Triacastela

Another grace gift today...no rain until late afternoon, so we walked with grey skies and cloud cover, but dry and warm with jackets on.  The walk from O'Cebreiro to Triacastela was only 13.2 miles but took us a while longer than usual.  There was a lot of up and down through the hills, plus I had a pain on the top arch of my left foot (right where the shoe laces tie if you can picture that).It started at the end of yesterday's climb and I had hopped it would subside overnight.  Didn't happen.  I am thinking my trail shoes are starting to break down a bit and not provide the support I need, especially in the rocks with the steep ups and downs of the past few days.  But that is only a theory...  At any rate I had some pain, tho not sharp pain, with every step today.  Tomorrow's walk  to Sarria is only 11.6 miles and then we will have a rest day on Sunday, so I hope it can heal in that time.  There was only one church to see in Triacastela today...there is nothing left of the three castles that were in the surrounding hills at one time.  So I took a shower and have been relaxing and catching up on my blog with my foot up.  We did not have free WiFi up on the mountain yesterday, so there was a lot waiting.

We had breakfast a a nice cafe before leaving this morning...some time after 8:00.  The incredible views continued all day...that kept me going.  We passed through little towns and went up and over two Altos...high spots.  One had an imposing medieval pilgrim looking over the vast expanse of Galicia. There were long steep downhill sections the last 8 km.  Just before town there was a 2 km walk on a beautiful tree lined path.  The canopy made it cool and comfortable.  The wind blew at times all day, but overall the weather was overcast and cool.

We are seeing more cows and  chickens.  Twice farmers passed with their small herd of cows.  One farmer was pulling/holding the tail of a cow...almost looked like he was having the cow pull him up the hill.

We are staying in a small Albergue called Berce do Camino tonight.  There are just 5 of us in the room and we are hoping to sleep well tonight.  I think this last week we are going to try to get into
small places and not use the big ones where there are 30 to 90 people in one big room.

Just about time for supper.  God was faithful to get me through this day and I am grateful.  Pray for us as we have six walking days left to Santiago!

Not sure of this is firewood or if it has another purpose...sorry.  Sure is cute tho!

This was up on top of a very windy ridge, but the chickens didn't seem to mind.

LOTS of BIG dogs along the way...but the,seem non-plussed with the Pilgrims walking by...boring.w

Next we ran into a farmer and his herd...

Don't know if holding on helped him get up the hill or of the cow tended to wander...

Farmland and forest...both great for walking.

Much of the limestone used to creat the Santiago Cathedral came from this area.  

This town had a very long Main Street...the town was pretty much built around the one street.

We saw several sets of these happy old folks along the way...

We saw a few of these, too.  You can press a coin and create a souvenir.