O'Cabreiro to Triacastela

I woke up at 4:00 am and couldn't go back to sleep so I left very early...skipped breakfast at the hotel which was only going to be toast anyway.  The good news about that was that I watched the sunrise on the mountain top.  Stunning.

I thought O'Cabreiro was the high point but au contraire. I also thought today was going to be downhill and it certainly wasn't.  My brain had told my legs it was all down hill and they were not happy with the first eight miles being mostly up. This statue is actually closer to the highest point.  It is about twenty fee high and a tribute to the pilgrims.

Hopefully you won't tire of beautiful scenery because today was full of it!

I had a breakfast bar but about 10:00 am I was stomach growling ravenous....  I found a little bar and the woman made me a French omelette and the eggs were from the chickens outside.  It was scrumptious and I practically licked the plate.  It was nothing but eggs, no cheese or anything else but it didn't need anything more.  Sometimes simple is awfully good.

These are called horreos and are used to store grain or at least originally were.

We rounded the corner at the same time and I got out of the way.

This tree was incredible...so old and gnarled.

The Inglesia Romanica de Santiago de Triacastela was open so I said some prayers and got a stamp for my credentials.  Tricastela is so named because there were three castles in this area.  All of them are gone now but the church has each of them carved in relief about two thirds of the way up, under the marble carving of Santiago.

The main altar had beautiful fresh flowers and they were bringing in more baskets to sit at the altar.

I wondered if this was the Spanish version of Greyfriars Bobby, the little sky terrier in Edenbrough Scotland that guarded his masters grave for so many years. One of my favorite old movies as a child.

I have a big choice tomorrow.  I want to hike the longer route to see the Monastery of St Julian of Samos, an active Benedictine monastery founded in the sixth century.  It will be weather permitting because it is not only longer but much more mountainous. I do love the mountains.  Today was pretty strenuous 16.3 (37,441 mountainous steps) but I am not feeling too tired to tackle a big hike tomorrow.  I have Sunday off.

I think the locals are pretty proud of their little town, population 680,  An elderly (wow it is getting to be that you have to be really old for me to call you elderly) made sure that I saw the pilgrims monument.

So pray for good weather in Tricastela.  Adios!