Day 23: From O Cebreiro to Sarria. No room at the Inn...

Last night, we went over to the bar across the street to pay for our hotel room and have a glass of Albariño, the crisp white wine from Galicia that has been discovered by the rest of the world, including Napa Valley.  It was windy and cold and obvious that the morning was going to be foggy.  The bar assured us that they would be open at six the next morning for breakfast.

We were faced with the following choice: if it's going to be foggy, and you're on the top of a mountain, why would you want to brave it before having a cup of coffee?  Cooler minds prevailed.

Sure enough, at 6 AM it was pea soup outside and you could hear the condensing water droplets falling off the tree leaves like rain drops.  We had a cafe con leche at the hotel bar and headed out with headlamps on.  It was a new moon, and the fog was so thick that Tina switched her head lamp to the low beams because the higher setting was reflecting back too much.

Even still, as we walked slowly down the path through the forest, we passed a pilgrim in the dark with no lamp!

Our objective today was ambitious: to finish two days in the book.  First to walk 20 kilometers to the town of Triacastela and then to walk another 18 kilometers to the city of Sarria.  It sounded easy.  (Note, these distances didn't account for the amount of walking up and down hills we did.  Think about it.  You can be a mile away from something, but if you have to walk up a mountain and down the other side, you might walk two miles to get there.  We ended up walking over 41 kilometers again...)

The first thing we were able to positively identify was this famous statue of a pilgrim a little more than three kilometers out of town.  It was a good thing we had coffee before leaving, because the first town we walked through, Liñares, was totally asleep.

Pilgrim statue at the Alto de San Roque in the fog

We kept walking in the fog, first along a highway, then along gravel paths alongside, finally through the woods.  What we could see was gorgeous.  Galicia receives a lot of rain annually, and everything is covered with moss, lichens, and ferns.  This is not the arid Spain that my father talked about.

The sky lightened, allowing us to see our path

Eventually, the sun peeked through the clouds.

This is Celtic Spain.  Yesterday in O Cebreiro, there was a wedding and the traditional band they hired had bagpipers, gaiteros.  They also believe in witches and have a fun custom of mixing together all of the spirits in the house, setting them on fire, and drinking them.  It's called a quaimada.

This tree reminded me of why they believe in witches.

The ground here is really rocky, full of slate.  The houses in this part of Galicia are largely made of pieces of slate, piled on top of each other and held together by gravity.  Many old structures are falling down.

The towns we walked through were agricultural.  The paths we walked on were shared with many animals--you could tell by droppings on the ground.  Tina's best line of the day: "I'm becoming the doo doo expert."  At one point, in the late morning, outside Triacastela, we came face to face with a bunch of cattle as we walked on a path with a stone wall on each side.

At midday, we stopped in the town of Triacastela for a Coke and to plan the rest of our day.  Triacastela means "Three Castles", but none remain, so we'll have to take their word for it.

We decided to go another 18 kilometers to Sarria, the end of the next chapter in the guidebook.  Since it was already past noon, we decided to call albergues to reserve two beds.  I called at least seven, and they were all booked.  The towns in between were tiny, and not practical for the rest of our plan.  I called the one four star hotel in Sarria, and of course, they had a room.  (You couldn't book a Hampton Inn at home for this price, but when albergues are ten Euros a night or less, your perspective changes.)

This photo looks better than this fountain does, outside of Triacastela

I can't explain why I took this photo.

We didn't take a lot of pictures during the second part of the hike because the sun was out, it was getting hotter, and frankly, we were just on a mission to get to Sarria and take a shower in the expensive hotel room.

The old town in Sarria.  We'll be walking this street in the morning to follow the Camino out of town.

A Camino marker next to the main church

The church of Santa Mariña dominates the old town, and the old town is on high ground visible throughout Sarria

We got to Sarria at 4:30 PM.  Our day lasted over ten hours with only two breaks.  We showered, had a beer in a cafe along the river Sarria, and had a really nice dinner in our hotel.  Oh yeah, we made a reservation at an albergue for tomorrow night, so we don't get stuck like this again!

One final note about Sarria, and it's a big one.  To get a diploma for completing this walk, called a "Compostela", you have to walk at least 100 kilometers of the Camino.  Sarria is where most people start.  As we sat in that cafe, we watched all sorts of people pulling roller bags, carrying day packs and fanny packs, all sporting scallop shells that identified them as tomorrow's pilgrims.  They will pay a service to lug their bags from albergue to albergue for the next 100 kilometers as they stroll the Camino...

The guide book tells us to not get pissed off.  Now, you get an idea why we couldn't book a room here!  Also, when I walked the Portuguese Route four years ago, you couldn't use the internet to book your room.  Now it seems that everyone is using Booking.com.  I'm not sure that this is progress.

Tomorrow's plan is 37.5 kilometers.  Hopefully, they hold our room!  Tina will let you know how it works out.