October 15th, 2015

     Yesterday we came across a couple more messages  left along the Camino for the pilgrims.
​   This one:

​     And this one on a post next to a field:

     For the second time a hospitalara has recognized Tom and me from our last stay at her albergue.  The second time was the other day at the albergue La Reboleira at Fonfria where the hospitaliera told us our faces looked familiar and was very happy when she learned that we had indeed been to her albergue before and had now returned.  When I asked her how she remembered us from among all the pilgrims she'd seen over the past two years she said there was something about our faces.
     The first time a hospitaliera asked us if' we'd been to her albergue before was a few days ago.  That hospitaliera didn't charge us for our beds, only charged us half for our breakfast, gave us a big candy bar for the road and refused a tip, saying we should instead say a prayer for her her and family when we get to Santiago.   We will.
      Yestéday we walked 19 kilometers from Fonfria to Samos among the cloud islands,

...and waterfalls,

.....along mountain paths and highways and through small towns.

   
​  In the town of Samos is located the oldest monastery in Spain, built in the 6th century A.D.

     The monastery has a very basic albergue  - a bed and a shower, but no heat or aything else.  Most of the pilgrims we talked to who were staying in Samos were staying in the monastery for the experience, but Tom and I decided to skip the experience and stayed at an albergue across the street from the monastery,

...the albergue Val de Samosa.  It was a lovely place, 9€ per bed,

 ...and we were the only pilgrims staying there -seems everybody else was at the monastery -  so we had the whole albergue, plus the bathroom and laundry service, all to ourselves. It was great.  At least at first.
​    Our hospitaliera told us to go to the bar next door to our albergue for dinner, but when we did the poor distressed barkeeper told us that the cook didn't show up, something about an issue with her children, and so there was no one to fix us any food.  The barkeeper told us to try the hotel down the road.
     So we walked about a kilometer down the road to the hotel, where the server very apologetically told us that dinner wasn't served until 8:30 - our albergue closed at 9 - and it was only 7:30.   But he offered to rustle us up something from the kitchen, and we gladly accepted his offer.
    He brought us a big pot of delicious caldo gallido, a spinach and potato soup that's a specialty of Galicia,

...followed by a huge  platter of equally delicious stew,

     ....with home-made flan for dessert.  Our dinners, bottle of wine included, were 11€ each.
     By the time we were finished with dinner it was already  dark outside - the sun rises at 8 am here and by 8 pm it's dark again - so we walked back to our albergue in the dark, empty streets of the town.  
      When we returned to the albergue the place was only dimly lit inside.  Soon after we returned our hospitaliera left the albergue to go home, so we were all alone in this rather dark stone-walled albergue which in daylight seemed cute and rustic but now seemed kind of creepy.  It occurred to us that two pilgrims alone in a dark, creepy albergue would make a great scenario for a horror flick.
    However we woke up this morning safe in our bunks with all our body parts intact, and as soon as the sun came up we were back out on the Camino with our brethren pilgrims, so it was all good.