Startpoint: Hospital da Condesa; Endpoint: Samos; Distance walked: 25km; Steps taken: 35,030.

Yesterday, I crossed the border into Galicia and stole a march by going an extra few kilometres while everyone else was massaging their feet. Today, Galicia took its revenge. It was windy. It was raining. The gales were so strong I was nearly knocked off my feet (slight exaggeration) and my hat was blown off my head (no exaggeration).

I started the day wearing my full waterproof gear. The waterproof trousers were a bit loose, so after twenty minutes, I tried to tighten them by pulling the drawstring. The drawstring snapped. My pants dropped. My shorts got wet. I lost more time and energy today pulling my pants up than fighting against the wind.

I fancied I could smell the salt of the ocean on the rain, but that may have just been my own sweat rising up from under my goretex.

Walking down from Hospital, my feet crunched on windfallen chestnuts and walnuts. It gave me an appetite, so I stopped in Triacastrella for lunch. They had no nuts on the menu, so I had a huge omelette sandwich and a plate of mushrooms fried in 3 full heads of garlic. My breath was so strong it could have taken out a vampire at a hundred paces.

On the road I met an Irishman. He was somewhere between my age and my father’s, but had the same folical stylings. We discussed the advantages of sandals over boots, the pattern of hostel availability and related economic considerations, and the prevalence of graffiti on the Camino way-markers. It was nice, but it wasn’t the same.

After Triacastrella, I decided to leave the recommended route and take a detour for the Monastery at Samos. The monastery is one of the oldest in Europe, having been around since the 7th century. It’s a huge complex for such a small town in the middle of nowhere. You can imagine it housing hundreds of monks at one time, but it looks mostly empty now.

We arrived at 2.30 and were told we’d have to wait until a tour at 3pm to look around. We asked if the tour was available in English and were told it was, so we paid our €3, got our cards stamped and sat down to wait in the cold lobby in our damp clothes. There was no coffee shop, there were no customer toilets and there was no door on the lobby. I was in two minds about waiting for the tour or moving on to the next town. I’ve seen more religious buildings in the last four weeks than are healthy for anyone under the level of demi-god.

At 3pm, the tour began, in Spanish. I asked about an English translation, but was told that out of respect to the Spanish speakers in the group (four out of eight), the guide would not say anything in English. I explained that we had checked with the receptionist and had only waited and paid because we were expecting an English tour and was told ‘tough’.

I frowned, looked sullen, whined, pestered and basically made myself a nuisance, until finally she agreed to repeat the highlights in English for the English speaking “minority”. However she would only do so in certain spots and when she felt like it. Her English was perfect, so I don’t know what her problem was. The tour was a bit boring anyway, so maybe she was trying to save us the trouble of pretending to be interested.

The monastery was largely destroyed by a fire in 1951 and then rebuilt and restored. They had three Spanish artists paint murals on the upper floor of the cloisters. The murals were painted in the 60s, which comes through in the depictions of the saints, monks and angels. I’ve never seen angels wearing mascara and lipstick before. They were showing a lot of leg and two were flashing some side-boob. I suspect this is a clever tactic to encourage more young men to join the monastic life. I’m sorry to say the naughty angels were the highlight of the tour. More churches should have them.

Buen Camino

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Optional Reading:
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