Day #14. Walking, walking, walking...

A 17th century cross

It's unusual to see the skull and crossbones at the base of a cross.

We don't see as many memorials along this part of the Camino. We saw a lot of them around the Pyrenee mountains. Many times pictures of the deceased in their hiking clothes and prayer cards are left on the crosses. 

Today was mostly cloudy, windy and cool. We walked 9.8 miles today to reach a larger town called Palas De Rei with a population of 2000 peeps. We are at a modern hotel tonight. 

 The scenery was pleasant today but not many of the pictures were blog-worthy.  

We are going to wash out a few delicates in the sink, rest and find a place for dinner. 

Hasta luego!

Day#13. Is this candid camera? No way can our hotel be here!

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A picture of The good side of town.  I was too shocked to pull out my camera in the entrance of town. If it were high noon, a gunfight would be commencing. 

Have you ever walked into a town that you have a reservation for a room there and your first words out of your mouth are, "man, this town is a dump!"  It looks like a ghetto of a farm town. This is Harlem Hayloft. Let's leave...quickly and quietly, so as to not disturb the rats siesta. The curb appeal would have frightened away Hos & Little Joe Cartwright. 

Well Sam said this is the place, partner!  The famous 'give it a chance' brib was discussed. The next hotel was 1.5 miles down the road, hoofing it all the way. And my dogs were barking. 

Ok. But don't lay down any cash until I see the room.  Well?  It turned out very nice and clean inside. We had a nice room with shared bath. The people we very friendly. They offered dinner and I had grilled salmon that was excellent. I tried the local cheese and sausage plate and that was excellent, too. Sam had steak that he said was good.  

Statue pointing the way to Santiago. 

This is a colonnade of shops in one of cities we stopped in door a rest. 

A friendly señor Eduardo greats people on the trail 

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!