Octopizza

Triacastela's church. If you look under the alcove in the middle section you will see shallow relieves of the no-longer-present castles.

A defunct fountain in the woods on the way out of Triacastela.

Passing through Sarria is something of a milestone, as it means you are in the last 100 kilometers or so. It is the minimum distance one must travel to earn a compostela, and as a consequence there is massive increase in the number of people on the trail from here forward. Here, on the way into Sarria, is a goat who seems to think that his questions have not been properly addressed.

Lonesome turret above the main town.

I stayed in a town called Barbadelo which kind of seems like a landing spot for people who don't want to stay in Sarria. The albergue was very comfortable, though, and has a nice rolling-hill feel that added to the whole affect. What it wasn't was interesting, so I don't have images.

The next day I got a bit lost, following a main road instead of making a little jog. As a consolation I got this shot of things about to get rosy-fingered on my way back to the correct path.

Here is the bridge in to Portomarin.

Here are a bunch of structures that indicate that this river has been a logistical headache for centuries.

I went a long way on this day, ending up in a town called Vendas de Naron which was mostly accommodations of various kinds. Here is a nice dog casing the joint.

Good contrails with the dawn the following day.

Extremely dramatic backlighting on this church.

Charmingly dilapidated village structures.

The bridge into Melide.

Melide feels like it didn't have a dense enough old city, so has more new construction in a way that makes it less scenic, but more dynamic. Of course, being out here in northern Spain has really skewed my sense of what a viable population is. The biggest cities I have been in since leaving Madrid have barely cracked 200k.

At any rate, I have octopus pizza for dinner.

I went in to get a second glass of wine, and these guys were casing it. If they'd stuck around rather than running across they street I probably would have offered them some. Oh well.