Day #13: Gonzar

Above is a picture of Last night's private hostel. This room gives a whole new meaning to 'rustic'. It smelled funny, too.  I've decided there are two kinds of hostels/Casas/hotels. Those that you sleep in the sheets and those that you sleep on top of the bedspread in your sleeping bag. Sam lets me decide based on my bed bug radar. Last night was definitely a sleep in our sleeping bags night. Sam found a rock in his backpack that had fallen out of the wall at night. Ha ha  

View from hostel lawn. 

Stairway into the village from the Camino. 

You have to want that cup of tea pretty badly to climb to the village. We did. 

Guess what this building is? (Please submit your answer in the form of a question )   We saw these buildings on every farm we passed and could not figure out what it is. 

Day #12. Happy Mother's Day

Another beautiful day to walk the countryside. 

We stopped to have lunch and then the cow parade started. Cows don't seem very bright. The farmer had to stand by us to keep the cows from trampling over us. Geez, dumb cows. Now I understand the saying "wait til the cows come home". If the farmer isn't yelling at them and hitting them with a stick they would end up in Portugal. 

A nice welcoming hammock at the hostel overlooking the valley. 

We are out in the country with a poor internet connection so I'm keeping this short. 

We walked 10 miles today to get to Mecadoiro. It's a small hostel with a dormitory and 2 private rooms WITH a bathroom---fancy!  They had our reservation so we got a private room. The place is empty. It is so much less crowded now than last September. Much better!

We have 8.3 miles to trek tomorrow...piece of flan. 

Thanks for following our blog. We hope you enjoyed Mother's Day. 

Adios. 

Day #11: Rest day in Sarria

King Crabby-Pants  

Aka King Alfonzo reigning over this area

Streets are very clean and quiet here

Here is the only remaining Tower from the Castle of Sarria. The original castle was pillaged in the civil war during a peasant rebellion against the aristocracy in the 15th century.  Maybe that's why King Alfonzo looks so cranky?

There is a huge cemetery and masoleum that dates back to the 1800 from what I could read from the tombstones. 

We will have dinner in one of these outside cafés. Another gorgeous day!

Tomorrow is the end of rest day. We walk 10.4 miles to our next stop in Mercadoiro. We are staying in a private albuque (hostel). It has 30 beds and We reserved a private room & bath 3 weeks ago but there was a bit of a language barrier today when I called to confirm the room, so we may end up in the dormitory. I wish I paid more attention in my high school Spanish class. 

Adios. 

Day #11. A Dog With A Blog

Is anybody wondering how Bailey Bo is doing without us?  Bailey is at Camp Anderson again ( my friends next door in Gladwin ). 

But the Anderson family grew by 4 feet this spring!  They adopted Little Cooper at 8 weeks old and he is too adorable for words. 

So now Bailey gets to play momma with her new best friend on the lake. Cooper is a bundle of energy!  It's hysterical to watch them play together, but eventually everyone needs a nap time. 

So thanks to Ty, Cindy, Lacey and Jake for taking good care of my little lake girl. It's going to be hard getting bailey to stay in my neck of the woods when I get home. (Camp Anderson has a lot less rules than Camp Bridle.)

Day #10. Sarria

We walked 9.1 miles today to reach the large city of Sarria (pop. 13,000). It was an easier walk and just took us 4.5 hours.  We are both feeling really good. 

We have been meeting people along the way and chatting over meals and breaks.  It's been fun and interesting.  I've been concentrating on the sites rather than the people for the last couple days.  But now I'll talk about Camino Relationships. 

We met a Brit, Nick, traveling with a his new Camino friend, Heather ( Canadian ). Both are married but their spouses are back home because they didn't want to walk it. It's very common to meet single pilgrims who have matched up for a few days or longer with another single pilgrim to make the journey more fun. It's a totally innocent relationship and bonds definitely forms and they become a couple or a team.  So we met up with them for 2 days but now we have lost them because they were walking 15-18 miles a day and we max out at 11 miles a day. 

In a similar situation, we met 3 Germans (2 men & woman)that had just met as strangers and now called themselves "a Camino family ". They had been together for 2 weeks and plan to arrive in Santiago together. We lost them after we all stayed together one night. 

We walked with Julie for a day. She is from Australia and owns her own tour guide company and is leading a small group of women to Santiago. She hires a 'slag wagon' that follows her group so if anybody wants to ride because they are tired they can jump in the van. Her "pilgrims" have huge suitcases and stay in fancy boutique hotels along the Camino. (We have no idea where these hotels exist). They will arrive in Santiago well rested for sure. 

Yesterday, we met Sharon from California who is celebrating turning 70 years old by walking the entire 480 miles of the Camino in one trip!  OMG. She looks terrific!  She was very inspirational to chat with on road, but we lost her for now. She's probable walking faster than my pace !

During the tour of the Abby, we met a physician and his wife originally from Portugal, lived in Spain and has now retired in Puerto Rico. He was our translator during the tour. It's his 5th time traveling the Camino  but now he says he's too old to walk so he drives The Way. He was fun and very knowledgable.  He was in his 70s. 

Its not the sites but the insights that are the most important part of the journey. (I wish I had thought of that but I read it in the guidebook). 

Tomorrow is our first rest day after walking for 7 days straight and 61 miles. We have 71 miles to go. We will stay in this hotel for 2 nights and rest up for walking again on Mother's Day. 

Have a great weekend!

Continued: Tour of the Abby of San Julian of Samos

The Abby was started in 755 but ruined in the Muslim invasion. It was restored in 922 and became the center for the cloistered Benedictine monks and nuns. It is one of the largest Abby or monestaries in the western world. 

This is from the Camino looking down on the Abby. 

Guess how many people live in this Abby now?

13 monks and 3 nuns!  I think they each get their own floor. 

Here is the tour guide/monk guide. He was a happy, friendly guy. I named him Friar Tuck.  He's pointing to the classic Gothic style of the ceiling. (We think he said Gothic but it was all in Spanish so who the hell knows). 

He also precided over the pilgrim mass that we attended tonight. It's always impressive to attend the pilgrim service with people from all around the world. Usually the priests speaks in several languages to give the dismissal blessing to the pilgrims. It's quite touching. But tonight he only spoke Spanish. (These monks probably don't get out much.)

This is the courtyard. We've decided that Spaniards do not like to mow the grass. You always see finely trimmed hedges but the grass is up to your knees and weedy. It's probably why we never see Spanish landscape companies in the USA...they have all been replaced by Mexicans. 

Tomorrow we leave Samos and head to Sarria--9 miles down the Way. We've walked 52 miles in 6 days. We have 80 miles until we reach Santiago. 

Thanks again for following our journey!  

Day #8. Whew! What a long day!

Comprende?

These signs were all over this one little village!  We've never seen them before. How rude!  Pilgrims are not dogs!

Another warm sunny day with beautiful scenery. 

We left the mountains today and trekked down 2000 feet elevation. We walked 10.6 miles in 6 hours.  We liked the silhouette of this old church in the beautiful blue sky. 

We followed the river most of the day