Past Sarria to Barbadelo (Su 6 Oct)

We had a peaceful sleep in our Albergue.  A large room with only 2 sets of bunks and 2 single beds, including an unusual duo: a German named Norbert, recently retired and Mike, a young Taiwanese studying in the UK.  We had walked with them that day and spent a good part of the evening chatting with them.  We walked again today with Norbert, pictured below.  I'll have to get a better pic of him:

He retired Sep 1, after 30 years with BMW, as head cook for the 28,000 workers at their factory outside Munich.  He decided the Camino would be a good transition between working life and retirement.

Another bed bug case last night.  This time a young German woman, part of a group of five young people, three Germans and two Texans who met on the Camino.  We see them day after day but it's the first time we've stayed in the same place.   She had bites all over her arms.  I must admit I woke up a few times during the night thinking the little critters were on me (they weren't).  Here's a pic of the young group, from a few days ago, with two S. Koreans, in pink and orange, amongst them:

Another misty, foggy day, but we soon climbed above it and had great views from above:

The Camino then descended down into the fog and took us though many tiny villages with active farms, barns and cattle tracks and sights and smells and sounds we rarely experience back home:

It took us two and a half hours before we found a coffee shop open and it tasted so good.  We had a coffee with Norbert, Mike and a fellow from China -- only Chinese we've met so far.

Another interesting coincidence.  Jan and I are so enjoying the walking that we started talking about other walks we might want to take, like N epal.  A few minutes later we met up with Kim and Karen from N. Carolina, who we've seen off and on for a couple weeks.  Somehow, Karen started talking about N epal, specifically her trip to A nnapurna, with a new all-female guiding group called the three sisters. Sounds fabulous.

Just past Sarria, the fog disappeared and the rest of the afternoon was sunny and warm.  The tall green plants in the foreground are like kale, except they continue to harvest the leaves from the bottom up as the plant grows.   They are used in the local specialty, Galician soup:

We chose to stay in a municipal Albergue in an Old schoolhouse in the sleepy village of Barbadelo.  The schoolhouse looks nice enough on the outside, but is not very nice inside.  It'll be fine for the night:

The countryside is beautiful here, so we've spent most of the day wandering around outside:

We also visited friends who are in a much nicer Albergue, with a beautiful garden, benches etc, just up the road.  View from their garden:

I read a startling stastic last night: 25% of the people who finish in Santiago, started in Sarria, the town we just passed, and another 5% from O'Cebreiro, the town we stayed in two nights ago.  Most of these are Spanish.  We are noticing many new groups of walkers, most Spanish, exhibiting teething pains we haven't seen in a while: struggling up hills, sweaty and out of breath, sore feet, collapsing into the bunks when they arrive, etc.  We have to remember that these people are still walking 100 km under their own steam and that by itself is a big accomplishment, something neither Jan nor I had done in one stretch before starting our own Camino.  And walking 20 km in one day is also a challenge for most of us. So good on them and a hearty Buen Camino!