Spain
Cebrero

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    • Day 14

      O Cebreiro - cultural

      June 1, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

      Sitting on a wall looking East I can View a weeks worth of walking. The area is lush and green, lots of ferns, signs that water is plentiful. These mountains guide the rain to the north up from Portugal. About 1 km to the East is the border, so I’m now in Galicia. Evidence of Celtic influences abound. Some building are round and thatched. The folk music and bagpipes are reminiscent of Ireland. There are Celtic markings on key parts of homes. Witches good and bad are key decorations.Read more

    • Day 19

      O Cebreiro

      August 18, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Today was a surprisingly lonely day. I had a really nice rest day yesterday and enjoyed reading and spending time planning the stages for the rest of my Camino. I was looking forward to a bigger walking day today and knew it would be mostly incline climbing up to another high peak. Somehow I misread the distance and thought it was 17km but it was really only 8km. I made it to the top and to the town I was staying in for the night much earlier than I expected. Having a lot of idle time in a tiny mountain town with a few restaurants, a church, and a few places for pilgrims to sleep, left me with a lot of time to feel sort of restless and homesick.

      I’ve been away for almost three weeks and I have two more weeks before I reach Santiago, spend a day at the ocean, and fly home. As I get closer to Santiago and am in the second half of the time away, I am looking forward to being home.

      The constant movement on the Camino, whether walking or not, can be fatiguing. I haven’t slept in the same place for two consecutive nights since I left home, and I won’t until I get home again. Because I sped up my trip with buses and taxis at different points, I’ve also left behind most of the familiar faces I was walking alongside. There really aren’t a lot of English speaking pilgrims - most speak Spanish, Italian, or French - so it’s hard to have much of a conversation with most people.

      I’m not sure how the next two weeks will be, but it’s nice to anticipate that I’ll be glad to go home when the time comes. I changed my flight to have a full week at home before going back to work. I’m looking forward to hopefully catching some of the end of summer and enjoying time at the lake.

      About 155 km left to go before Santiago. Tomorrow I’ll walk 22km. Slowly but surely, I’ll get there.
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    • Day 34

      Day 33, Pradela to O Cebreiro

      June 25, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

      Our Irish roommate, Matt, was worried before bed that he wouldn’t know what time to get up because his charger was broken and he had no watch. In the event he decided to get up at 4am and leave around 4.30 - his rattling around woke me up pretty thoroughly. A shrieking cockerel and a cacophony of barking dogs conspired to ensure I didn’t get back to sleep after his departure. I don’t know why I ever thought the deepest countryside would be tranquil. We left at 6am, before dawn, again hoping to get as much of the day’s walk done before it became too hot. We speculated about how far Matt had already walked.
      For our first 3kms, we made a steep (and in my case, cautious) descent into Trabadelo, the town where we had planned to stay the night before. And then there was a long stretch of fairly flat walking by the side of a road and a river. Many of the little places we passed through were quite pretty but somewhat blighted by an enormous highway overhead. The only saving grace was the absence of traffic - in stark contrast with the UK, the motorway infrastructure here seems to vastly exceed demand.
      The most challenging part of the day began about 13kms in when we began the steep ascent to O Cebreiro. We were expecting temperatures above 30. I fortified myself first with coffee and a banana and we began the climb after 9.30am. It’s a rise of 630m over about 8kms - and Dominic, who cycled it a few years ago, had mentioned that it was very demanding! Some was through wooded areas and I was grateful for the shade (although Fiona was tormented by flies). Once again, the views were stupendous. When the walking is so hot and arduous, I have to remind myself to stop and look around, because my instinct is just to plod on until the ordeal is over!
      We stopped at every opportunity to rehydrate and, were greatly surprised to bump into Matt, last night’s roommate. We thought he’d be at least 10 kilometres ahead of us but he said he’d realised it was too dark to walk at 4.30 so he’d gone back to sleep on a wall in the village. He intends to walk 40-45 kms every day but I find myself amazed that he ever reaches the destination he’s heading for. He’s an electrician at home - afraid I’d be reluctant to employ him! I really wanted to tell him to get a bus to Sarria to ensure he completes the Camino this time (he’s tried before but he didn’t manage it) however, I stopped myself, mindful that I not his mum.
      At the next village we stopped again and, after a recuperative choc ice, we carried on the climb and crossed into Gallacia, the final Spanish region of our Camino. Within another kilometre we had reached, O Cebreiro, the beautiful little village at the top of the mountain where we are sleeping tonight.
      After a very filling lunch of mounds of goats cheese with quince jelly and honey, we slipped away for a nap and a cold shower (no hot water at all in our albergue). We also rearranged some of our later bookings to try to avoid overly long days in the final week.
      With its curious thatched roofs, O Cebreiro looks quite different from the villages we’ve passed through in Castile and Leon. It’s got great charm and I’m very taken with its Celtic character. (Evident in the music and the jewellery). There are wonderful views from all sides - I’m not sure I’ve been anywhere surrounded by more natural beauty.
      At 7pm we went to mass in the Romanesque church in the village where the lovely priest played church music on his iPhone at strategic moments in the service and addressed the pilgrims in broken English as well as in Spanish, blessing us all before we left and giving each person a stone.
      We had dinner with Ramona and later watched the sun going down together over the hills. We had to stay up until 10pm to catch it but tomorrow is a short day and the temperatures are cooler up here in the mountains so we thought we could allow ourselves a lie-in.
      I’m feeling sad that we are approaching our final week but am trying to savour each day that remains.
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    • Day 32

