Filloval to Sarria's outskirts

June 10 - Filloval to Sarria's outskirts
We both had a pretty good sleep last night even though the first people were up before 5:00, back and forth to the bathroom, packing, whispering, crinkling. It was a nice day and although a bit misty in the morning, it was pretty much clear by the time we left. The people who own the albergue do a really nice job of trying to do everything they can to make sure people are comfortable and have what they need. They provide single use sheets and pillowcase for the bed. They have not overcrowded the albergue so there are 6 or 7 feet between the beds. The bathrooms are clean and spacious as are the showers which actually have room to hang the clothes you take off and the clean ones you want to put on. The bar serves really delicious food and the  woman who owns it keeps coming back and asking if you had enough or would like more. The servings are already very generous and it's obvious she puts a lot into it. For dinner she suggested a little variety from what we had ordered, saying "I think you'll like this or this is better, try this..." and she was right. The only problem was that we were stuffed!

It was a pretty steep downhill on the way down to Triacastela which was just 3 or 4 kilometers away. We needed to stop for a bank and a phone refill so hung around for 15 or 20 minutes while the stores opened and then we were on our way.

 We had two options today and we thought we picked the shorter one but somehow we missed it and ended up on the road to Samos. I had never been that way before so I didn't mind but it seemed as if we were walking forever. The road according to our map was 13 kilometers but it sure seemed longer!  Samos has a huge monastery  which is very impressive and one of the most famous monasteries in Spanish history. It was founded in the Visigothic era and the Benedictine rule was introduced in the tenth century. By the middle ages the monastery controlled over 300 lesser monsteries and 100 churches and drew its support from over 200 villages.

But being pratical, we ate lunch and moved on. We theoretically had only six more kilometers to go before we reached our Albergue but it took us over 3 hours so either we took a wrong turn (we didn't) or someone is counting funny. Much of the walk today was on a path through an old oak tree forest. We were kind of tunneled all day long by the trees. It was very beautiful.

 Some of these trees have a personality all of their own.