A selection of tapas was brought out to our group, or at least, olives and peanuts and these were very acceptable.

Estrella Galicia, which tastes like flavoured water to me, lacking any depth of flavour, substance or interest, but it was refreshingly cool.

I think there was a little mix-up with the bread, as half the group got some and half didn’t. Susanna and Jim seemed to have a bakery deposited on their table, whereas Bev and I got a slightly less generous allocation of bread. Looking back, we were perhaps meant to share with the others on their two tables. But, they probably didn’t need any bread, so win-win.

I opted for the cod salad, which was colourful and looked well presented. The cod was at a mildly irritating (we can call it low level irritation to quote Susanna) tepid temperature so was neither hot nor cold, but it had a decent flavour and a saltiness to it. The tomatoes were of the usual Spanish high standard and the olives added some texture, although there was quite a lot of lettuce. But, it was a light and appetising lunch.

It’d be wrong not to mention Bev’s lunch here and she ordered scrambled eggs with spinach. Although she forgot to read the next line which added “with imitation elvers and shrimps”. I think it’s fair to say that the imitation elvers, which looked like a cross between sinews and worms, didn’t really appeal to her. Called gulas locally, they’re meant to have the texture and flavour of baby eels (or elvers).

There was another disturbance to our lunch, which was a man who put on a gorilla mask and waved at some of our group. I have no idea quite what he was trying to achieve, other than perhaps wanting to be at the centre of attention, but he pinched the restaurant’s bread basket and ran off, which is what we remembered him for and so he achieved that aim.

Price-wise, this was around €12 for the lunch and tap water, or rather, I mean the local beer. All very convivial, although the process of paying was inefficient and took too long, but otherwise the service was timely and pleasant. This was though the final meal for us whilst walking the Camino, with just forty minutes more walking before the pilgrimage was over.