After yesterday’s tough ride ending in the long climb in the
rain, I slept wonderfully, and awoke to – more cold wet weather. I dressed with
multiple layers and all of my foul weather gear and set off in the fog.
Throughout the day we had a mixture of weather. We had occasional sprinkles,
but no real rain; we had fog which made the wet weather gear useful, and (near
the end), we had wind.
In this first picture taken shortly after leaving
O’Cebreiro, I am standing with bronze sculpture of a larger than life pilgrim. Notice
the amount of clothing. It was taken for me by a Japanese pilgrim; of course, I
took one for her with her camera as well. There is a universal language for
“will you take my picture, please?” which needs no words. We use it often.
Today had a lot of climbing – over 4600 feet, but nothing
really difficult. Most of it was “rolling,” although tougher than what we
usually consider to be “rolling hills” because of the length of both the
descents and ascents. The momentum from the downhills doesn’t last long enough
to be of much help on the uphills.In fact, in Spanish they call them
“rompepiernas,” or “leg breakers.” After a pleasant lunch in Portomarin, we had
a sustained climb for about seven miles, but it wasn’t too steep. It was just a
matter of grinding it out and hoping that the rain would not return – by now we
had shed most of our rain gear and maybe an extra layer as well.
 |
| In Portomarin |
Portomarin would normally have been the end of the day’s
ride, but because they were unable to
book hotel rooms there, we continued on to Monterroso which is good for
two reasons. First, we have the long climb out of the way, and won’t have it to
start with tomorrow. Second, we
are staying in a delightful “casa rural” where we are experiencing the true
Gallician countryside. This small complex of four buildings used to comprise an
entire village. The old buildings have been beautifully restored. On our way
in, we had to stop and wait for a small herd of cattle to pass along the side
of the road.
Our Gallician dinner was combined with a birthday party for
Larry. It was a festive affair with huge quantities of food. For starters, we
had an excellent tortilla (typical Spanish omelet with potatoes), jamón, salad
with wonderful fresh tomatoes and lettuce, crusty bread. The next course was an
array of grilled vegetables. This was followed by roasted chicken, Gallician
style. We then had the typical “tarta de Santiago” (purchased by our guides in
Portomarin) as Larry’s birthday cake. This gluten-free cake is made solely from
almonds, sugar and eggs. It was excellent. Then we had the planned dessert
of a local flan. Finally, an after
dinner “witches brew”which had been flaming on the side board for an hour or so
was served (after appropriate ceremonial incantations read by Belen). This
consisted of a grappa-like drink in which lemons, oranges and coffee beans had
been soaking. The Gallician name for this is “queimada.”
As was the case last night, we do not have WiFi today, so
this day’s blog will be posted tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment