This morning was an exciting morning. It started off a bit slow because Megan’s poor 2nd outfit had been damp from being washed 3 days prior, so she hung them up outside on the clothesline the evening before hoping they would dry. It rained really hard so they were soaking wet. She had to put them in the dryer, hoping that would help, but European dryers don’t really seem to always dry clothes. She had to hook the wet clothes to her backpack. With all this happening, we sent our friends ahead to hike without us.
Once we left the albergue, the exciting part happened. We reached the 100Km from Santiago marker.
This marker is one of the most graffitied marker. In order to earn your Compostela, you need to hike the last 100km. A lot of people start the Camino here.
We were talking about how this part of the trail feels like fairies would live here. Sonali said it seemed like you would see a unicorn running through the fields here.
We came across this sign:
This made me think of Brad. Our first outing that we did alone together was to go see the movie “A Beautiful Life” at the Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis. The next morning, Brad sent me an email with this written “Buon Giorno Principessa” in the heading. After receiving that, I knew he liked me.
We came across this bridge that lead us to the town of Portomarin. We made a quick stop there. The town was getting set up for their market. There were two woman preparing octopus to put on the grill, a woman selling handmade baskets, vendors selling jamon, and lots of other vendors getting their goods ready for sale.
We had a cafe con leche and then headed on our way. On our way out of town, a family passed us. A really athletic looking mom with her three teenaged daughters. They looked very cheerful and they appeared to be energetic, super put together, and clean. The father of the group had on a shirt that looked ironed. We referred to them as the clean family because you could smell the soap, not a super common experience on the trail. Not that people smell dirty, just not a super fresh soap smell.
After this picture, Megan freed herself of the wet pants hanging on her backpack. There was a garbage bin on the trail and she unclipped them from the carbiner and chucked them in the trash. She was done with pants that did not dry after 4 days. A bit later on our hike, I was walking and starting to feel some pain. All of a sudden it felt like a small piece of wood, cut in between my toes. I had to stop, take off my backpack, than take off my shoe and sock. One of my blisters had exploded!!! Amazingly after that, it felt better.
We decided to stay at an albergue in Ligone. There were two of them. Both were full. Patrick thankfully sent a message saying that he and the Italian ladies were staying in Eirexe, about 1km away. So we pressed on. This mama cow and her calves were the welcoming committee to Eirexe.
There were 4 other women looking for beds for the evening besides the 3 of us. In the first albergue they only had 6 beds available. So the 4 women took those beds. Luckily, across the street there was a really nice pension albergue that had exactly 3 beds left. And to top it off, there were only 2 bunk beds in the room with a private shower and toilet. It felt super luxurious!
We headed over to the cafe/bar after settling in to our room. Megan ordered us a couple of cerveza con limon. I was feeling great after resting my feet the night before and thankfully to Megan helping me tend to my blisters. As we were sitting and enjoying a beer, we saw a lot of people stop at the albergues to see about a bed, then get turned away. We noticed that at the table in front of us sat the clean family enjoying a meal together. Come to find out, the dad was Jose Andres who is a famous chef. He basically brought tapas to the US. He has a show on PBS called “Made in Spain”. I had never heard of him, but after looking him up, I am super impressed. Being an immigrant to the US himself, he is very vocal for other immigrants. He had been tweeting from the Camino.
We had a fun night of hanging out with people we have gotten to know on the Camino. Lots of laughs and great conversation. This is one of my favorite things about the Camino. Patrick after seeing cows all day, wanted some meat. So we all had burgers with Spanish bacon on them…..YUM!! I totally recommend these.
Today’s hike was dedicated to Brad, it seemed like the perfect day for this after getting that little message. I really enjoy fluttering around and Brad is the complete opposite of me. I refer to him as the rock of the family. He is the one who keeps us on track. For extended members of our family he is always willing to help out with whatever anyone needs help with. He really enjoys doing projects and always seems to have something going on. Our daughters have him wrapped around their fingers. He is a very involved dad and he makes us all feel safe. He is quiet, not one to express emotions, but when he does it is very genuine, surprising, and thoughtful. He loves to cook and bake. He enjoys challenging himself and pushing himself with biking and skiing. He always seems to have a lot going on in his head. He is the yin to my yang.
Mama With Wanderlust 