Day Five- Herrerias and On

We woke to a beautiful cool morning, dark until 8 AM. One needs a warm jacket or scarf in the ealy morning as it is cool in the mountaisn. Today we begin the descent down the mountainpasses and it should be quicker! It was an early start as pilgrims are on the road often by seven o´clock.We had several girls next door and sleeping in was out of the question. There was no breakfast available so we had leftover bread, cheese a hard-boiled egg and water. The 8 km walk was lovely-cool, downhill and picturesque. We stopped around 10:30 in O Cebreiro, a beautiful stonewalled village with cafes and the oldest church on the camino. It had a very holy feeling inside the stone walls. We waited here for about 3 hours trying to re-locate the packsack. Finally with much translation and hand movements, we arranged to have it sent to today´s destination-Triacastlla. Once that was decided and completed, we moved on to walk about 12 km further down the road. Again, huge views and grand valleys all around us, we walked into to Alto de Poio, the highest point in the area.You would think from the map there is actually a pueblo here but no, only 2 bars, a albergue and a casa tourista. For 20€ we had a room with 2 beds, a private toilet, no towels and paper sheets. Oh well. Apart from the roosters crowing below the windows and dogs barking all night, it was fine. We had dinner across the highway at the second bar, san roosters,but a very surly barkeep. Apparently tired of pelegrinos. Dinner was very odd. No choice but for 11€ we got ¨caldo gallego¨, a heavy vegetable broth-delicious, followed by french fries, with slices of beef on top covered by fried eggs. Very strange but when one is hungry, one eats. Everyone is a little disappointed but too tired to really care. We met  Christine who is on a deferred year from her teaching job and walking alone. She was a great addition to dinner tonight. Tomorrow promises to be a good day and hopefully we will get our bag back and change our clothes. I was lucky to find on the cobbled streets of O Cebriero, a fleece that had fallen off another pilgrim´s bag. I kept and have put it to good use! Today is also the day I had Matthieu in my mind as we had planned to do the camino together in 2006. I felt all the emotions he must have felt that year and had a little cry for him. Buen camino!