Camino Invierno: Monforte de Lemos

The Man from Alaska

(Who sat next to me at dinner in El Acebo de San Miguel)

Did you know that I’m Alaskan, Alaskan born and bred, 

I’m gonna tell you now, I’d rather be dead than red.

I have a bit of trouble with this foreign lingo, see,

But Jesus spoke English and that’s good enough for me.

I wanna know why you commies kept us out,

Because of the pandemic, what’s that all about? 

Why should I be vaccinated? I will past the test.

I’m one of the chosen ones, to hell with all the rest.

According to my source or truth, (that’s Fox News),

Your next prime minister, has conservative views

Like mine, not asinine, but based  on freedom too.

I would have joined those truckers, God bless the crew,

They stood up for their rights, to occupy a city,

To do what they wanna do, that’s the nitty gritty!

Now I really hate to say it, but I do make this projection,

Those bloody Commie bastards may steal your next election.

 

(With apologies to American rellos. And there really was an American senator who thought that Jesus spoke English.)

I have decided to take a rest day and stay another night at Hotel Condes de Lemos. (45€). Tomorrow is another 30 kilometres with a 1500 foot climb. In fact, it will be more than 30 kms, for my hotel is at least two kms out of town. I was so exhausted, I grabbed the first place I could find.

As I wandered around town, I felt rather like an old sea dog who had just come ashore after months at sea.

I called in at the Centro de Interpretación do Camino de Invierno, a most helpful source of information, with a frightening panel on the wall of what is to come. This camino is really for the young and fit. I am not the former. I hope I am becoming somewhat the latter.

I walked up to the medieval fortress, which included the Torre da Homenaxe and the Monesteiro Beneditino de San Vincente do Pino, whose statue, I thought, looked more like Gandalf.

I had been thinking that I wouldn’t see my Camino friends again — Carlos, or Fernando Bragando and his Korean companion — who had been most kind and helpful, but when strolling around the town I ran into Carlos, who had also taken a rest day. One of those typical Camino Coincidences.

I enjoyed a menu de dia in the shade on a wide pedestrian street: cheese salad, chicken shiskebobs, and ice cream, all washed down with an Estrella Galicia.

Carlos joined me for lunch. I was commenting on the kindness of the locals in leaving out water bottles along the street for the pilgrims. No, he said, that’s to stop the dogs from peeing on the wall. The bottles were filled with water to create a reflection that would frighten off the dogs. Not so much a “little nameless act of kindness and of love” but a very deliberate preventative measure.

All in all, a nice restful day.