I REALLY Should Have Gone To Ibiza

If you've seen the video of me in the snow on Facebook or Instagram you clearly understand the title of this blog post.  It's frigid. Especially for April.  There was a hard freeze overnight on top of the mountain in Cebreiro and storm moved in so we woke to six inches of fresh snow.  Oh rapture.  It was at this point that I decided that maybe I had underpacked a bit after all.  So, I put on my pullover and my sleep shorts and hoped for the best.

At first I was really worried as the street through Cebreiro (yes, the only street) had not been cleared, and it was icy.  We were advised to avoid the official trail Camino and to take the highway instead.  The highway was cleared, and with a good shoulder, so that was a smart move.  And surprisingly, once we were moving for about 15 minutes I was not really cold.  The only challenge was that from time to time the wind would kick up and then it would get too cold.  I had bought a pair of gloves in Cebreiro before we left that morning and I was very glad to have them. 

We have settled in to a fairly normal daily walking routine.  We try to do five or six miles and then take a decent break, another five or six miles and then lunch, and then finish off whatever is left.  At our first break of the day, still in the snow, we were very glad to have a rest, and a cup of coffee, and fresh made croissants.  The second six miles saw us heading downhill, and thankfully, out of the snow, but still with rather cold weather.  We only stopped to rest and for a coke before continuing into Triacastela.

I like Triacastela.  It's a bit run down, but if you know where to go has some charm and good places to eat.  So after we cleaned up and warmed up we went to a little place at the center of town for a bite to eat and the ever necessary foot tonic.  I've been to this particular place before but the staff seemed new, and I was not sure they were old enough to be running a bar.  But, they were super kind and helpful, and over the course of the afternoon, many pilgrims we recognized from the Camino wandered in and we would chat.

One interesting thing that happened was that a middle-aged French couple was having trouble with their accommodations for the next night and they asked our waiter if he could help.  So the waiter got on the phone with the place, and then the cook came out to help too and between the two of them they got everything sorted.  I'd consider that going above and beyond the call of duty, but the French couple didn't even bother to leave a tip.  I know attitudes are different about this, but these people took a good 15 minutes to sort out the problem that wasn't even their problem, so Paul and I tipped the waitrr and thanked him for helping some wayward pilgrims.  We may one day find ourselves in a similar situation and hope for good karma when we do.

In any event we had a nice quiet evening in the pub and went to bed a bit early.  We had a longer walk the next day into Sarria and so needed an earlier start.