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Pilgrim monument

This is such a treat. Usually it costs about a Euro ($1.45) for half an hour or so, and we burn through that pretty quickly. This computer is old and slow, and I already caused it to freeze once by trying to load pictures, but I´m happy to have it. We are in a village called Trecastille (sp?) which means 3 castles in Spanish. None of the 3 castles still exist, and the town is nothing special, but it´s a good stopping point with 5 albergues. There are a lot of people walking kind of funny around here (limping peregrinos). For the first time last night we found the albergue to be full, and we had to get a private room in an inn- not such a bad thing once in awhile but we just had a private room the night before! We hear that after tomorrow night things will be even more crowded, as it´s possible to get the official Camino seal after walking only 100 km and the town of Sarria is at the 100 km point. This is nothing compared to the summer crowds but we have had the luxury of a leisurely, uncrowded Camino and we hate to give that up. It´s a hard thing to quantify, but in the beginning nearly all the peregrinos we met were committed to doing the 500 mile trek. As others have joined in Burgos, Leon, Astorga, etc. we are joined by less gritty types, many have their luggage carted by taxi from town to town and only carry a small backpack. One Canadian lady we met stays in 3 star hotels and has her luggage carted. She told us that somebody had dubbed her a "limousine pilgrim" and she rather liked the title. In addition, she started smoking again on this trip, as there was something that appealed to her about the European-ness of it. At least she had a sense of humor about it.all...by contrast there are 3 Italian women, none under 60 years old nor over 5´2" tall who miraculously turn up at nearly every town we land in. The really remarkable thing is that one of them pulls her luggage on something that looks vaguely like a golf cart. We can´t figure out how they make it over some of the rutted and rocky roads. I have a great picture of them that I will post when I get home, if not before.

The last couple days have been gorgeous, with hilly and mountainous terrain. We were getting a bit tired of the ¨meseta¨ that offered easy walking but rather boring views. We have also tired of the pilgrim menu (as mentioned before) but things seem to be looking up with more rustic bread and a ÿummy vegetable soup called¨"Caldo Galicia". This evening, for the first time, we opted to make a simple meal at the albergue from items purchased at the "supermercado"...translate- small grocery store. Speaking of Galicia, we have entered the region of Galicia ("Galithis") which has Celtic roots (who knew????) They have their own language, although most also speak "proper" Spanish". Some houses feature thatched rooves, and names of towns may start with O´ something.  Bagpipe music can be heard from recordings.

A couple other things we have wanted to mention: Spain has its own version of dollar stores in the larger towns,run by Asians. They are not called "Euro stores" as one might expect, but "Bazars". I bought a pair of sunglasses there, as I lost my (cheap) ones and wanted another cheap pair to replace them, lest  I lose those as well.

Also, we loved the last town- "Villefranca". It is surrounded by hills and vineyards, has several wonderful medieval buildings and a lovely river and bridges. In addition, we stayed at a delightful albergue run by a young couple and their dog, who all contributed to a homey, caring, experience. We hooked up again with our German friends Marco and Bernd for beers and dinner. Haven´t seen them in the last couple days, but you just never know who will turn up- nor when.

From the window of the albergue

Pilgrims in the mist

Passing through a village

House on the hill

Thatched roof in O'Cebreiro

Our albergue in Villefranca

Picnic and foot relief by the river

One more thing (Jed here)  the other morning on our way out of town we found a cafe open, so ducked in for a cafe con leche before hitting the road.  This was kind of an upscale place, as they had a tv on the wall, which usually broadcasts either soccer or tennis, but we saw stern faced announcers and pictures of Osama, with captions under, the only word I could make out was ¨muerte¨, so we came to the conclusion that he is dead.  Further exploration on google verified this. 

Signing off from Triacastella,
Layne and Jed