From Comfort to Cold Comfort...
- hollandauctions
- Oct 25, 2023
- 3 min read
Epilogue to yesterday's account of lost items: I forgot to remention that I also lost my Poncho after wearing it for half a day early on in this trip, and the magical flying powers of my former sunglasses, which are now parked in some farmers field after a giant windstorm carried them off my head... You would think my backpack is light as a feather now, but I can assure you, the backpain I feel on a daily basis is real!
When I say that this albergue could be in a magazine, I'm really not exaggerating...
Where my Italian friend and I dined on various vegetables, and enough wine to forget there was no meat...
Each person staying at the albergue had a little personalized bag waiting for them in rhe morning with a sandwich, juice, pastry and apple...
The view out the front door...
A Spanish villa I pass early in the day...
Okay... let's get these out of the way... for a coastal route, I'm certainly spending a lot of time in the woods!... The vast majority of my last few days has been walking through woodland and pasture, up and down hills... it doesn't get old, but I just don't have enough captions for every photo!
The obligatory cow photo...
Bonus cow pic #1...
There is always more path to walk!
These sheep with their black and white heads were pretty cool .
And who doesn't like mother and child animal photos?
I climb a BIG hill..
Can you see the sweat on my brow from the climb?
Uh-oh... that sky looks menacing ..
That's me, yelling at my phone, because there is no one else around, about the cursed rain in Spain falling mainly all over me...
And then, an hour and a half later, it blows out, and the sun makes an appearance...
Halloween is in the air...
A nice little road leads me to. .
... these two, who come running over as I pass their field... so I figure it's a good time to break out my bagged lunch... I eat the sandwich, they split the apple, and I make two friends for life!.
Okay, now the sun is just showing off!
I think about snagging that giant ham ..
Not a lot of variety in church styles here in Spain...
Still walking...
Bonus cow pic #2
Yet another forest pathways as I make my way to Sobrado dos Monxes...
The paths are gourgeous, but the the rain is about to return, and the temps drop into the high 40s/low 50s...
One last stretch, then I enter Sobrado like a drowned rat, with my phone at 3 percent, and no hotel booked. I consider the monastery albergue, which has come highly recommended, but worry it has no heat after walking in the cold rain for most of the day, so instead book a pension across the street...
Nice room...
Swanky bathroom... guess what it doesnt have? That's right, all the heaters in the building are faulty, and I use the hair dryer on maximum to heat my room for the first hour and a bit, and then again when i get home from dinner...
Speaking of dinner... not many choices in Sobradobon a cold, rainy Monday night, so the only place open will have to do... I start with this bizarre mix of a salad, but oddly, it hits the spot...
My main is another local specialty I've seen on a couple of menus and have wanted to try... Baby eels, hundreds of them, and prawns served with scrambled eggs... So yummy! I washed all of this down with a full bottle of Crianza, all by myself!... and FYI, although I thought I was eating baby eels at the time, it turns out the price of 'angulas' is about 1000 euros a kilo, so what I actually ate was 'gulas', an imitation form of baby eels, that many say is difficult to differentiate from the real thing! While I had no intention of ordering dessert, the waitress places a flan in front of me and tells me the road is long... who am I to argue?
Distance walked today- 28 kms
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELLED SO FAR- 853 KMS
Hi Lawrence those horses that you said were friends for life are not. You will never see those horses again and I heard they were pissed off that you didn’t share the sandwich . True friend share everything.
Note to self: Don't read Lawrence's posts while eating.
I followed you down those woodland paths and across sweeping meadows.
I named the sheep: Andrea, Amanda, Edgar.
I named the horses: Aynsley and Lawson.
I griped with you in the pelting rain.
I rejoiced with you under the rays of a reappearing sun.
I commiserated with you regarding the lack of heat in your room.
But ... like Ron (who said it perfectly), I have to draw the line somewhere, and it's on the photo of that eel meal!
I can't discuss it too much ... I'm feeling quite squeamish.
You better hope that Andrea doesn't adhere to the old adage, "Lips that touch hundreds of squiggling baby eel in…
I cannot get over the beautiful pictures.
My personal favs are the woodland paths, and they’re every one more beautiful than the last it seems.
Are you missing Canadian cuisine at all? BBQ ribs and potato salad? Lol.
You might want to change your career to something like Anthony Bourdain’s and have a crew look after your belongings and book places to stay, along with a film crew to document it.
This is crazy: he's still alive AND he's not always hangry after 25 km plus walks!!
Listen, I've been very nice and have been biting my tongue all along but you've pushed me to the gastronomic edge.
F U CK THOSE BABY EELS!
Sorry...sorry, but you force me.
The inland paths over the last couple of days really look like some of the best. I can imagine you feel pretty chilled to the bone when waking 28kns at 50 degrees-ish.
When I was in high school, I had a wargamer friend named Steve Molyneux, who had a car and he revelled in yelling out the window at walkers in Windsor 'if you don’t like walking, RUN!'. I always thought th…