Pam's Camino de Santiago: Day 7 : Salceda to O Pedrouzo

In some ways it was difficult leaving the Albergue Touristica Pousada de Salceda because of a congenial group of pilgrims, and a pleasant rural setting, despite the annoying lack of a decent wifi signal, hence no blog. I have had no luck connecting with my friend Rhonda either, so I hope all is well...

Not long after Salceda there was a bronze plaque to a fallen British pilgrim, William Watt, who, I believe, died of a heart attack in 1993, only a day away from his goal. I have encountered a few other similar memorials to others who have recently died along the route, but, of course, during the middle ages hundreds of thousands died, and the ruins of past hospitals and hospices which once lined the route are still occasionally evident.

My start was a late one, and after a lengthy walk the day before, this was supposed to be a leasurely one. All of the guidebooks seem to count the mileage differently, though, and today's shorter walk felt longer than I had anticipated. The place I was planning on staying was in O Pedrouzo, but the maps along the way were a little confusing, especially since my albergue was slightly off the Camino. Since The signage had been a bit confusing where two Germans had been hit on a major road in Santa Irene, l was a little aprehensive.

near where the Germans were killed trying to decide to take a tunnel near the highway

my destination is not here but should be and "you are here" is not properly marked!

more confusing maps--the yellow line is the trail

Fortunately, a lovely older Australian woman, whom I had met at dinner the evening before, accompanied me almost all the way to my albergue. One of the reasons I was flagging was that one of my ankles started to give me problems. Immediately after dropping my backpack at my destination, I headed directly to the pharmacy for an ankle brace...

Since I have long trek scheduled for tomorrow and hope to make it to the pilgrim mass at noon, I decided to take it easy and rest up. This meant I decided to skip the pilgrim mass this evening at 6 p.m. I did attend one such mass at Palas de Rei with a Danish woman, and would have liked to have gone again to compare notes, but making it to Santiago is more important!

From the outside the auberge looks like nothing special, but it has some interesting accoutrements that most others have not had thus far including a foot massaging machine, a refrigerator, two microwave ovens, a coffee and soda machine, and a HOT SANDWICH machine! There are adequate outlets in the bedrooms and cloth sheets and pillowcases (as many use disposable ones). There are also shelves to put stuff on in the bathrooms. The 5 star one in Palas de Rei was deficient here!