Day 23

Last night we ended up with 2 roommates. One guy who never talked, and an Australian woman from Tasmania. We had a nice dinner with her at the bar/restaurant with WiFi (Its pronounced WeeFee here. It’s fun to say). Dinner was a delicious trout.  I ordered before our Tasmanian friend joined us.  When she ordered they said they were out.  Then they said it would take an hour.  She said OK.  We think they went out to the stream to catch it. Hers was delicious, too.

We got up this morning to a steady light rain.  It pretty much stayed that way all day, so was kind of a damp clammy day.

Moss on trees. 

Today we climbed the mountain. Yesterday I said we did 1,000 ft gain, but that was just up and down on the foothills. There wasn’t a net gain. Today we did it.  2,400 ft gain up to O Cebreiro.

Main St in Ambasmestas.

Most of the morning was walking along country roads.  In the afternoon the trail cut into the woods on steep rocky paths.  With all the rain they became pretty muddy.  There was horse traffic, too.  We didn’t see the horses, but saw lots of horseshoe prints in the mud.  That mixed with the other evidence of horse made for a mucky stinky soup that provided a great medieval travel experience.

Foggy before the snow.

Near the top we crossed from Castillo & Leon into the region of Galicia. As we approached the top the rain turned to sleet, and then into snow.  It was great.

Walking thru a winter wonderland.

We proceeded from O Cebreiro another 3 mi to Hospital da Condesa. We checked into the municipal albergue.  20 beds.  We have 6 roommates so far.

There is one restaurants/bar in town.  It has WeeFee, so we sit here drinking wine, writing the blog, and watching the snow fall.  We think we understand that dinner is served at 6 or 6:30, more or less, depending on how they feel.  We got here at 4:45.  They fill the wine glasses full here.