Day 27 - Samos to Morgade

It has been a while since I was able to transfer pictures so this blog is not very well organized but I hope it gives a taste of our day.
Slept well in a relatively quiet room, the three of us and 3 Austrians from Salzburg. People starting moving at about 6:15 and we were ready to leave by 7:00. The café next door was open for breakfast so we were able to have our café con leche and tostadas (toast) with butter and jam which has become our standard breakfast. It was good that we had it there because we would not have found anything for at least 2.5 hours.
Then on the road, about 2 km along the side of the road and then we turned onto a trail that went up and down, through a few villages. It was misty and we kept waiting for the sun to break through. It was also cold, about 1°C (33°F) but we kept moving so felt fine. The paths were still very wet in places from the recent rains but the birds were singing loudly and everything was very green. The fruit trees were starting to blossom and the many chestnut and oak trees had some of their leaves but we were still at an elevation above 600 meters (2,000 ft) so the growing season is relatively short.
Finally at about 9:45 we reached a main road and found a café which was just opening and got our second café con leche of the day. Then 5km along the side of the road which brought us to the town of Sarria. My credential (official book to record our Camino with stamps (sellos) showing where we were each day) was almost full and I needed to get a new one to continue with. I knew that they were available in Sarria since that is where more than half of all pilgrims start their journey. It is just far enough from Santiago (more than 100km or 60 miles) to qualify for the official "Compostella" certificate which seems to be important on a CV in Spain. We passed a tourist information office and I was told I could get one at the Mosteiro da Magdalena - go to the second door of the monastery and ring the bell, someone will come and take care of it.
So we continued into the city which is on a steep hill with the monastery at the top. I did what I was told and after a while someone came to the door and when he explained that between Sarria and Santiago we need two stamps per day to qualify, both Werner and Josef realized that they too would need a second book. They cost €1 each so no big deal and now we are set.
We continued on, back down the hill on the other side and immediately we were back on a narrow path through woods, past fields and through small forests. It was now about 11:00 and finally the sun burned off the morning fog and we were in bright sunshine for the first time in many days. It was hard to realize that yesterday morning we were walking in a snow storm.

A farmer taking his cows back to the meadow after milking

The fence is held up by these flat stones. More durable than wooden fence pots!

The path, raised in the middle while the water runs along the side.

100km remaining to Santiago!

Farmer takes his few sheep from the barn to the field.

During last night and this morning each of us had been suffering from stomach problems but Imodium seems to have taken care of it for us. We decided it was the tuna empanada we had for lunch yesterday. It is the only thing that we all ate.
Werner has been having a problem with his leg for the last several days, possibly due to the amount of walking we have been forced to do on the hard asphalt surfaces. Today it seems to be worse and we decided to stop for the day a little earlier than we had originally planned. We still expect to arrive in Santiago on Saturday, but if it is a day later it won't make any difference since we had included a few extra days in our plans anyway. We stopped at a small albergue with only 6 beds, all in one room but very nice and a restaurant as part of it. The only thing missing is wifi. There is a computer but I am useless with the Spanish keyboard so I won't even try to use it.
We settled in, took showers and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

I went for a walk around the albergue and it is really beautiful but lonely area. The little chapel has been spoiled inside by graffiti. This seems to be constant problem everywhere west of Léon. For the first two thirds of the Camino I hardly saw any but since Léon it has been everywhere.

 

This is a spring by the side of the road.

 

 This is picture of our albergue

At about 5:00 pm they lit a fire in the common room. Even though the sun was out until 9:30 it was chilly and made for a cozy atmosphere.

We had dinner at about 7:00 which was simple but excellent. Mixed cold cut appetizer followed by fried eggs with chorizo sausage and fries and the torte de Santiago and wine. All for €8.50 in a beautiful setting in the countryside.

Today we walked 27 km, 17 miles through very pretty country. Only 99.5 km 62 miles remaining to Santiago. We have covered 700 km, 438 miles since we started in St Jean Pied de Port, France, 27 days ago on April 24

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