Triacastela: Lunch and Lunacy!

The rising sun over the mountain tops.

While it was chilly up on the mountain we were treated to a glorious morning.  No fog or clouds today!  But like Peter, James and John, we could not stay at O Cebreiro.   And so I stopped by the Celtic Inn to get the wifi signal and say goodbye.   Then I began my descent.   How bad could going down be?  You cannot imagine.

Glorious!

As surprised as I was yesterday about how "ok" it was climbing up the mountain, well, that's how bad the descent was.  14 miles by now is not that big of a deal.   But the 1, 800 foot descent quite frankly killed me:  my right knee in particular.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it.  At the beginning I was walking with one of the "Tacoma Girls" which helped passed the time but I was no match for her on the incline.

Monument to Saint Roche, Pilgrim.

What I thought was going to be a 4 hour journey turned into five plus hours.  Part of the extra hour was the mountain, part is that I am stopping more to talk with people along the way.  With only six days left I think I am beginning to have "Camino Withdrawal."  I really don't want this experience to end and yet Santiago looms larger and larger on the Western Horizon.

Mother Nature's Handiwork in the Mountains.

Arriving in Triacastela was rather strange.  It has been the only stop so far with nothing in it.  No, there were albergues, restaurants and grocery stores but there was nothing existent from its Camino Past except the Church of Santiago.  No three castles.  No Medieval walls.  Everything else was lost to progress.

Church of S. Esteban, Linares

I got checked in at the albergue and made my way to the adjoining restaurant on the main street.  It was a splendid afternoon.  As I was there, Richard from London arrived and joined me for some wonderful chat and eats.  The trio of Bruce, John and Stephen passed by.  Richard was planning to walk further but my invitation to sit and a bothersome ankle soon sent him looking for a bed as the albergues began to fill (A difficulty the last week of the Camino is the swell of pilgrims, especially Spanish, who walk only the last 100K).  As he went off John from South (I think) Carolina joined me until Mass.

Cat on Camino!

As wonderful as lunch was, evening Mass was a disaster.  The poor priest, who was so kind, was equally negligent with the Roman Rite.  It was pure lunacy.  I almost went back to my room to celebrate it again.  I was very much saddened over it.

Church of S. Oxan, Padornelo

Tomorrow is a shorter walk to Sarria, the last of the large towns until Santiago.

Church of Santiago, Triacastela.
(Not sure how parishioners feel about passing the cemetery each Sunday).