Day 12 walking

 MONASTERIO FRANCISCANO DE HERBON TO FARAMELO

not the most comfortable night,  as usual, when you stay in the same room as so many other tired folk, everything that, shuffles, groans , burps, snores, and farts will be in there too, but we rose at 7-30 and went in for breakfast in the mess hall.

 Last night we had a monastery lecture then at 8 pm MB and I, with about 6 other pilgrims, went to the pilgrim mass which was actually held by two of the last of three Franciscan priest of this order, I felt somewhat privelaged to have experienced that.

One of the neat things to experience was when the service was over, the head priest came and joined us, gave us a certificate of pilgrim recognition, then had each of us read the “ pilgrim prayer” in our home language. We had us, English, Italians, Portugues, Brazilians Netherlands.



At 9 we had communal dinner 🥘, 22 of us sat down and ate maybe the best lintel stew with meat and potatoes, that I’ve ever had. I have carried a tiny bottle of Tabasco in my pack for the past 800 hiking miles, and forgot it was there, not last night, I emptied it into my stew and gobbled it all down. .dessert  followed and we were threatened with a shot of some alcohol that is only made at the monastery, if we cleaned up after dinner properly, the kids. Cleaned like crazy as the hospitalero ( volunteer) played ABBA and everyone started dancing as we cleaned, crazy fun evening.



My well traveled, tiny bottle, of Tobasco Sauce

This is JORGE, a rockstar “ hospitalero”, he was the guy who registered us in, made the food, and got the party started. If you have walked a camino, and have your Compostela to prove you are a pilgrim, you can apply to go to a two week school to learn to be a volunteer at an Albergue hostel. Most do it for the required 15 days, no pay, but Jorge is from the Canary Islands, and committed to a three month spell in this monastery. 

 This morning, was chilly but dry, so we headed out to Padron which was about 4 klms away, but our planned starting point for today

In life,,,don’t forget to stop,,,,and smell the flowers. 

Wasn’t much to see in Padron, so we made the right choice yesterday o head off trail and to the monastery, we stopped for coffee and to plan for today, picked a place to stop for the night in FARAMELLO. The walk was similar to yesterday in that we walked through small hamlets, vineyards and small farms.

The Gothic stone cross of Franco, the oldest and most unique stone cross on the Galician Way.  
15th century
It stands out due to its apparent simplicity in its carving, and the archaic depiction of Christ on the crucifix, accompanied by the carving of the two pilgrims on its side, reinforcing its connection to the Portugues Camino.

Finally got to FARAMELLO and started to look for accommodation, wasn’t any, so we pushed on a bit till we got lucky at a small hotel in the village of Parada de Franco’s,,,,,, I think that’s the name, no one seems to know as it’s off the trail a bit, even the locals.

We are staying the night and heading out early to,or row in the hopes of finishing the walk in time to go to the pilgrim mass at the Santiago Cathedral, but for now,,,,dinner

Our restaurant is on the left in this little place, and our accommodation is on the right of the picture, not too far to stumble home 


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