Last night I met Robert for a glass of wine and some dinner at the same Parrillada Xacobeo Restaurante where I had lunch. A few glasses of the house red, a bit of pollo and fries and a bit of a planning session. After Sarria there is just a little over 100km left and my schedule says 5 days for that. The Camino is supposed to turn into a bit of a crowded mess after Sarria so I booked a place for three of those 4 nights. The last two days are only 40km combined so I think I can mash that out in one day and damn the blisters, sore knees or whatever. I will finish the day in a nice bed and a hot bath with no walking the next day.
Turns out Robert was one room over in my hotel and as we walked back he was planning on leaving early and covering extra distance today. We enquired at the albergue/bar across the street at the opening time which was 8am. That would work for me but Robert would be long gone.
I was under the covers by 8:30pm and was falling asleep to an episode of John Oliver. I was feeling exhausted and beat up. I slept until 7am which had to be the longest sleep of the trip.
At 8am I was first in the bar across the street and had a Napolitano and pod coffee. Better than no coffee but disappointing. I was about ready to leave and Robert walked in, having slept in. So much for his early start. He passed me later after I was over the top of the mountain.
Out of Sarria there are two routes. One follows the river and is 6km longer and the other has a 400m climb. We opted for the shorter distance. I could see the path of the river and while it may be a nice walk it can't have the vistas from the mountain. The mountain walk had no excessively steep climbs or descents. It was really nice. The sun even came out.
On the last part of the climb and some of the descent I walked with Becky who lived in Spain and was walking with her English friends. She came to Spain via England and Canada having left Hong Kong in the late 90's.
In the last town before we joined back up with the other route I left a coffee bar at the same time as a group of three from the Philippines: Geo, Yaz and ??? (two out of three isn't too bad).
The four of us walked the rest of the way to Sarria together. Geo and Yaz were brother and sister and she had started in St Jean. Geo and his fiancee joined her about 10 days ago. Geo is a software developer and we talked shop the whole way in.
Sarria is kinda big but doesn't have a while lot of interesting stuff. My hotel is cute - La Posada de la Casona de Sarria. Old style rooms with modern bathroom. Originally, I had a private external bathroom... so just for me but outside the room. The very nice lady with perfect English moved me to an in room bathroom. Very nice of her. She also gave me some restaurant recommendations.
After cleaning up I headed over to one she recommended called Roma - not an Italian restaurant. It was very nice and the 18€ menu del dia looked ok I thought I'd stray from that. I had very good lentil soup, excellent bread, very good house wine, a salad, fries and veal grilled perfectly. It seems this place gives you seconds of any of the things you order. I was offered more meat; took one because everyone else was taking seconds and turned several others. The waitress offered me more fries; thank you, one plate was plenty. The salad which she had described as very small would have been good for four people with that meal. 3 glasses of wine, desert and coffee and I was full to bursting - all for 34€. Lunch took about an hour and a half and that's about the time all the tables were taking.
This being a rest and recovery day I waddled back to my room and took a nap.
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