Sarria to Portomarin, 18.08

It was very hard getting up today and maybe the wine consumption of the others also meant that we got up later than usually thus just started walking around 8.30. By the it was clear that it is going to be busy all the way to Santiago since there were so many people on the road.

When we took off it was very clouded and extremely humid and the poor weather made me feel miserable and sweaty. To make it even worse my cheeks (and I am not talking about the ones in my face unfortunately) were extremely sore so walking uphill and downhill was very challenging for me.

Horrible wether walking out of Sarria. It also drizzled a little. I was not a happy camper.

Around noon we stopped for food and then the sun finally appeared making me happy.

What made me even more happy was seeing this sign: 

Less than 100 km to go! :-)

Walking in Galicia has brought us through many small farming villages and today was no exception.

Cow pretending to be a giraffe? 

Hungry cow.

An ostrich?! Have I walked all the way to Africa?

The place we wanted to stop at was full so we carried on to Portomarin even though that is one of the guide book stops so we knew it would be busy and since we started late we might not be se to get a bed. After 23,5 kms (where many of them were downhill. Steep that is. My poor bum!) we reached Portomarin by crossing a bridge.

View from bridge:

Siobhan singing in the bridge:

I wonder if the mayor of Portimarin thought "how can we challenge pilgrims that just walked 20 something kms and welcome them to our town?! Let"s make stairs for them to climb!" D'oh:

By popular demand a picture of yours truly (and Ursula the good woman):

We went into the first albergue and was told there were no beds in town! The next place was 8 kms away and they would probably say the same. We talked about staying outside but that thought made me sad since it's my birthday tomorrow and I simply don't want to wake up to it in a park like a homeless person. It is bad enough that I am far away from my dear ones and will have to celebrate "alone". Due to the above I have also been a little sentimental tonight and actually felt a little homesick. For the first time ever!

We were told we could go to the albergue since they might open s nearby school for the many pilgrims that were missing a bed. That meant we had to stand in line and wait:

After 3 (!!!) hours of waiting they finally let us in and I got a bed. Yay. Then we ventured out to have a look at Portomarin and it is a very nice place:

Then we went and had a pilgrim menu (a 3 course dinner including wine for the price between 8 and 12 euros) This is the first time I had it as it usually comes with bread, rice, pasta or fries. I had a simple salad for starter (lettuce, onion and tomatoes) and salmon and salad for dinner (same salad as starter) I skipped dessert.

A local dance group was entering us while eating: 

That is all for now.

I will now go to bed and wake up a year older.