- graffiti coming out of Sarria
Galicia is a place where fairy-tales might come true. A place of misty woods, foxgloves and ferns, ancient chestnut trees, stone walls, fanciful horreos for drying corn that look like little temples, and plenty of cows, goats and donkeys.
You half expect an elf or a fairy princess to appear out of the mist at any moment!
The magic is interrupted at Sarria, where many pilgrims, particularly Spanish pilgrims and big groups organised by schools and churches, begin in order to walk the minimum number of km required to earn the compostela. I saw one such group, of high school kids with giant suitcases (suitcases!), just arriving at the monastery hostel in the town.
However as I carried on walking past Sarria, the pathway was soon all but deserted, as the custom on the Camino Frances is to check into a hostel in the early afternoon and spend the rest of the day resting and recovering (or drinking and partying, depending on your inclination) . After walking in Italy and France I am used to spending the whole day out on the trail, unless either hot weather or rain makes this impractical, so I like to keep walking until four or five in the afternoon, with as many rest breaks as necessary. At half past four I arrived at my destination for the evening, an ultra-modern pilgrim hostel in Ferreiros with a glassed-in lounge and its own restaurant, where I was surprised to find Barbara and Mariel, part of the group from the hostel back in León one week ago! I hadn't seen them since, but here they were, and I had dinner with them and their new friends. Everyone seemed to be getting a little homesick at this stage in the game, as the conversation revolved around all the good things we were all going to eat once we got back home!
Accordingly, I went back to my room and spent some time planning my last ten days in Spain and booking tickets for getting back home again - with an out-of-the-way stopover in Amsterdam!
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