Just what Sherri ordered - Lugo

Today was a long but fabulous walk into Lugo. Lucky us to have Sherri here walking with us who not only lives and works here but loves this city.

Her hubby, Glen met us on arrival and we went to a fabulous tapas bar! 
Sherri offered to take us home to her place but she feared we would miss everything Lugo had to offer. Her advice was awesome and while we were much too tired to totally take it in, we fell in love with what we saw. It is a fabulous city!

We stayed at an amazing hostel, with beds that were cubby holes with curtains. I slept near the window which gave me a chance to witness the partying crowd on the streets below. When I woke up and looked out the huge beautiful windows to see below I could see the last night bar workers sweeping and cleaning.

I got up, snuck out to grab a coffee and cake back to wake the troops. While having my coffee I watched a few pilgrims go by. Some were in our bubble but none I really knew. Funny thing is today I sit without backpack in a trendy spot drinking coffee, I’m a tourist and none of them recognized me. When I said their names all look confused and you could tell their brain had to process.

Today Sherri grabbed us early.  We watched the royal wedding at her home, totally lethargic while Jordi worked magic in her kitchen! Sherri has the most amazing kitchen and Jordi kept us gals fed with different nibbles to eat. 

But first Sherri kindly offered to take us to Decathlon because Jordi ripped his shorts and needs new ones. He will continue on from Santiago to Muxia where he plans to hike some of the Faros way and then we hope to join him our last night in Europe. That’s the plan atleast!

Our big news is Steve and Reichen are coming out to see us!!!! Steve to bring Boo’s ashes that will join Schooners and be thrown into Muxia and Reichen to I hope have an opportunity of a lifetime!

Reichen has been accepted into the college of his choice for Engineering, he got a nice scholarship and has , with my urging, formally requested and has been granted a gap year to travel.

With some of my connections I have found Reichen an amazing opportunity at a surf camp for several months. I have a connection for rock climbing and kite surfing too, so I hope he’ll get to really enjoy. He is with a crowd I know and am very excited about this!

He plans to be here 3-6 months, then we hope he’ll go to Asia for about 4 more months and then he’ll have the choice before school to attempt the Appalachian Trail or come back to Portugal again. I am super happy for him! 

A Dear Friend Joins Us

We loved our albergue last night. New, spacious, great kitchen ! We would be the last ones out...again...
By the time we were up everyone for the most part was gone!

We stuck around for breakfast and then a few minutes out the door stopped again for a coffee! Adorable sugar packets there!

Sherri joined us this morning which was awesome! We had hoped for this and honestly time, location, the weekend EVERYTHING just fit like a puzzle. She led the pack!!! Super strong walker, she walks the hills of Galicia near her home and it was obvious!  

We stayed at another wonderful albergue tonight and splurged on the pilgrims meal! 

Tomorrow our trekking stops! We completed our Camino and this Primitivo we have done just to the point where it meets up with the Frances. I’m totally fine with calling it here! Lugotomorrow and then to Sherri and Glen’s house for the weekend where we think we will get to watch the Royal Wedding!!!!

Follow the “ sheetz”...no arrows needed ( to A Fonsagrada)

I try to keep my blog pretty clean, but today is our last two days of hiking and this quote (from Jordi) gave us a lot to laugh about. Jordi is from Barcelona and today said,”follow the sheetz”... (cow poop)... much laughter and I suspect for the rest of my life when trekking with cow poop I will say out loud, “follow the sheetz!!!!"

Another pretty day and lots of excitement because our friend Sherri will be joining us tomorrow for the next two days! We are super excited!!!!

Sherri is the sister to our vet and lives in Galicia! She and her hubby, Glen, hosted us last Camino (2016) when I brought five of my six kiddos from Le Puy en Velay in France to Santiago (~three months!).

I can’t ever describe how special that was, how can someone explain the comfort of a beautiful home, awesome hosts, a sweet puppy Fergus and home cooked meals....

Today would end with a huge hill to climb, honestly people talk about the Primitivo as if its challenging etc... but I honestly haven’t witnessed anything close to the Pyrenees... today that last twenty minutes or so has been our only real physical challenge I think. I do know that when Jordi went to take a picture of the huge hill I told him, “Don’t show it to me!” as I was cursing under my breath.

A quick stop to the grocery and a wonderful albergue was in store. The girls made dinner and Bronwyn laughed at the Italian who was sampling her pasta and filled with advice...

We told the farmer this pup was a worker, he was on guard when we told Mrs. Cow how pretty she was

I flagged down this Bread truck to buy bread and empanadas, he gifted us some yummy muffins!!!!

Look closely at who joined us for lunch!

“ Follow the SHEETZ”!!!!

My beautiful girls!

I just LOVE this picture!

This is at the border of Asturias and Galicia! Jordi and Aynsleigh are acting like there is a wall there! 

Pooped! During a break!

The girls dressed up Jordi’s hiking stick, isn’t she pretty?

A Detour Due to Fires

Interesting walk today. Seems we took a detour due to forest fires last year. It was beautiful, but longer. We didn’t realize this was not necessary until a group of young walkers out of nowhere passed us. I did the math in my head and figured out they had to have stayed at the mid point of the lower route yesterday to be here. They called it a day at a wonderful spot where we were just stopping for drinks. The spot was beautiful, looked over a dam and there was a dog that looked just like our dear Boo!!!!

The hill/ mountain before us looked awful but surprisingly we kicked out those last kilometers with little effort.
Met a great crew from San Diego tonight! We stayed at an awesome spot, the four of us once again in our own room!