A Nice Day for a Walk

Tuesday, November 10 – Day 60

I actually slept pretty well last night. The bed was hard, but the pillow was perfect, and there were extra pillows and I slept with one under my arm. I can’t wait to have Andy back!

The guy in the next room got up and left by 7:15, but I didn’t leave till 8:15. There had been a sign on a door that said, “breakfast here,” so I was hoping that there would be some sort of breakfast if I waited till 8. Nope.

I probably should have stopped at the place I had dinner last night to have breakfast, but I didn’t.

It was another beautiful, misty morning, and a bit chilly. The problem is when there’s sun, I get very hot in my coat, but if there’s no sun, then it’s too cold without the coat. With the mountains and the trees and the winding paths, I kept putting my coat on and taking it off.

I passed through a lot of little villages. I also passed the 100k mark! I think this sign is fairly accurate. I have to remember to get more than one stamp every day.

As I was walking along, I saw Aldo! I didn’t think I would catch him. He took a 3rd route out of Villafranca, which I didn’t know about. It was through the mountains on the other side of the valley, and it was so long, he spent the night camping on the mountain! It sounds like a super awesome adventure. I’m glad I didn’t know about it, though, because I would have wanted to do it, and it would have totally thrashed me. That, and the days after with all the mountains.

Shortly after leaving him, I found a bar to stop at to get breakfast. I got tortilla, oj, and a piece of Santiago cake. It was a very large brunch. Aldo caught up with me again, and he had some toast with some raspberry jam that he bought off a raspberry lady in one of the towns we passed through. I have no idea how I missed the raspberry lady! I would have bought raspberries!

There were a lot of pilgrims who stopped at that bar, and I didn’t recognize any of them.

Shortly after leaving the bar, I saw Monique and Hal again, and another girl they were walking with. Aldo caught up with us again. Apparently the 4 of them have been walking on and off together since the beginning.

They stopped to have a bit of lunch before Portomarin, and I kept going.

Portomarin looks like a lovely little place. The river was huge! There were a lot of ruins of things in the water that probably served some kind of purpose in the past. I don’t know what, though. Maybe it says in my bad guide book.

So the guidebook says the current town of Portomarin was built in the 1960s.  The old town was destroyed when they built a dam to make a lake, hence all of the ruins in the water.  They moved the church stone by stone and rebuilt it in the new town.  I didn’t see it, though.

Since I wasn’t staying in town, I just went around. Lots of hills!

Some of the scenery reminded me of some of the places in France. Kind of.

I got to Gonzar, but decided I felt pretty good and wanted to continue to Hospital da Cruz.

In the town before, I saw a little bar and decided to stop in for some orange juice. The woman didn’t speak any english, but she told me the bar in Hospital was closed, and I had been planning on staying there. The albergue in the town was open, but the bar is the only place to have food. I asked if she could call the next town to see if they were open, and she said her phone was a private phone and I would have to pay to use it. So very different from France! I asked if she could use my phone, and she said yes. So she called the next town and they told her the bar in Hospital was actually open. Yay! That was a relief, because I would have had to walk another 7k.

She was selling some felt brooches, and one of them was an octopus. It’s totally something I could make myself, and it was definitely not worth 6 E, but it was so cute, and lightweight, I had to get it anyway. Now I have a Galician Octopus. I will have to think of a name for him.

Today was a big day. Almost 32k, but it’s only 3 days to Santiago, and all of them are under 30k. Actually, looking at it closer, I might need to have a really big day right before Santiago. We’ll see. Tomorrow is short, though. Only 25k ish.

I got to Hospital and found the bar, but there was no one there. I waited, and waited, and eventually called the bar phone, but no one heard it ringing. I called a cell phone and said, “Estoy en bar, no persona aqui.” Lol. They came. It’s only 22 E for a room, which is nice.

They took my passport and said I could have it back at dinner, which I find a bit odd. I don’t know why they need it for that long. I’m going to make sure it’s the same one when I get it back!

Dinner was soup, steak, and ice cream.