2022 Camino Frances

It was a cold and windy walk today. I’m not sure why, but we didn’t mind too much. Uh, well, maybe because we only walked 5.8 miles. We heard from our friend Henry and my mom Berniece that it snowed 2 inches in Albuquerque last night!! So warmer here than there. If I had been home I would have been too wimpy to go out in the cold, even for my usual 2 mile walk. That’s one thing I love about the Camino.

We have another lovely place to stay this afternoon and tonight. A private room in an albergue. Casa Nuñez (aka A Reboleira) in Fonfría. We will have a group meal tonight. There are only 2 others staying here that we know about so far. Most people at this point carry on walking to Triacastela where we will walk to tomorrow.

This room is typical in that it is costing us 40 euros, or 20 euros each. People here pay 12 euros each for the dormitory in the albergue where a number of people share a room with bunk beds. These private rooms are quite a deal. They also include a private bathroom.

Galicia is the northwest region in Spain, just above Portugal. We are now walking in Galicia. We had mentioned before that if you contract covid in Galicia, all your medical bills will be covered. I found this brochure (photo below) in today’s Albergue that says they will also cover expenses for repatriation and for a stay required by a quarantine! We have to get a covid test before returning to the US. We are thinking we should get one before we leave Galicia because if it should turn out to be positive, this is THE place to be.

There are other reasons to come here. It is a beautiful place to visit. It’s green and lush. Not what you probably think of when you think of Spain. It’s been compared to Ireland and it shares Celtic roots with Ireland. (Bagpipes are not uncommon.) (Charlie says they are all too common in Santiago.) Galicia’s northern and western border is the Atlantic Ocean. Innumerable beaches and gorgeous shore line. Wonderful cities and towns.

We walked into a tiny town this morning, hoping the one bar would be open for breakfast, and heard quite loud music. We thought “gosh, is that coming from the bar?” But no, it was some outdoor workers who had brought music with them. I don’t think this man minded that I took a video of him enjoying the music (might take a minute to load, hang in here till you see him really get going dancing, you might have to click start):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yryBHEpqYKZ17qEo9

Just across the street some other men were laying flat stones to build quite a pretty wall.

Unfortunately, the bar was not open. We kept walking and two miles later found one that was open. Shortly after we got there it filled up with pilgrims! We are starting to see lots of fellow peregrinos.

We had a pleasant day of walking. We walked a little over 7 miles. All in a green valley beside a big mountain stream, through a number of charming villages. We stopped once for breakfast and again for coffee. Even though it was a mostly gray day and rained off and on, very light rain, it was one of our favorite days of walking. We walked from Trabadelo to Las Herrerías. At Las Herrerías, we stopped at a bar and asked the owner if he would call a taxi for us. The taxi driver took us to where we are tonight, Liñares. The taxi driver took us through O Cebreiro which is a high point on the Camino. He took us the way the bicycles would go on this climb. We walked this climb back in 2013 and decided to by-pass it this time. This is one of the prettiest areas on the Camino, if not THE prettiest. Our taxi driver was great and suggested we stop several places so we could take photos. He invited me to sit up front so I’d have a good view out and I got to chat with him in castellano, which is what everyone around here calls Spanish. He was a kind, soft-spoken man.

Wynette and Margarita, our Airbnb host, more on her later, but mainly I loved the red hair on the woman next to them.

Here is a new variant, insult Castilla and add “solo” after Leon. We learned from Margarita that this is a separatist, nationalist movement.

I get it but I wonder how the tires could have followed those tracks

Do they have weather too? I didn’t get my camera up fast enough to show the temperature map where Portugal is completely blank. It appears Portugal does have a few wispy clouds above it.