Day4 2nd full day of Camino walk

Typical start to the morning.  Breakfast at 8AM, leave at 9AM.  This morning we drive to the start of our walk, which we are told would be a 5km uphill to begin. Paul uses the word slight undulation a little weakly, today was not a slight undulation, it was uphill.  If we are not starting our walk from our hotel we usually start off at a little bar when you can get a coffee, use the bathroom and get a stamp to start your day.  We have all been given Camino passports that you need to get 2 stamps each day to present at the end of the walk to get your certification.  Bars, hotels, restaurants, shops, churches, etc all give stamps.  It becomes a little completive trying to get stamps, a little like epcot at Disney for kids.  

Across from the bar where we start our walk, when Paul first started these walks this washing machine was in working order

Start of our slight 5km uphill this AM, ha ha 

I walked quite a bit with Daniella again today, we have about the same pace.  She does not take any pictures, does not stop for breaks, so I do catching up here and there.  I only have my cell phone with me, so hoping some of the pictures turn out.  If Andre was here we would still be on day 1, so many photo ops. 

The views on the climb up are spectacular

Passing through little farm hamlets, looks like the cows live under the house

We are passed by a horse and rider today, an option for getting up the long steep climb.  Because we have driven to the start of our walk up there are very few other pilgrims out, they would have needed to stay in the tiny town we started at.  Others will be getting here later in the day.  Another reason why I am really happy I chose this tour. 

Pilgrim passes us on horse to skip walking the hill

We can see still lots more uphill ahead of us since there are walkers peeking out from the vegetation

The views at the top of this “hill” are amazing, well worth the climb.  The forecast for rain has changed again, we have been so lucky so far, no rain at all, just hot. 

We have crossed into Galicia, which was once an extremely poor part of Spain, the Camino walk has brought some much needed jobs and money into the area.  

Views from the top are amazing

Another great lunch, but so much food.  Each day we are given a menu choice for the next days lunch, usually a fish, chicken and something else to choose from.  This way lunches go a little faster as they have everything ready for us.  Faster still means at least 1-2 hours. 

Today after lunch we have many many downhills.  Daniella toes are in really bad shape, not sure how much she will be walking tomorrow, she is in lots of pain. 

we have seen these penny presses in a couple of places now, reminds me of Riley at Disney 

Really nice little church in this small town

View point leaving town, really nice inversion that does not show well in the picture

Lots of work being done around the pilgim statue, I was not able to get inside the construction gate

Lunch today, we were told they were trout, I think they were sardines?

This guy is obviously fed a lot by people passing by, she came right up to the fence to me

Tonight we are again in a cookie cutter hotel in Sarria.  This is the starting point for many pilgrims as it is about 110 km outside of Santiago .  Our hotel is just across the river from the town, I spent some time touring around town on my own before supper.  It is quite a steep uphill, was not impressed when I saw all the steps when I came around the corner.  I visited a museum, got a stamp, found the monastery that I think had a service going on, but it was starting to get dark and didn’t want to venture in on my own and be stuck there for too long.

Back to the hotel and the other 4 single women were having a drink outside.  They said how terrible the service was, I thought they must be exaggerating, they were not.  The waiter was inside working the 1 table of 6 that were in the dining room that were the couples from our group, there were about 8 people outside having drinks.  He refused to serve me any food outside, so I ordered a drink and went back outside.  15 minutes later my drink still hadn’t arrived, I convinced the 4 girls that we could just walk across the river and there were lots of nice little bars right there to choose from. Off we go, one of the girls turns around and the waiter is arriving with my drink, too bad, we are moving on.  A few tapas and drinks for everyone and we call it a night. 

Came around the corner and was not impressed to see all these steps to climb at the end of my long day