Day 11 July 6, 2024
Ourense - Cea - Oseira 31 km
The location of the albergue is excellent but not for a restful night. Of course it didn't help that it was Friday night nor that Spain was playing against Germany and won. Across from the albergue there is also a bar. Add this up plus the fact that it was still 29 degrees at 21.00 equals a very disturbed sleep. It was so loud in the street that someone closed the windows in the middle of the night.
Good news was that Alberto and Eva from Barcelona arrived unexpectedly in the afternoon. I heard someone say "Señora Lee!" and there they were. We meet on my day 2 in Tábara and were together in Rionegro for that wonderful meal. For the past week they have been a stage behind me and due to the heat took the bus to Ourense where they will stay for a few days. Our reunion was therefore short.
Determined to leave early, I prepared everything in advance and was out by 5.50. I wanted to do the long incline in the early morning. I felt strong and so I didn't stop for coffee until Cea after 22 km. As the town is famous for its bread I of course had to have a
tostada con tomate y aceite, this time served with a whole tomato! The place was hopping! Everyone came in for breakfast. It was an eclectic place and actually looked like a second hand store, every inch covered with paraphernalia.
The last 8.5 km were mainly through a wooded area, paths with large stones which Galicia is famous for. It didn't look like many used the route as I had to crawl a few times under tree branches. It was another climb. My Garmin by now said that the accumulated altitude change was more than 800 meters. A good days work.
The weather has changed considerably. Most of the day was a cool 17-20 degrees and we even got a few sprinkles. Great walking weather. What a change in one day!
The albergue is quite modern and has been build very discreetly behind the monastery so out of sight to visitors. I of course had to see the old one and its stone basin. One other pilgrim - again new - was here when I arrived and about an hour later Ramón strolled in. He had taken the road from Cea rather than following the Camino.
It's now almost 17.00 and no other pilgrims have arrived, just the 3 of us.
The surroundings have changed a bit, the only previous bar has closed and there is now a new restaurant/bar which I assume caters to tourists, definitely not pilgrims with their Menu del Día for €25! They even refuse to make a
bocadillo ("I didn't study to do that") and have their diplomas from the University of Santiago hanging on the wall!
Monastery tours are still given but I've done that twice so I'll wait for vespers at 19.15.And the friendly Fray Luis, the painter and quite the talker is now in Palencia.
Will post pictures later (using the bar wifi
![Winking face :wink: 😉](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png)
).