Saturday, July 7, 2021

With the Covid protocol in place, we only had room in our albergue last night for our group plus two other pilgrims we have met along the way – an Italian and a Czech. Super nice guys and we will probably see them along the way if not at our next stop. The whole place was ready to get out the door by 6:30 so that was excellent! Except for our one sick pilgrim who will be taking a taxi to the next town at 8:00 this morning.

Lluvia (rain) was in the forecast so we all geared up for it. The prediction was accurate, though most of the time the rain was minimal and the times it was hard were short-lived.

And we saw so many of our beloved cows!

Although our walk today at 12 miles to Vilalba was on the long side, it passed quickly as the Camino meandered easily along rural roads through forested paths and farming villages to Vilalba.

We had a wonderful morning, walking through Abadín, Martiñán, Goiriz, As Casonovas and A Casilla. Beautiful smelling eucalyptus trees and gorgeous ferns!! The trek was pleasant with cows, etc. yet unfortunately one of our party slipped on a very precarious bridge and heard a pop in her ankle that put a damper on the rest of our day’s considerable mileage. She was a trooper though and had an amazing pace, but never wanted to stop and had no feel for what was really going on. She was aware of ankle issues and already had a compression sock which she put on, and our fearless leader had some anti-inflammatory gel that she applied as well.

Unfortunately, drama ensued when we could not get into the albergue that we had hoped to get into.

I will not go into all the details here, but suffice it to say, that we did end up getting three rooms of two beds at a hotel as we watched several Pilgrims walk by defeated. Who knows what tomorrow will entail.

I went out on personal shopping detail for people who were injured and in the pursuit ran across a “Parador” which in Spain is usually a historic building turned into a hotel!

“Vilalba’s medieval emergence was closely linked to the Andrade family. A tower from the family castle, the 15th century Torre de los Andrade has since been converted to use as a Parador hotel. In the 20th century, the town experienced a cultural boom, emerging as a surprising hotbed of intellectual and literal activity.” (Guide Book, The Northern Caminos)