Hi, Mark, once again
I stayed in Sobrado de los Monjes. The albergue is very large and very poorly maintained. The bathrooms were among the dirtiest I've seen on any Camino. The monks do have a "hospedaria" part of the monastery for paying guests, and I believe it's extremely reasonable (maybe about 30E for three meals and the room?). If I were to do it again, I'd opt for that. Sobrado is a big town, lots of bars/cafes/shops/restaurants.
I did not stay in Cobreces, but remember the church/monastery as being huge, white, and new. If my memory is right, we continued on to Comillas (about 8 km further?), and I wouldn't have wanted to miss that stop for anything. There's a new (in 2006) municipal albuergue in an old stone building, very nice. Great meal in the Bar Filipinas, and Comillas itself is a very nice town for visiting.
I mentioned Valdedios in my other posting.
The only other monastery I can think of, where I did stay, was Cernautza/Zenarruza. It's up on top of a hill, a few km outside the town of Bolibar, beyond Merkina Xemein (I may have some of the spelling wrong). It is a small albergue (about 14-16 beds). The monks do serve both the evening meal and breakfast, and I don't mean to sound ungrateful when I say this, but this is one place where bringing your own food would have been a good idea. There was no other place around to buy anything, and I think it's fair to say that everyone went to bed wishing they had put a few more calories into the tummy. We pooled what we had but for whatever reason had just thought we didn't need to get food till Gernika. The setting is so beautiful, though, that it made up for everything. I remember there was a HUGE private albergue across the road but it was closed in May when i was walking.
Hope this helps, Laurie
