Day Nine - Gijon - Sarria

Day Nine

Date:     7  April  2013

Place:    Sarria

Weather:   Overcast and drizzly.  Up to 10 degrees at times.

Accommodation:  Hotel Carris Alfonso IX

We set out as usual to find a place for breakfast.  The first mission was to find an ATM which would allow us to withdraw cash.  The ones the previous night denied access to both of us so it may have been an upgrade occurring in Australia at night.

With the money sorted we had breakfast over the road from the hotel.  Our Spanish is getting a little better and we can now order an omelette with cheese and ham. 

This is a particularly fun game called 'Deciphering the Menu'.....there are surprise winners (and some surprised "what the" when a meal arrives)!

 

 

We were on the road to Lugo today to return the car and catch a taxi to Sarria.  The trip was slow due to many small villages with 50 km signs and winding roads.  The weather was bleak.

We hatched a good plan to find a taxi in Lugo on a Sunday and headed to the bus station.  Lugo is the oldest city in the Galacian region and was established by the Romans two thousands ago.  It has an amazing Roman wall which is still intact and circumnavigates 2.6 kilometres of the old centre.  We set off and completed half of it before the weather started to close in.  We wandered through the centre and after filling the car with diesel we organised a taxi to follow us to the drop off at Europcar and continue on to Sarria the beginning of the Camino for us.

The rampart is very wide - here are the tourists with smiles even in the drizzly wet!

The tall walls on the hilltop of Lugo....very stout.

 

The trip to Sarria from Lugo only took thirty minutes and we drove through very picturesque scenery.

We then encountered our first glitch of the tour as Desley and Cameron somehow have not been booked in for this portion of the trip.  This includes the accommodation and forwarding of their luggage.  At this stage our walking departure could be delayed until this is sorted.

After settling in we headed up to the church on top of the hill where we could obtain our credencials and our first stamp for the camino.  We have to collect two stamps a day so that we can receive a compostela when we reach Santiago de Compostela.  We met a couple of American girls, one who is living in this region who told us that this has been the wettest March EVER in northern Spain.  I could only agree!  Goodness knows what the weather will be over the coming six days!  Consequently, David and I bought ponchos to go over our other wet weather gear – if nothing else it will keep us warmer.

Standing outside the old church ready to collect my Credencial del Peregrino

 

As we had late lunch at the bus station we wandered back to the hotel for a couple of wines, bread and steak and we all looked through the information David and I had so that we all knew what to expect in the coming days. 

Let’s hope the weather is kind to us!