Camino Day 23: Las Herrerias to Fonfria

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We got up and left the albergue just after 6am, because of the steep climb to O Cebreiro. At about 7:30, after climbing pretty steeply, we entered the first town of La Faba. We were looking forward to a coffee break, since it was too early for anything to be open in Las Herreiras, but the only bar in town was closed. This seemed to happen a lot. I'm not sure if we are leaving too early, or they just haven't recovered from COVID. Anyways, we continued to climb. About an hour later, we entered the town of Laguna de Castillo, and lo and behold the A Escuela Bar/Cafe was open. Around a half hour later we crossed into Galicia, and almost an hour after that, we entered O Cebreiro. It was quite a climb! We checked out the first souvenir shop they had, took some photos, and we were on our way again. O Cebriero was mostly just stores, restaurants, and albergues. I think about a hand full of people live there.

We continued on and entered Linares around 10:30am. They had an interesting old church, Igrexa de Santo Estevo. Next, we came to the Alto de San Roque. They have a cool statue of a pilgrim. A few minutes later we entered Hospital de la Condesa, and a half an hour after that we passed through Padornelo. When we reached the Alto do Poio, we stopped for lunch at the Albergue Bar Puerto. Finally, at about 1:30pm, we entered Fonfria and spotted our albergue, Albergue A Reboleira. I had stayed there in 2017, and when I mentioned to Manoli that they serve a nice communal dinner in an old Celtic building, she agreed to stop there.

Albergue A Reboleira was just like I remembered it. A fairly modern, well appointed albergue, with a living room, a small cafe, and a patio. We did our routine, then waited for 7pm to come so we could enjoy the communal dinner. At the dinner, they seated about 30 pilgrims in a semicircle and started bring the food. First we had a decent vegetable stew, then an excellent rice with beef plate, and finally for dessert they served Santiago cake. I had a small glass of wine with my dinner. After the meal was over, where we talked to some people from South Korea, Germany, and Mexico, we went back to the albergue and were soon asleep.

Tomorrow we travel to just outside of Sarria. Sarria is the last town you can start your Camino and get a credential, since it is just over 100 kilometers from Santiago de Compostela.

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