The Pilgrimage: Day 2

After a delicious breakfast at Casa Manosa we were soon back out on the trail. Very happy to have dry feet and dry clothes thanks to the wonderful radiators at Casa Manosa! We soon met up with our friend Kay on the trail and it was nice to share some of the walk with her.

Clock Tower in the center of Cea

First Pringles break

A rare picture of the whole family - taken by Kay, our fellow pilgrim

These dark clouds soon produced a hail storm which followed us for about 1/2 hour before we ducked into what looked like a restaurant. Turns out it was just a coffee shop so we ordered hot drinks and ate the snacks we had with us (protein bars, chips, etc). We were happy to be out of the rain and hail. At this point our friend Kay was worried about continuing her walk in the rain and hail so she found an albergue nearby and called it a day. We were hoping we might see her again on the trail but no such luck. 

This was our longest day - our next hotel was over 30 km away in Bendoiro. We weren't sure if the kids would last that long, especially given the weather. There were no other hotels within walking distance of the Camino until Bendoiro and we had promised the kids we would not stay in any of the albergues (hostels). The kids just weren't comfortable sharing a big room with a group of adults and can you blame them? 

Our backup option was to stop near Lalin and we could take a taxi from the Camino to a hotel in Lalin. It was late in the day by the time we saw signs for Lalin so we stopped to have a family discussion. We figured the kids would want to stop there and get a taxi to a hotel. Instead, they amazed us. They convinced us that we could make it all the way to Bendoiro (about another 4 miles). Rachel led the way up the next couple miles of hills and somehow we all kept going. It was amazing to see them find their inner strength.

We walked and walked, even past night fall. Thank goodness I had cell phone reception since the hotel called to make sure we were still coming. The restaurant was open until 10pm so we quickened our pace to be sure we could arrive in time to eat. The dark made it difficult to keep track of the trail so we had to stop once to ask directions. We found some very kind people that got us on track and told us there was only 1 km left to go! Music to our ears. 

We finally found our amazing hotel, Pazo de Bendoiro, and made it just in time for dinner. The hotel staff was warm and welcoming despite our muddy, wet appearance. Thank goodness they are used to (and respect) pilgrims in this area!

The food was amazing and sitting down was even better. Our damp feet had never been so tired - we had blisters on our blisters. The meal was absolutely delicious and what a gorgeous dinning room! Stiff and sore, the short walk to our hotel rooms was a chore but we were happy to see a full bathtub in each room so we all had a good soak that night. They didn't have any rooms with 2 beds so we had boys in one room and girls in the other. It looked like a gorgeous hotel but we were too tired to take it all in.