Buen camino!

When brand new, high-tech, multi-pocketed backpacks suddenly showed up on our doorsteps, Chloe and I knew we had unwittingly agreed to join our parents on the Camino de Santiago. Not that anyone was objecting to a vacation in Spain! But this was the ultimate commitment device.

So a flight and two bus rides later, we arrived in the town of Sarria. Like many things in Spain, the monastery we slept in was a mish-mash of old and new: a severe stone building with its shuttered cloisters, but a kitchen for the pilgrims complete with coffee vending machines and a flat screen TV.

The next morning we were treated to a light day - just 20 km - through the Spanish countryside. It was misty and slightly chilly but a beautiful walk, punctuated by frequent stops for cafe con leche. The most drama we encountered was trying to pass through a herd of enormous cows that had taken over the Camino as their private pasture.

Tonight we bunk in the Albergue Mercadoiro, an 800-year old stone house that was once a pilgrim hospital and is now a lovely hostel shaded by cherry trees, and serving incredible food. Dinner began with a tapa of fluffy tortilla espanola, followed by the menu del dia: smoky lentil and kale soup; fried calamari and french fries or beef stew; desert of homemade cheesecake and  fresh melon; and two full carafes of house red wine. Our entertainment: reading next to a wood stove, and cracking up over a fellow pilgrim who dared to use the scary-looking foot massage machine, complete with plastic foot covers, in order to have ´´circulacion activa.´´ Can´t wait for day two!   


-Katherine