(Portomarin’ to Palas de Rei: 24.8 km, about 7 hours, with 1 hr & 30 min breaks; 35,387 steps total)

Hebrews 13:1-10
v. 7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

We remember our church family at home, especially on Sunday mornings when we are not joining in corporate worship but walking. We remember our faithful pastors Ray, John and Randy who deeply love the Lord and his people. They serve in many ways every day, they witness to the gospel and they speak the word of God to us. We especially remember Pastor Randy who usually preaches in the little chapel service where I play most Sundays. He opens up his life to us and invites us to be real with Jesus and with one another. Thank you, Lord, for your great grace to us in giving us godly pastors who not only preach your word but live it out in our midst.

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We had a tostada at a bar on the plaza in Portomarin before starting our misty walk through the Galician hills.

After eight kilometers we finally came to a bar, packed with pilgrims as it was the only place on the road. Though various egg dishes were featured in the color photos on the big menu boards, only sandwiches were available. As I shared a bocadillo con beicon with Maurice he spotted Jonathan, the pilgrim we had eaten dinner with the night before we started the Camino in St. Jean Pied de Port. Jonathan’s grown a beard. We were pleased to find him still on the path, and moving at approximately our rate. A gaggle of Japanese women appeared from the trail and moved as one unit into the line for the ladies’ room (a one-seater), so I figured I could wait until the next place, which turned out to be a xunta (municipal) albergue next door; I am getting better at walking into such places like I know where I’m going.

We continued on lovely paths through forests and villages, past farms, corncribs, stone buildings and cows in the streets. We stepped over black lizards with bright yellow spots flattened in the road. A biking pilgrim had stopped for a break; he was traveling with a kitten in the hood of his sweatshirt and pulled over every once in a while so the kitten could play and pounce on passing pilgrim poles. The path turned up steeply for a while, then a bar came into view. I was tired–counting down the days, counting down the kilometers and ready-to-be-finished tired–and wanted a real sit-down lunch, preferably hot, preferably long. We went in and found a table. Maurice had fried eggs and French fries, and I got a deep bowl of caldo gallego, hot and satisfying; it was a fifty-minute stop.

Back on the lovely path the guidebook told us Ventas de Naron “was the scene of a fierce battle in 840 between Moor and Christian.” How can anyone possibly know that? A house in Lameiros received both Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Spain’s King Philip on his way to marry Mary Tudor. Charlemagne stayed in a pilgrim hospice in Ligonde. Now the green countryside, no longer disturbed by war or royalty, sprouted only mushrooms and ancient stones, tractors and cows and kale plantations–and five-foot-tall ant sculptures in Portos.

Sports-tractor?

17th-century wayside cross, Lameiros

Walking through a kale plantation, or maybe some kind of cabbage; whatever it was, it was everywhere

I had selected a modern albergue in Palas de Rei but Maurice was drawn to the attractive Albergue San Marcos beckoning from beside the church with a sign for double rooms. Yes, they had one for us–really nice, with a door to the patio, clotheslines in the sun and an almost glamorous bathroom. We washed and hung the laundry, sat outside with a snack and called Chris to report on our progress.

The church next door was welcoming and lived in, with plenty of light, banners and worship music playing softly. An assemblage of baskets at the front collected prayer requests and offered slips of paper with scripture verses for pilgrims in a choice of half a dozen languages. The English basket was empty so I drew one from the French: “J’ai grave’ ton nom sur la paume de mes mains” (Isaiah 49:16).

For dinner we wandered into A Forxa for an amazing pilgrim menu: salad with tomatoes, raisins, cheese, nuts and balsamic vinegar; chicken stewed with mushrooms, onions, peppers and brandy, served over rice; and for dessert I had rice pudding and Maurice had egg cream flan. Bottle of wine, bread, agua del grifo (water from the faucet AND the waiter brought additional glasses for it) and no French fries! We’ve had other individual items that were favorites but this was our best complete pilgrim menu.

Back at the room we discovered that unfortunately there was no calefaccion’ to finish drying the laundry.