Day 13: Samos - Palas de Rei
Ivan Blanco
Glorious Cebreiro cheese breakfast!
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Day 13 of my Camino de Santiago was on the rise and we had a wonderful breakfast in the same place we had dinner the previous night. As local as it can be, we had the Cebreiro cheese with some honey for breakfast, and again, it simply was glorious (check back on day 12 to know more about this particular Galician cheese).
Fourteenth recommendation for the Camino: every region in Spain has its special products, dishes and customs, give them a try, you won't be disappointed.
To what at this point was almost becoming routine, I was to start my ride late again, but as Gandalf the magician from Lord of the Rings so eloquently said: "A wizard [or bike pilgrim in this case] is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to".
On the road!
This time I went back to the monastery to find a monk whom I could interview for my photo project, that's when I found fray Lorenzo, who at first was surprised and then happily agreed. He even went further by introducing me to a fellow pilgrim, Antonio, who is well known on the whole Camino. He actually lives on it and thanks to people's beautiful generosity and help, he walks it back and forth and was planning to reach Rome very soon... but I won't reveal too much, since the photo project is one that will have its own frame and context.
Before doing these interviews, I saw again Alessandro and Daniela, bike pilgrims I had met some days ago together with another Italian, Alex, the long bearded pilgrim from day 4. Suddenly, while I was interviewing Antonio, I met another bike pilgrim too, Marcos, who asked me if I was a journalist or something. He is a real journalist himself and this wasn't going to be the last time we'll cross each other's paths... keep reading.
Into the Wild
At last, starting to do the thing for which I embarked myself into this adventure, I hit the road of the Camino towards Santiago, but not without a quick stop in Sarria. Since this Camino town has it's own history with me, I couldn't pass by without saying hi to my ex-girlfriend's lovely grandma, who made me many times dinner, hosted me and always had a smile for me. Unfortunately, since I'm a late starter, I missed her while she was shopping in town, I said hi to the dog and cat though, and left a small note.
The Real Camino Milestone... and an example of how you shouldn't ruin historic pieces
Going on with my route, passing over rail tracks, deep forest passage ways and almost reaching the 100 km marker to Santiago, I got reacquainted with some early encounter, I catched up with Marcos, the journalist from that same morning. He started his Camino in Madrid and had a limited number of days to do it. However, he joined me up to Palas del Rei and together we reached that final 100 km mark, but be aware... you might be fooled! There's a Km stone marker which is tricked by some Bart like minded person (check "The Simpsons" for further reference) to look as it were the 100 km before you arrive to the actual one. Therefore, you either wait 1 km to see the real one, or just do like us, a picture with both :)
Colour explosions in one unique sunset
Seeing the sunset almost about to start, a quick call to the rest of the "Ondiñas" team confirmed our day's final destination and the booking for an extra member. When we finally arrived in Palas del Rei, we reunited to be one of the biggest bike pilgrim group in my entire Camino, so many, that we filled up an entire room just with ourselves.
Talking about sunsets, although this little town hadn't much to offer, it gave us one of the best sunsets in all our Camino. The colours and light were simply magnificent and with everyone gazing, the star of the moment (take that as the perfect analogy) was the sun. Palas del Rei also moved me to buy a new T-Shirt to cover my loss in Navarrete on day 5, good thing I did, because I had all my other clothes being cleaned in the washing machine when we went for dinner. But, oh dear, the washing machine...
Stay tuned to my next day and learn what surprise this wonderful invention was going to give us...