While there were quite a number of beds in our Albergue room, it was not very full… This meant for a relatively quiet get away for us all.  You can see the pastoral setting of our Albergue, what you cannot experience is the smell of freshly manured fields wafting in through the open bathroom windows this morning!!! Talk about a rude awakening!!!

  We hit the road around 6:35 and were focused on breakfast only 3.5 km away!  But first we must indoctrinate Alan into the league of Superheros!

On we went to breakfast, and of course being early, a light breakfast was all they was needed… Alan hit the mother load when he found Lisa a Patisserie with fresh baked pastries!

Properly fueled, on we went to make our way on towards Santiago.  Another brilliant day with temps in the 20-25 C range we took advantage of the cool morning to make as much headway as we could.  Let me remind you that this is a region that usually sees 300 days per year of rainfall… And we have been blessed with pure sunshine!!! The way was mixed with green overarching woodland, pastoral pathways and roadway walks.

    

This last shot is courtesy of Lisa…the ubiquitous cow dung that we have to try to avoid on the many paths and roads that we have travelled…and I must say that this is far less runny than most!!!(I know, I know… Tmi!!!).  So Ana, what is it that makes these cows have the runs soooo much….and the smell, well that’s just not right!

The crowds are getting thicker, and we take time to greet all we pass, and all that pass us with Buen Camino.  While there is definitely more people, there are still rare moments when we have the way to ourselves…we steal these precious quiet times for reflection as our way is so close to its end.  The 4 of us are thrilled to be walking into Santiago together, but we also realize that this will be the end of our intimate journey together…Alan and Lisa will travel on together to Finnesterre and Muxia, but as a Fellowship of four we are walking our last day together tomorrow!

On a brighter subject, Dan has begun a “Fellowship”  ritual that is performed at each of the km markers on the road…it started around the 92 nd km marker “100 bottles of beer on the wall” tune with one verse sung at the corresponding numeric marker.  As it turns out, Alan, being the military man he is bought a tin of sardines in St Jean as emergency rations, and has been carrying this since the beginning…. Well, our plan is to celebrate the 1 km marker with a bottle of beer… falling off the wall into our mouths of course, accompanied by Alan’s sardines and crackers!!!  Of course there will be a lot more serious celebrations when we actually reach the cathedral!!!

  

We arrived in our Albergue relatively early today at around 1.  That gave us time for a shower, mini laundry (don’t want to walk into the cathedral tomorrow with dung covered pants!!!) and a quick lunch of Pulpo and white wine ( sorry Glenn, no photos… I can hear your silent tears dropping on the floor in Spain!!!) and back to theropod for a Siesta and Blogging!  Our Albergue is lovely, new in 2014, but the open concept can be noisy…. Ok, probably won’t get much sleep tonight anyway… Here’s a peak at the room from my bed!

And yes, those are bunk beds end to end on the far side of the room… This room alone can sleep 44 or so! After a rest, we all gather in the common room, Lisa to have dinner, and the rest of us to finish our various diaries, blog posts and what ever!

You can see the junior members of our Fellowship Jamie and Hanna.  Jamie has circumnavigated the world with Alan, and they are both official Pilgrim Bears! They travel everywhere with him and even contribute to his blog at times!  You can read about them and Alan’s adventures at http://www.karmavoyager.blogspot.com  including some different insights into his Camino adventure!

Tonight we had a delightful meal.  12€ for Pulpo and steak and Tarte de Santiago… Glenn this one’s for you!

We were also joined by Kim from Frankfurt… A delightful evening even if she left in May 1, and we left on Apr 23… Crap she walks fast!!!!! But we are all excited for tomorrow!!!

 Until tomorrow…  And there will be a couple of days more blogging as we don’t leave Spain until the 30th!  Love to all!!!