Day 33 Fonfria - Samos

Arriving at the monastry st last!

Where I found Ruth today at her lunch spot

Walking through the mist

Slept badly despite the beautiful spacious building. Probably too animated after all the camino discussion last evening. Really interesting communal dinner.
Such a collection of people at dinner last evening all on a journey of self discovery but choosing to do it with lots of others. It's a very safe road to take and many people do it alone. It's easy to keep yourself separate or mix in as the mood takes you.

Last night at dinner I sat next to Jurgen, a police dog handler from Germany. He showed me a picture of his dog. There seem to be loads of German Shepherd dogs around here as pets and farm dogs, all roaming loose or just snoozing and totally ignoring pilgrims. In England, I would be frightened of walking past a farm house with 3 loose German Shepherds outside but these seem really docile. Jurgen says they are not the proper breed.

There was lots of discussion about why people were doing the camino. Escaping from work, stress, relationships. Trying to break out of the rat race, taking time out of normal life to ' find yourself'. Lots of peole doing it to mark retirement but lots of young ones as well. All in all, it is a therapeutic experience to walk through beautiful countryside day after day and have no worries except finding one of the plentiful beds. Social life comes with the package if you want it. To be recommended.



Today I walked with Ruth again through Galithian villages in the early morning mist. The mist lifted and we walked through woodland along a river bank. Prolific mock orange perfumed our path.

We planned to stay at the monastry in Samos - the largest in Spain and one of the oldest in the western world - 9th century. Has been receiving pilgrims for over 1000 years.

It took longer to get there than we thought and we didn't take enough rests to pace ourselves comfortably. So we were tired and a tad irritable on arrival to find queues. There is a pressure for beds and people start queuing early. But it ended up not being full. This is always the balance to be drawn - take your time, enjoy the walk, stop frequently, arrive about 5pm - and find the albergue full - or not as the case may be.

Just a word about food - the pilgrim fodder is starting to really pall. We are not getting access to real Spanish food. It is so frustrating. We were looking forward to a late Spanish lunch on arrival. The locals were eating all sorts of wonderful stuff and we were offered the 'pilgrim' menu. I said I didn't want it and pointed to what the Spanish were eating. Not possible!!!

With the beautiful Viking!