Into Galicia! The spires of Santiago are just a week away

So, we'll start once again with the map above. We stayed in Herrerias last night, at 705 meters, looking forward to our morning climb to O Cebreiro (1300 meters) and beyond. Our little hostal did not open its kitchen until 8:00, so we were out the door at about 7:10, headed for coffee in the next village of La Faba.


Going was steep once again, and we gained a good view pretty quickly.


Cruised into La Faba and found a new architectural object, lots of thatched roofing on farm outbuildings, perhaps storage?


Also, proof that you cannot tell the age of a building in Spain by its looks!!


Crossed into Galicia shortly before reaching O Cebreiro





If you look carefully you can see quite a crowd in the town square in the background - when we went down a little street to find an orange juice we found two large tour busses and several vans that had discharged "peregrinos". It was particularly disappointing to see some of these folks getting stamps in a pilgrim credential, the document you use to prove your pilgrim experience and earn your Compostela in Santiago.
On a much more uplifting note, the church at O Cebreiro dates from the NINTH century, this baptismal font is 1,200 years old!


The rest of the Romanesque church dates from a bit later, and it's lovely.





A pilgrim hostal was part of a monastic settlement from the 11th century as well, Queen Isabella (yes, the one who financed Columbus' voyages) stayed in the hostal in 1486!!
This church is also the resting place of Don Elias Valina Sampedro, the parish priest who almost singlehandedly re-invigorated the post-war Camino, and who devised the yellow arrow symbol that guides all modern pilgrims along the way.





Leaving O Cebreiro, we gained and lost the same 100 meters of altitude about 5 times!





We stopped in the tiny hamlet of Hospital de la Condesa for lunch. They had a traditional loom on display, weaving a piece with tiny Galician shells for decoration!


And I couldn't resist the bulletin board covered with ads for taxis :-/


So, from the Albergue la Reboleira, filled to capacity at 64 persons plus all of their private rooms filled, we say 'bye for now.
P.S. I should say this is our first albergue stay in quite a while as we have both been coughing ourselves ragged at night. Hoping we've got it under control!!


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