Today we woke up early and headed out to try and beat the rain forecast for 3 pm. We had about 10 miles to go.
It was cool and wet from the night before and we walked up hill with fog all around and a beautiful golden green light.
At the top of the hill we found one of the most important archeological sites of northern Spain.
Most of my pictures look like lumps but I got some great ones of the morning light and the shapes of the tops of the hills. Also of Kiernan.
We walked to a place along the Camino for a breakfast of bananas and café con leche and hot chocolate and random hot tortilla.
Then we marched on along roads with many highway crossings. We passed the place we’d had dinner the night before and then spent the rest of the morning going mostly down small mountains or big hills. We took a ton of breaks. Nearly every little valley had s bar or cafe and we stopped at about 4 of them.
We were so tired yesterday, partially because we had taken so few rests. This time we made up for it. It was useful for bathroom access and for gathering up with the group and for keeping the blood sugar up.
We had a few odd parts of terrain today. At one spot we were walking down what was basically a wet stone gully. I’d hung out there waiting to give mom a hand on it and found her talking to a cool German guy named Marko.
He’s done the entire Camino from his home near Marterburg over the course of 10 years. He finished it last year and said he got a big compestella. This year he’s just doing a slow shorter version for fun.
My favorite spot today was an ant bar. I’m not sure at all that ant bar was the name but there were ants on their sello (stamp) and giant ant sculptures in the yard.
They had crepes and nice shady seats and a beautiful garden with baby asparagus and blueberries just coming on.
I think we stopped at 4 bars in total before we got to Palas de Rei. We got here at around 2:30
We made it to a grocery store while Chris used his WhatsApp to get our complementary ride to our place for tonight.
Our free ride turned out not to be the cab that we nearly climbed into but two cars that pulled up behind the cab. 5 of us with backpacks are too many for most vehicles so the property owner and his wife came to get us in batches.
On the way to the house I had my longest Spanish conversation to date, with the owners wife. I understood about every 5th word and had to be fairly creative with my phrasing but, within the conversation established that we both had teenagers. That we weren’t too tired and had been having a good Camino. That we were taking short days to make sure mom, who is 73, could make it. That the driver who is in her 60’s didn’t think she herself could do what mom is doing and that we hoped to be picked up at 8 tomorrow to be put back where we left off.
I especially hope I got that last part right. We shall see.
Great picture by Michelle of Kiernan enjoying this house
The house is beautiful and is giving off some serious medieval vibes it’s all stone and skylights but it has a washing machine and stovetop and lots of green space outside.
The rain and thunder showed up at about 3:30.
We did 2 good sized loads of laundry. We keep hoping to wash stinky clothes but we are in a land without driers and it’s raining every afternoon. The humidity has been so high that drying indoors is very iffy. However we had gotten in so early that we decided to just give it a go This place has a dehumidifier and mom brought some line so Chris set up some chairs and aligned the optimal drying area and I strung up line and we are crossing our fingers that everything will be dry by tomorrow.
There are clothes on the lines and hanging from the loft and across the backs of chairs a few of us spent time in only towels and blankets just to get all the dirty stuff done.
We had some excitement when we saw water leaking from under the sink. One of the pipes had become disconnecting and our cooking and washing up was just draining into the kitchen cabinets.
Chris reattached the pipe and I let the owner know and we were back in business.
Mom made Cornish game hens for each of the meat eaters and seared Poblano peppers with goat cheese I made pene with red sauce and sliced up some bread. We gathered around family style and talked about our day.
Michelle said that she’s feeling rushed because we keep pushing off just when she’s settling in to rest. We are walking at different paces and we are often ready for more when she’s just gotten there.
I’m sorry for hurting her feelings and tomorrow will definitely be more mindful of the group as a whole.
This was our last long day and tomorrow will will hit the halfway point .
So far so good.
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