Santa Irene Albergue - we can smell Santiago from here, and it smells good!

For days now, we've been seeing these mysterious thin, raised buildings.  Many have crosses on top, leading me to wonder if they could possibly be associated with burial rites.  Examples:

All are on concrete or rock bases, that seem to prevent vermin.  All are well ventilated.  

A rare, double sighting:

So, our other guesses were: drying hams (ham is super popular here), drying or storing grains.  Well, the grains seem to have won, based on finally found one that wasn't empty (cobs of corn drying):

Galicia is beautiful and green, and notoriously wet and cool.  So we were surprised to see so many plants we associate with hot climates:

Some people we met along the way today:

 a fellow Canuck we hadn't seen for probably three weeks -- Terry from St. Thomas:

We've met who we think is the oldest pilgrim (91 yr old Mike).  This young lad is the youngest we've seen, an 18 month old from Germany:

In terms of our Albergue, sometimes you need a bit of luck on the Camino and today was our day.  Jan had heard about this special Albergue called Santa Irene (Irene happens to be Jan's middle name and her grandmother's name as well, but that's just a coincidence).  We didn't plan to stay here as it was 30 km from our last home, but it was an option if nothing panned out in between, which turned out to be the case.  It was a hot afternoon and a fair bit of up hill, so we were ready to stop when we knocked on the door. A woman greeted us and while she was checking if there were still beds, we could see the beautiful interior, smell aromas wafting from the kitchen, and heard music playing softly.  We held our breaths until she returned ... she came back and said she had two beds -- we were so happy!!

Here's our little home away from home:

The place is amazing, like all albergues should be.  Warm, inviting, sheets and blankets and a towel.  Slightly pricey at 13€ each, but well worth it.   A comfy living room with music playing and a fire going in the evening:

Cozy sleeping area, with individual lights, power outlets, rocking chair...

One of the best meals we've had, beginning with soup:

A fantastic fish dish (hake?) -- Susan (Kentucky), Juan Ramon (Spain), Karen (S.  Africa):

We had a top four list of albergues and after tonight, we have a top five.  And we walked far enough today that we'll be in Santiago tonight.  Big city, with hoards of pilgrims. It will no doubt be exciting, but so glad we had a night here with just 13 other pilgrims.