A Play House for Big People

Sarria was really nice, modern and clean. We stayed in a nice hotel with a hair dryer.

After Sarria we walked to Portomarin. It was a lovely forest walk. Portomarin is a town on a reservoir. It was the first lake that I have seen. It was really pretty. The Camino crossed the lake on a bridge.

We were staying at an environmentally conscious resort.

They had a giant photo voltaic panel that they use to run electricity to the resort. I should mention that Spain is very into alternative energy. All the mountaintops and ridgelines are lined with windmills for generating electricity. We also saw solar farms for electricity and solar hot water panels on rooftops.

Anyway, this resort had camping, but we stayed in one of the tiny cabins by the lakeside. The owner called it a "Play House for Big People".

Would you like some flies with that shit

After we visited Toad Hall we visited Samos, a medieval monastery. It is a huge building in a beautiful green valley. There are still monks there, in fact there are like 14 or 17 monks there. The monastery walls are covered with murals both ancient and modern. Hmm, someone was playing the flute there, it was really pretty. We went on a tour. Inside the church were some paintings of some wise monks from the past. One of them was¨"Anselmus". He was the funniest wise man because he had on some weird goggles! We have a picture of him that we will post when we get better internet.

After that we continued walking to Sarria. Anselmo was hungry. We walked through some tiny cow farming villages. The streets were covered with cow shit! That is one of the features of Galicia. Anyway, Anselmo decided to stop and have lunch in a little cowshit village. The cafe really smelled like cow shit! The cafe was full of flies!!! Flies were getting fried in one of those electric bug-zappers. There was a TV screen which was covered with flies! I don´t know how he could eat in there. I could only imagine flies walking on cow shit and then walking on the food. I could not imagine eating with that strong smell of cow shit in the air. Anselmo happily chowed down. Maybe I was not cut out to travel the world with him, LOL.

Mr. Toad of Toad Hall

After we came down from O Cebreira we were talking to Albert, the Canadian guy. He had acquired two young beautiful women as companions. (He is 61) He explained that they had a stalker and he was keeping the stalker at bay. Hmm, everyone on the Camino has been so nice it´s hard to imagine. We have met lots of women walking the Camino alone and they feel perfectly safe. But it takes all kinds. At any rate, Albert told us that the yellow bush I admired so much was called "Broom" and it was an invasive species in Canada, considered a pest.

The first town in Galicia was called Tria Castele. The name implies three castles but there were none. We stayed in a little place called Casa David. The David guy who owned it was very nice.

The next day we walked to Sarraya. The walk was through river valleys and right by a pretty river.

Anselmo was looking for his roots again. There was a small village called "Lastres". We have already established that Anselmo is descended from royalty on his mother´s side. The name "Sanchez" comes from the 10th century king Sancho of Navarre.

But the name "Lastra" is more mysterious. The name means "Stone Slab", so it´s possible that the original Lastras were stone cutters. Anselmo thinks that the Lastra family might have come from Galicia because many Galicians immigrated to Cuba. Also the "La Lastra" village we discovered 25 years ago in the Cantabria region of spain was really a dump!

So we decided maybe this "Lastres" place was Anselmo´s family home. The village was in a narrow green mossy river valley, so narrow that the sun barely came in. It reminded me of Wind in the Willows. There was an old stone home along the river with outbuildings and a boat house, all overhung with willow and oak trees and stone walls. I told him it was like Toad Hall and I expected Mr. Toad to come driving up in an ancient car.

The End of the Rainbow lies in Galicia

The next day we climbed the O Cebreira Pass into Galicia. The climb is supposed to be the most beautiful and spectacular of the whole trek.

We spent a long time walking into a valley, which had a very gentle ascent. After lunch, we went into the woods for a steep climb. It ended at a "Delightful Hillside Village". I got there first and started looking for a fountain to fill up my water bottle. I could not find one, an a girl offered me some of her water. When Anselmo got there, I was standing in front of a fountain that said "Water not potable" and offered him a drink out of my water bottle. He got a horrified look on his face and said "You can´t drink that water". Ha ha he is so predictable.

The final walk to the O Cebreira village, on the mountain ridge was breathtaking.

I only have a few minutes so let me say that the mountains there are covered with a yellow bush called Broom. It is like Forsithia but it is not. It is so beautiful. It looks like the mountains have been painted yellow. I have never seen anything like that before.

The Pyrenees had a lot of pink heather, and some of the hillsides looked pink, but nothing like this blazing color.

A Snake in the River

The next day we trekked from Molina Seca to Villafranca.

It was a long walk.

Okay, I motored over the Cruz de Ferro pass like the

Little Engine that Could

, and it must have tired me out. I was tired almost as soon as we started walking.

We walked through a city called Ponferrada. I generally hated it and whined all day. Maybe the less said the better.

We have not seen very much wildlife on this trek. They do not have pesky animals like deer, raccoons or squirrels here for example. In fact, I think that Spain could use a few more animals, and I would be happy to contribute a few.

They do have fish in the rivers however. I stopped at a bridge to look in the water and see fish. To my immense surprise, I saw a 3-foot long snake swimming across the rocky river bottom. He was white with black leopard spots. I watched him for 15 minutes and I did not see him come up to breathe!

After that, I whined my way through beautiful hilly vineyards. We are in a green farming area of Spain. It is called the Berceria. They grow grapes for wine, apples, pears, and some weird sounding meat.

We ended up in a town called Villafranca which was beautiful but I was too tired to care and crashed as soon as I could.

Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross)

The mountain climb was beautiful although cold. The first cafe we came to we stopped for coffee and breakfast.

There was a guy in there named Albert, from Western Canada. He told quite a story about his friend who had been robbed in Seville (Europe has very few criminals but apparently there are gangs from North AFrica)

After that we went to the Cruz de Ferro. It is the highest altitude on the whole trek. It is a tiny little cross on a large pole. Okay, I don´t understand what the big deal is!

You are supposed to leave a "token of love" at the foot of the cross. Anselmo brought a tiny pebble from home which I left. It is practically invisible in the huge pile of rocks left by other pilgrims. There are also other "offerings" like worn out shoes.

After that we walked to another high-altitude point and then started the descent. We ran into the (British) Ukelele Boy again. He had joined up with a guy I called the Gap-toothed Boy and the Gap-toothed Boy´s Girl, who are both Israeli, anyway, I should find out their names so I don´t give them these silly nicknames. Anselmo renamed the Ukelele Boy the Peeing Boy because of an incident along the trail.
"Sorry, Nature Called," said the Ukelele Boy.

We finally ended up at the bottom of the mountain range at a lovely town called Molina Seca. We stayed in a little place called Posada de Muriel

Candles In the Wind

After Rabanal, we crossed a mountain pass with the Cruz de Ferro.

It was a long climb so we started before dawn! We stumbled out of our hotel and started walking straight uphill. It was much colder! The wind had been blowing like crazy all night and it was cold and windy while we walked uphill.

There was just enough light to see mountains on either side and clouds. I saw something that was so strange that I thought that I was dreaming.

I could barely see a long cloud in the sky on my left. Above the cloud were very tall slim candles, maybe 60-100 feet. It was hard to tell because the cloud was several miles away. You could barely see the candles themselves. Each candle had a tiny orange flame at the top.

The wind was howling and I was absolutely freezing but I had to stop walking and get a grip on myself.

Angels?