Incredible views, and good weather today. Windy, but wind at my back for the first time.
Only one “stage” today, but, because it was steep it was tough. I took the longer, scenic route.
I have a room. That’s big news. I got into Cadavéu, and nothing was available. I was starting to worry. A man, Sam, spoke broken English, and of course, my broken Spanish made things fun. I had already done some backtracking trying to get some place to stay. He started making phone calls.
Finally he got a bed in an albergue for me, with a bed. He loaded me up in his awesome red, sports car and took me to a place to stay:). He laughed at me when I buckled up:) It’s one of the dumpier places, but I don’t care. Pulling up to such a shabby place, in such a nice, shiny car, seemed so incongruous. I won’t have to be on a park bench or underpass, so I’m okay with incongruity:)
Sam explained there is a Netflix movie being filmed here, there are hundreds of people here for the filming. This is a nice, touristy area
Thank goodness they didn’t want to stay in a really rough albergue:). A few days ago I passed up one, because it didn’t look too great. Situations change:)
There were three Camino options for this stretch. I took the high option for the better views, it did not disappoint:). Nobody else took the high route, so it was a solitary day through ranch and timberlands. A wonderful day for thinking and appreciating things. A real photographer would have loved the views.
A random thing I forgot from yesterday. I spent about an hour and talking to a Brazilian biker. He was walking his bike up a long, long uphill stretch. He was a retired Military Attaché for Brazil, and had lived all over, including Madrid and Washington DC. He has come back to Spain for other bike rides on different Caminos, and he really likes Spain. If sounded like he liked it almost more than his home country.
When we got to the top of the hill he took off, very fast, down the hill. The advantages of a bicycle! I’ll never see him again. There are lots of bicyclists.
The food last night, and this morning, in the other albergue, was off the charts great! He had a fish (hake?) and vegetable concoction I thought couldn’t be beat, then he came up with breakfast. He had a tomato based spread, and olive oil combination, topped off by some unique type of salami that he had to teach us all how to eat. This guy shouldn’t be running an albergue, he should be a chef at a fancy restaurant.
Then, to top it off, he had real French Press coffee, and we weren’t limited to just one cup like the last couple of places. The cups were full sized, not like little shot glasses.
Today’s Albergue doesn’t serve dinner, and I’m sure tomorrow’s breakfast won’t match this morning’s.
It’s 7:15 pm, and I’m sitting at a restaurant. Like virtually all restaurants, I can’t even order until 8:00 pm. Folks eat way late here:)
