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Published: October 22nd 2017
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Geo: 42.8443, -7.7478
What's new, another restless night! The most recent culprit, the red headed Irish woman. Rustling began at 6:00 and the first out about 6:30. Dave got up at 7:00 and turned on the lights and everyone was up or wide awake.
As we were ready to leave, "Red" was having a discussion with our hostess, commenting that the one time she woke up, "it was so quiet"!
We were required to be out by 8:00, we left at 7:45, in complete darkness, hampered further by the fog. Sunrise would be another 45 minutes away, this was the first we had to walk with flashlights to see the trail and yellow arrows.
When it began to get light and the fog lifted there was still the pretty, Irish-looking countryside. Coffee and breakfast of yogurt and granola would be about 5 kilometers in the village of Morgade. We bumped into almost everyone from last night's albergue as well as several other familiar faces.
As a general observation, in the last few days, among our regular pilgrim friends and acquaintances, the conversations have changed. Rather than talking about blisters, injuries and snoring, talk has been about Santiago. How many days left, when will you
arrive, where will you stay, when is your flight home, etc. Collectively, we are closing in and the extent and somehow the finality is setting in. The two of us are feeling excitement, relief and sadness all at the same time.
We hit the 100 kilometer to Santiago near Ferreiros and there was a parked tour bus; we caught up with the 40, string-sack pilgrims later in the day, that we surmise the bus discharged.
At about 15 kilometers we came to the town of Portomarin. Approaching, the town has all white buildings with a huge square church in the center. The descent included a 1/2 mile down a very steep, narrow, rocky, gully. We were really happy it was not raining and slick.
Crossing a 500-yard arched bridge into town, we needed to find a market and an ATM because there would be neither for the next 20 kilometers. After stocking up and visiting the church in the central square, we headed up and out.
Our tanks were running on empty when we finally reached Gonzar, our planned lunch spot. As we walked into the bar/restaurant, Carlos handed us a cold beer that tasted
like 'an angel ----- on your tongue! We had
a self-made ham and cheese sandwich, apples and beer.
From here it would be less than 5 kilometers to Ventas de Naron and our private room in Albergue Casa Molar.
Casa Molar has a very comfortable restaurant, bar and patio areas where pilgrims were hanging out. Our room is small but PRIVATE! The traditional pilgrim menu at our albergue was beginning to feel a little bit like "Ground Hog Day", so we opted to the only other option in town, an albergue that offered a broader ala carte menu.
We were joined by Amparo and Carlos. They and Sue all had a burger and Dave had the grilled hake with a salad. Sharing a bottle of wine, the total came to 24 euro, all of us were very happy.
Went back to the Casa Molar and went down to the bar because the wifi was finally working (all the pilgrims were in bed)! When we ordered a vino blanco, the server asked where her glass was! (We had thought Amparo and Carlos were not leaving for another 15 minutes or so for dinner so we ordered another glass of wine and when they showed up we just took the glass with
us.) Luckily, we had brought the glass back or we 1) would not have been served again and 2) probably paid handsomely for a cheap glass!
We were able to go to our room after 10:00 -- no curfew for us!
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