Today was a day of early morning fog and rolling hills to Portomarin, the town that Franco rebuilt on a hill to accommodate a dam.
Getting ready to go.
Over the bridge and through the woods (and up a pretty steep hill shortly thereafter).
A foggy morning.
The fog clears for second breakfast.
All of a sudden there’s a lot more Camino stuff to buy. Sarria is just before the 100 kilometer mark from Santiago–and 100 kilometers is the minimum distance you need to walk to get your Compostela (the official completion accreditation). From here on out we are walking with a lot more pilgrims than usual.
Follow the yellow arrows!
Meeting new friends along the way.
Finishing strong!
After lunch we had a class on the church in Portomarin. This is a late Romanesque castle-church built in the 13th century to provide both a place of worship and protection–a reminder of the time in which walking the Camino was fraught with a lot more danger than it is now.
Here Annie shows us the marks on the stones that were made when the church was dismantled and moved to higher ground in the 1960s in preparation for the building of a dam and the subsequent flooding of the valley. The church was moved and rebuilt brick by brick.
And here she shows us where the original stonemasons’ marks of the 13th century are still visible.
Bringing back groceries for an albergue feast!
Hokies hiking the Camino de Santiago 