Dave's Travel Blog

Day 33 was one exhausting day of walking for all of us. It wasn’t the terrain, it was the distance…a little over 18 miles. On day 33, we left Palas de Rei around 7 am and got to the midway town of Melide around 11 am. There was a highly Google recommended restaurant called Casa Alongos in Melide that didn’t open until 11:30 and since the Camino is all about eating and drinking, we decided to head to a local tourist trap to order drinks to wait it out the 30 minutes. One of the best decisions we made since Casa Alongos made some of the best scratch food we had on the Camino. Almost everything had the Galician stew, which was exceptional. I had the Hamburger which was also great…the 2nd best I’ve had on the walk (the best was in Pamplona).

The rest of the day was a mental and physical challenge to get to the town of Arzua. We finally made it to our apartment, I headed out to rage local church to get a pilgrims cello in my credential, and then we all went out to wash clothes. On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant for dinner, which was slightly above average and then waited an eternity for the check.

Today, we had a relatively short walk to Pedrouzo…20 kilometers. It was a rather boring walk with nothing notable. We checked into our apartment and found out there was no hot water. The company let us use another apartment to shower. We are now at an Italian restaurant eating pasta and pizza.

Only one more day on our Camino…hard to believe.

Some pics from the last two days. Not many pics because not many opportunities.

Another 7:30AM start, but this morning we had one of the rare bad weather days since we started. The weather did not get above 50 and it was misty and foggy all day. The roads were crowded…mostly with new peregrinos that started in Sarria. I assume the next few days will be the same and I am not looking forward to it.

We ran into our new French friend, Ombeline, at one of the rest areas and bought her lunch. Afterwards, she and Troy lagged behind us and walked together for over an hour. It looks like Troy’s dream is coming true…lol. Ombeline did not walk as far as we did today and she will be arriving in Santiago the day after us. But, she has an excuse…she is carrying a pack that weighs over 30 pounds…maybe 35 pounds. She was definitely one of the good ones that we met along The Way.

We landed in Palas de Rei mid afternoon and had a difficult time finding a decent restaurant. Finally, we found a place where pizza was our only option and we were a bit skeptical given how the place looked. However, it turned out they made a stellar pie.

Another long day tomorrow…I think 16 miles. Only three days left on our Camino.

Some pics from today:

We started our walk at 7:30 today…the first as a group of five. Since Sarria is the primary starting point for the majority of Peregrinos, the path was crowded…much too crowded. It took away from the experience. Troy and Joann did much better than I expected and we made the 24k hike to Portomarin without too much trouble. The walk was harder than I anticipated, however, with more elevation change than I expected.

After we each had a shower, we walked across the Ponte Nova Portomarin bridge and had lunch at a restaurant called !Slurp! We sat in the back of the restaurant where the only other customer was a young French girl named Ombeline who told us she was hiking the Camino by herself and she started in St. Jean just like us over a month ago. She was eating an ice cream sundae and then went on to order a chicken finger salad and a large plate of garlic fries. She ate it all and I’m not quite sure how she did it. She told us that she hopes to become a comedian and it seemed that she had the personality to pull it off. I think Troy met the girl of his dreams, but alas…but we still have four days to go, so who knows.

We are expected to finally get some rain tonight and the weather will cool significantly. I can’t wait.

Some pics from today:

It’s hard to believe that this is day 30 of our Camino and the day we meet my sister and nephew in Sarria. A lot of planning went into this trip and everything had to work out perfectly so that we could meet up on this day. Thankfully, we didn’t have any health issues or delays and everything worked out. Their train arrived in Sarria just as we were walking into town. The timing couldn’t have gone any better.

Our day started in Triacastela as we had to make a quick decision concerning the two route options. The longer route was through the town of Samos, where one of the most famous and largest Spanish monasteries is located. We decided on this longer route and the path ran mostly through very small towns and along rivers and streams. The downside was there was no food places open along the way. We did get to stop at a place in Samos, but there was nothing else until we arrived in Sarria.

The monastery was very large and the murals on the walls were fantastic. We had a 30 minute tour (in Spanish so we didn’t learn much) and then made the two hour and a half hour trek to Sarria.

We were starved, so we found a local pizza place and ordered three large pizzas, beer and wine and ate it all.

Pics from today:

We continued our decent from 5000 feet above sea level to the town of Triacastela. We started from Alto del poio where our hotel was located. The walk today was short since we did a much longer walk than we anticipated yesterday. I think the walk today was less than 10 miles. It included spectacular 360 degree views of the valley towns below and walks through lots of dairy cow towns. We had to dodge cow droppings almost the entire way down. The smell was also a bit unpleasant.

Since we had some time to kill today, we stopped in three places along The Way for food and drink. The last stop was for dessert with great apple pie and blueberry cheesecake.

Not many pics from today: