The Camino is (Not) Open

Back on March 14, we stayed in a lovely little hotel on the Plaza Mayor in Villafranca de Bierzo. The owners were so kind and friendly with us, like just about all the Spanish people we meet. The wife cheerfully told us “The Camino opens on March 15.” (In other words, the next day.) I’m not exactly sure what she meant, but we assumed she meant all the hotels, restaurants, bars, would be open ready to welcome pilgrims. And we certainly had started to see more pilgrims by then.

Unfortunately, either she was misguided or we misunderstood what she meant because we are still finding more places closed than open. We had hoped to stay in Vilei tomorrow night but the only place to stay there was closed (well the only place whose reviews did not mention bedbugs repeatedly). So, we decided to stay in Ferreiros. Again, closed. So we have decided to taxi a little further and stay in Portomarin tomorrow night. Luckily we did find a place to stay there, but the first place we called was… closed.

Also, on our walk yesterday, we walked the entire 6. 5 miles without a break because the one bar we came to was closed. Normally we could have probably sat down somewhere to rest our sore feet (still sore from the previous total downhill day) but it was a drizzly day and no dry place to sit. We need to start carrying plastic to sit on! Luckily yesterday was a delightful gorgeous walk through a lush valley along a river through the quaintest villages you’ve ever seen. So… those memories are probably what I’ll remember more than how much up and down there was and how much my feet hurt.

We took an alternate route from Triacastela, walking to Samos which has a famous monastery which dates to the 6th century. It’s quite large and was impressive. We had hoped to take a 4:30 tour of it but my feet had given out by then. If they’d had a later tour, I think I could have done it. Samos is a delightful town and we were so happy we had decided to stay there.

We are taking a break today. The walk from Samos to Sarria would have been 9 miles with no place to stop for food or coffee or rest and I have a very sore and tender big toe. It’s been hurting since the beginning of the trip, but the downhill the past two days just about did it in. We are hoping that it will recover a bit after a day of no walking. Sarria is a larger town than some (population 13,000). A good place to do our laundry at a self-service laundry and recharge our vodafone SIM cards.