In Ponte Ferreira, one day from the Camino Francés

I think that as soon as I finished my last post, it started to pour.  It rained all Wed. afternoon, evening, and through the night.  Two Spaniards got up at 4 to start to walk and they woke up the whole albergue with their noise.  I got up, looked outside at the horrible weather and curled back up in my bag.  A few hours later, we packed up and wet outside, and though it was grey it was not raining.  When we got to the little hamlet of Paradavella, a bar was open for coffee and toast.  Everyone stop there, and the owner warned us over and over about how we should not continue on the Camino (because of last night's rain) but rather stick to the highway.  As a result, the many pilgrims who listened to him missed out on one of the most beautiful stages of the Primitivo, with ups and downs through woods and green pastures, through little hamlets with rivers running through, just simply beautiful. 

 

Luck stayed with us the whole day, we saw some sun and it made walking through those green tunnels of mud much easier with no rain coming down.  Actually it was a beautiful day -- so beautiful, that when we got to our planned destination, we decided to call 8 kms further on and book a pensión.  The big elevation changes are all over now, so I don´t have to worry about losing too much steam at the end of the afternoon. 

So, yesterday we arrived in Lugo, a city with Roman walls and a beautiful historic center.

 It was a lovely sunny day, the start of three days of fiestas in Lugo -- called ardus luxus or something, they seem to mainly involve grown-ups and children dressing up to look like Romans or visigoths and then consuming huge quantities of alcohol.  Any thought I had of spending a "rest day" in Lugo was quickly dismissed by about 3 am after we had had 3 hours of loud, drunken singing in the streets outside our window.  It continued all night and by 5:30, I just decided to get up and go.  The streets were still packed with people of various stages of inebriation, and the plazas were filled with bottles, garbage, etc.  Just as I was leaving town, around 6:15, the poor sanitation workers arrived to start cleaning.  The city will be spic and span by 8 am, just in time for Saturday´s round of partying to begin. 

So, we walked out of Lugo and had a nice day through green Galicia. 

We once again stopped at an albergue and decided it was too early to stop walking, so we took a rest, ate lunch, and on we went to this little town of Ponte Ferreira, whose main attraction is a 7' long Roman bridge.  But we are now only 22 kms to Melide, town of octopus fame, and this is where my camino (the Camino Primitivo) joins up with the Camino Francés and the hordes that will be walking.  I will have two more days into Santiago, where I´ll spend two nights and then start my last walk of the year -- four days out to Muxía and Finisterre, on the coast.  Can´t believe how little is left. I´m not ready to stop walking yet, but maybe that will change when I am on the moving sidewalk of humanity that they call the Camino Francés. 

Spain plays France in the Eurocopa quarter finals tonight, so the albergue has hooked up a special tv screen for all the fans to watch.  Since there are both Spaniards and French here in the albergue tonight, it could be interesting.