What a stunning day for views from the trails today. We walked a good portion of the day above the clouds. Later, we walked in the clouds. Later still we complained that we never got to walk under the clouds because we were walking under a very hot sun in the hottest part of the day.
We had a 1km climb up to cross into Galicia and a further climb of 1km to reach O Cebreiro, the re-birthplace of the modern Camino. That is a beautiful little village on the top of the mountain. On one side of the village, the sunrise is often gorgeous and on the other side of the village, you can almost see forever, except, of course, the valleys covered in mist. Here is where my Camino experience shone brightly today. As we walked into O Cebreiro today, there were about a hundred pilgrims lining the wall in the square. Melanie figured out that it was because the sun was about to peek over the nearby peaks. She was about to stay and watch. I convinced her not to wait – there is only one small, understaffed bar in town and the minute they get their sunrise memory, every pilgrim will be racing to the bar. We got there first and it still took us 40 minutes to get juice, coffee and tostadas as well as pay for breakfast #1.
The church was still closed at O Cebreiro so we headed down toward the misty valley on the other side of the mountain. We spent the next 8km up and down smaller hills with outstanding views. One short climb along a 300m stretch was so steep, I could only keep repeating to myself “I thought we had finished this steep crap”. I really didn’t remember it until halfway up when I saw the roof of a building ahead. Oh yeah! There is a bar at the top where last year pilgrims cheered (over their beers) as other pilgrims got to the top. I was able to walk a little quicker once I saw that.
Other than breakfast #2 at that bar, and breakfast #3 (and #4 ) at an albergue / bar in Fonfria, I can’t report any more stories from today. We had to stop at the Fonfria bar to use their WiFi for Melanie to make a two and a half hour business video call. We could have arrived in Triacastela at a respectful 2:30pm but instead, arrived at 5:00pm. We just had time to shower, wash and dry the clothes, get dinner and get to bed.
All that said, I have to mention our room tonight. It’s a pretty decent room with the basic things we need but I was curious why the outer walls appeared to be over a meter thick. It turns out that the upstairs was the town’s 16th century town hall but the first floor, where we have a corner room, was the town’s pilgrim prison. Not all pilgrims in the Middle Ages were good people. Some were convicted felons and walking the Camino was part of their sentence. They often were kept locked up for the night so they didn’t cause problems in the town. I know why I got this room.
Peace y’all. Love you G, L, S
