Camino: O Cebreiro to Triacastela

It’s still very dark at seven o’clock when I wake up, and even after Carl and I get up and dressed it’s still dark and cool outside our window in the former monastery.  And, it is so quiet!  Not even any roosters crowing.  We left the shutters open all night, both to dry clothing and to allow air, but there is a chill this morning.  We are very far west in the European time zone, which explains the late mornings and long, languid evenings.  Both lend themselves to photography.

Breakfast is in the same room where we had dinner last night, just above the bar and behind the gift shop.  It’s a hearty Galician farm breakfast of bread and ham and soft white cheese, plus juices, coffee and cereals like muesli – but with real butter and 100 percent milk.

We walkers gathered in front of the refectory at nine o’clock and it’s still windy and cool.  Everyone has jackets on, and most are buttoned up under the chin, even though we will begin by walking down hill. We moved off, stopping for photos of the stupendous views across the valley north of us. 

Checkpoint in Liñares

The Camino bends around the north side of a hill and down we begin walking.  Mary Ellen identified the mountain ash tree with its bright red berries – a wood used for bow making (before the advent of the fiberglass tree).

It is pleasantly cool, and the trees break the wind, and we have sun shining on the hills around us. We descend easily, and before long we see the grey stone buildings that form the tiny village of Liñares. Leslie helped Celso figure out who had arrived.  He seems to have as much trouble with our names as we do with his.  We climbed a hill and finally reached Alto de San Roque, where there is a pilgrim statue and great views in all directions.  But not much else.

We continued on and there came a pretty good climb – just about as steep as yesterday’s, but much shorter – and that finally brought us to Alto do Poio where, finally, a glimpse of the edge of a Coca Cola umbrella signaled the end of the climb.  There was a little coffee shop at the top where I got a café cortado, and everyone got something to drink before we continued toward lunch.

Joe and I were talking about Ex-Im Bank cases when we walked through Hospital and passed the place where the little lady makes crepes and offers them to the pilgrims.  She was there, talking with two pilgrims. We said a hearty “Buenos Dias” and kept right on walking.  She wanted us to stop but we kept talking to each other.  That saved us the one Euro that she charges the embarrassed pilgrims – who think it’s just a free offering until after they have thanked her and told her how good her crepes are.  Nice little racket – imagine one Euro times two hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims annually!

We passed through a lot of cattle pastures with gently chiming cow bells and arrived at Viduedo sooner than I expected.  Cate and Alex had set up another fine luncheon, this time featuring salad, chorizo, tetilla cheese, little tomato sandwiches with sardines on top, etc.  A fine repast, but best of all a chance to sit down for a little while.

We were off by 2:10 and soon walking past the kiliometer markers – “mojones” – and the large limestone quarry below to our right. Tradition has it that each peregrino would carry a large rock to Santiago, where they were used to make mortar for the building and rebuilding of the cathedral there.  We chose not to carry a rock.

I walked the last part of the day’s 13.7 mile trip with Pat and Katie. We stopped for a lot of photos of trees and small stone churches.  In the garden of one house there was an offering of small dishes of raspberries and currents for one Euro, so Pat bought one and we feasted for a way.  Finally we gave the rest of the currents away to some other pilgrims having a beer by the road.  We also passed a really enormous chestnut tree, said to be 800 years old and more than 2.7 meters in diameter, on the way into Triacastela town.

The last major sightseeing and stamp opportunity was the romanesque Iglesia de Santiago with its large cemetery. It is right on the road as you enter the town. 

Iglesia de Santiago

I indulged in a little caña for 1.20 Euro to celebrate the conclusion of the five hours of walking.  Besides, everyone had to wait in the little sidewalk café for others to arrive before we could leave on the bus.  Again, the walking is not hard, but the sitting sure is enjoyable.

We drove about a half hour on the road to Sarria, the road we won’t walk tomorrow, and arrived at our hotel, the Torre de Barrio manor house.  It’s a large house with a central, covered courtyard room, a chapel of its own, and a rich garden tended by the owner and manager, Marisol.

Refreshments in Triacastela

Carl and I were assigned a ground floor room that in fact has pretty good wifi.  Trouble is that with everyone on the same wifi network, it’s pretty slow.   After initial showers, there was quite a gathering of internet-starved pilgrims around the table in the main courtyard room.

Dinner was memorable, beginning with great bread, as usual, a plate of grilled-in-olive-oil fresh vegetables, salad, and roast lamb – five months old, Marisol says, when asked.  The lamb brings back memories of spring lamb in Spain – delicious flavor and crispy skin. This was accompanied by red wine from the manor house and a white wine that was very good too.  Our travelers are becoming accustomed to eating at relatively Spanish hours – lunch at 1:30 and dinner at 8:30 p.m.  – something many thought impossible at the beginning.