      Ponferrada to Villafranco del Bierzo

      September 17, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

      Left for Villafranco at 8:30 AM. Approximately 24 km's. The beginning portion of this stage was uphill. After it leveled out, maybe around 10 km's in the road was very pleasant. When I reached Pieros, I started going downhill. So that means tomorrow will a little diffi ult because we go up from the jump. Milestone day. Went under 200 km's to go today. Cause to celebrate. The town had their patron saint fiesta. Put a part of it on film. Hope it posts. Albergue is small but nice. Buen Camino. 😊Read more

    • Day 53

      Peaceful day in O Cebreiro

      May 19, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      A rest day today which was perfect for Rachel and Richard to get adjusted and over any jet lag after their big travel day. And this is such a perfect place to relax, with such amazing surroundings and views everywhere. And the clear weather continues!!

      So not a lot to report. We all walked for a bit along the camino track leading out, where they will walk tomorrow, on the side of the mountain looking over the valley, just gorgeous. Not sure of my transport yet…there is one bus, but it leaves at 3.20, which is rather late, or a taxi…we’ll see. And we have walked around this Celtic village, so cute, and almost totally revolved around feeding and housing of pilgrims. And bus loads of non pilgrim tourists come now and then, as it is such a spectacular sight.

      It is really cold! I have had my layers, including jacket on all day, even in the room…it was cosy at night though - the heaters come on and there are warm blankets and doona!

      Had a nice dinner last night, with Galega soup, which is cabbage and potato soup in a very tasty broth, very hearty! Will have dinner tonight at 8 at the restaurant at our own hotel…all much the same fare, and all tasty, but as usual helpings are too enormous for me!! But Amr and Richard help out! Tomorrow we go to Triacastela.
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    • Day 38

      Rocky Mountain High in the Wind & Rain!

      October 25, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

      So...we climbed a mountain today & entered our final region of this Camino! It was pretty cool to see horses bring some of the Pilgrims up the mountain ahead of us. The trail up was very wet, muddy & rocky. Taking a horse ride up is a good option if you are worried about slipping.

      We are showered & dry, sitting in front of the warm wood stove in our casa rural as the wind howls outside.
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    • Day 25

      O Cebreiro

      August 10, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      Passed the hill and after almost punching out an Australian “pilgrim” made it into the rolling hills of Galicia just fine.

      Thunderstorms awaited us on the other side and after one last ascent to the Alto do Poio I walked in a slight drizzle that soon turned into a refreshing sprinkle and, by the time I’d reached the albergue, thunder and lightning.Read more

    • Day 36 - La Portela to O Cebreiro - 14km

      October 4, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      I am sitting on top of a mountain, literally! I am sitting outside my albergue looking at breathtaking views. It was only a 14km hike today but it was all uphill, and 8kms of it was steep. I am in O Cebreiro for the night and it is at an elevation of 1330m.

      I woke up at 7am ready for an 8am take off, but to my surprise, David, the owner of the the albergue was making us Churros with chocolate for breakfast. I don’t think I have ever had one before. It was delicious and very kind. With my belly full, I was off at 8:30am. The day was a beautiful sunny day again. The walk up first takes you through a few cute villages and then starts on a track path, full of mud and cow dung. Man were there flies everywhere. That part wasn’t so pleasant, but I still enjoyed it as it was real hiking.

      The second half was a little easier terrain with mostly dirt and rocks, but there was no tree shelter. I found a shrub once and kind of rested behind it, but really, mostly sun exposed for the afternoon. I arrived at the top around 2:00pm, just in time to be greeted with a bus load of German tourists. This is a wonderful spot and I can understand why tour busses would come up here. There are views almost 360 degrees around. I am really looking forward to the sunset tonight, and then the sunrise in the morning.

      The hike itself was pretty tough, but I took it at a slow and steady pace. I really wasn’t tired until about the last 30 minutes. It was around that time, where we officially leave Castilla Y Leon and enter Galicia. I love that, when you enter Galicia, then you know the end is close. My app says there is 152kms left and the trail signs say about 159km left, I will go by my app thank you.

      Tomorrow is mostly down. I have booked a private room to treat myself so there is no rush to get off in the morning. I can sit and enjoy the views, that is if there isn’t a fog, and if there is, then that will be fun in itself.

      TTYL
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    • Day 27

      Hello Galicia!

      August 18, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

      We got to the top very soon after crossing the border. At O Cebreiro there's a church and a lot of shops for tourists. Nelly wanted to visit the shops but I wasn't interested, so we parted there. We exchanged numbers and I continued the walk.Read more

    • Day 46

      Day 35 - O Cebreiro

      October 12, 2023 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

      We are double digit midgets (term from my military days), we have less than 100 miles left in our Camino!!!! We also have 9 days of walking left.
      What a day, the climb was really hard, 1800 feet elevation over 4.5 miles. This is our last hard day. From here on, it is literally downhill.Read more

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