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Barbadelo

Barbadelo is a tiny place - basically a couple of Albergues, a church which was once a small monastery, and a farm or two.
Yesterday's visit to the monastery at Samos was interesting - but the tour was entirely in Spanish and delivered in a quiet and quick voice.   Google translate could keep up with some of it, and I've been to monasteries before so could fill in some of the gaps from wider knowledge - but I did think they could increase the impact a lot by printing some of the tour details in other languages rather than relying on a single monk!
The cloister paintings - mainly 20th century reworkings of more ancient ones after a fire in the 1960s - are quite impressive.  So is the reredos, which is made entirely of chestnut wood.
After a meal at 6 I went to Mass in the monastery church; Patrick came too.  It didn't quite qualify as the fastest Mass I've ever heard but it was close!  Mass started at 7:30 and was over by 7:55.   I wonder if dinner in the monastery is at 8?  Anyway, we went back to the restaurant and had a drink or two with Denise before bed.
Up this morning and breakfast before leaving - leaving to the sound of the monastery bells - as there's nowhere even for a coffee in the 14km between Samos and Sarria.  It was a cold morning, 6C, and misty with it; no rain, though.
The mist finally, and quite suddenly, lifted just as I was coming to Sarria, and the temperature lifted noticeably too.
Sarria is. a sizeable town, and is also the first town that is more than 100km from Santiago.  Since 100km is the shortest distance on the Camino which entitles you to the Compostella, the certificate, a lot of people start there, and it was certainly quite busy, with a lot of people with backpacks.   But I think most of today's Sarria leavers were way ahead, given that I wasn't there until noon, so it was still quite quiet walking the last few kilometres to here - and the contrast between the busyness of Sarria and the rural quiet of Barbadelo makes me glad I chose not to stop in Sarria!

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