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Portomarin

Portomarin has a history - it was a town by a Roman bridge over the river Miño.   Then the river became the site of a reservoir, which drowned the town - and the whole place was moved up the hill, complete with rebuilt medieval buildings!   So it all has a fairly clean and new feel.
Last night's Albergue was quite remote, which meant that everyone had the meal on offer.  It was a noisy, talkative and sociable occasion.  I found myself next to Christophe, from Lyon, who has walked the Camino from his home town through France and Spain (in installments), and had reached 1700 km in total!   I have an invitation to go to Lyon and then with him to Le Puy en Velay sometime.  (And once again, after a conversation in mixed English and French, all the Spanish has gone again!).  
Further down the table were Denise (whom I've mentioned several times) and Linda (ditto), both of whom are in Portomarin tonight.
Now that I'm beyond Sarria the Camino is certainly much busier - right from the start today it was very noticeable.  But the walk started just as the sun came up, and rather than use words here are several pictures (so consider that several thousand words, proverbially):
The cafés are rather more crowded too, but one emptied just as I got to it.  Nothing sinister - just a big group moving on.  The two running the cafe - mother and daughter I think - were clearing up and taking a breath, and we had a bit of a chat (mainly in English) while they did so before getting on to my coffee!
Arriving in Portomarin, I navigated to the booked Albergue - passing on the way a very modern looking one and wishing I'd booked there.  When I got there,  there was one other person waiting for it to open for check-in in ten minutes or so.  Then a man tumed up and talked at us in rapid Spanish; I managed to make out that he was telling us we had been transferred to another Albergue owned by the same people.   Is this a scam, the suspicious side of me asks, but there's one of him and two of us, and we both have sticks!  And he takes us back to the nice modern place, where our bookings are happily accepted and a receptionist with good English confirms that the two are managed together and the older one has closed to be refurbished!  So a good shower, in a well-designed shower room, and out to look at the town....

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