Author: Charlie

Every time we leave a room Wynette asks me to check under the beds (because I have more flexible knees). I do it and I never find anything, except in a private room we had in an albergue early this trip. I saw something black, it was an opened condom wrapper, with German writing.

In our last airbnb there was a cabinet with games and books, and an unopened box of 12 condoms, not normally supplied by airbnb hosts.

In between I did find something under the bed as we were leaving, my rain skirt that had rolled under somehow, so good thing Wynette reminded me to check. (Wynette made me say that.)

As a bonus here is the Monopoly board. It’s fun to see foreign Monopoly boards.

I have been posting photos only when there is some story to tell about them. I made an album of other photos I liked. Here is the link https://photos.app.goo.gl/FyWov7AFaoZ4SjfbA

We stayed in an airbnb advertised as a ”penthouse”. That is not exactly correct but it is on the top floor, the fifth floor by the US system. There are three apartments on the top level. It is also on just about the highest hill in Muxia so we had great views.

The apartment itself is interesting. You go into a central foyer and there are six doors around it, plus the washer and dryer and water heater. The rooms are: the living room, the kitchen, the master bedroom (which has a bathroom), the bathroom, and two bedrooms.

We see these old stone fences all over Muxia and other places in Galicia. We could not figure out what their purpose was. They were small, the fences were low, couldn’t be for animals or property rights. The guy we met from Portugal had the answer, he had seen them before. When you clear a field you remove as many rocks as possible. You put them to the side, not too far, hence the small size. Often they are just left there, we have seen that on the Camino. But if you are in a place with a lot of wind (and Muxia definitely qualifies) you can build the stones into walls that act as wind breaks for the plants, especially the young ones. And, according to our Portuguese source, if you grow grapes by the walls they act as heat sinks and change the character of the wine. He said that is one thing that is responsible for the taste of Madeira wine.

I think of slate as an expensive building material but they use it all over the Galicia and the parts of Leon we were just in. And you see it by the side of the road. I guess it is not expensive here.

We have had many wonderful experiences on the Camino but if we think of social experiences two stand out. The first was on the Portuguese Camino. We stayed, without knowing its reputation, at Casa Fernanda. We got there in the afternoon and had a good time talking to the 15-20 pilgrims there in the back yard of the albergue. Fernanda was moving from group to group chatting, going off periodically to work on the dinner. We kept hearing that she was waiting for a ”family” to show up. When they did show up it was a group of young bicyclists some of whom might have been brothers. They were traveling with a van to carry their stuff. That evening we had a very good communal dinner, with lots of food and lots of wine which made everyone more friendly. Their ”stuff” included several guitars. They proceeded to sing traditional songs from their region, they had good voices. Then other Spanish songs. Then more songs where we all sang along, culminating with “Imagine” and ”Hallelujah” with people getting the lyrics from their phones. An evening to remember. We learned later that Fernanda is a legend on the Portuguese Camino and the communal dinner usually include group singing.

The second great experience was at Anabel and Bernadino’s place eight years ago. They make a famous communal dinner of vegetarian paella. There were 15-20 people there and the conversation was wonderful. We were sitting at a table speaking English but with people from four different countries: the US, Australia, Canada and England.

The force that created these experiences was two dynamic, friendly, outgoing, and enthusiastic hospitaliers: Fernanda and Anabel, and their husbands, who, while not quite as outgoing, were important to creating the experience. People like this create environments where people can have fun and enrich the lives of thousands of pilgrims. We realized this when we stayed with Anabel and Beradino and she showed us dozens of letters from people thanking her for the great time they had at her albergue. She also had a guest register with literally dozens of drawings people had made to express how appreciative they were. You could see the love. And clearly Anabel was touched by their responses. It is nice that she gets that back for all the effort she puts into the albegue.