San Roman de Retorta

 

I left the hotel at 7:00 and walked down to Porta Santiago, where the Road emerges out of Lugo's old town. It would be a short walk to Castrelo near San Roman de Retorta, where I had made a reservation at a private albergue. I contemplated walking farther but that would have altered my remaining schedule too much, resulting in longer stretches between stops. The Primitivo route has more 'fixed' stages, so I had planned for a couple shorter days to break up the mileage.

A metal soldier guarded the Roman bridge over Rio Mino crossed on the outskirts of Lugo. The sculpture was installed in 2015 as part of the "Arde Lucas" (Burn Lugo) festival in June, which celebrates the city's Roman & Celtic history.

The path was level and wound through forests with moss covered stones. I walked with another pilgrim for a while, and in the midst of our conversation went past a turn off to see the church of Eulalia de Boveda near Burgo. Further down the trail, I saw another sign for the church that pointed to a road on the right. I walked on this for a ways before getting the feeling it was leading me astray, and there weren't any further markers in sight, so I decided to turn back to join the main trail again.    

Cactus + an horreo

Fallen leaves cushioned the feet 

An arrow pointed the way to the San Roman de Retorta albergue, and I followed the "Via Romana," or the old Roman route, to get there. 

12th c. Romanesque Iglesia de San Roman de Retorta

Walkers gathered to refresh at the San Roman bar run by Senor Jaime Lopez. He signed my credential, or 'pilgrim's passport,' after stamping it with a sello. 

It was a short distance from the bar to Albergue O Candido in the hamlet of Castrelo. 

The albergue wasn't open yet, and I waited on the outside patio. A delivery man came by and dropped off boxes. He told me the owner would be arriving soon.

After checking in and showering I strolled around the area -- down the road were the municipal albergue, a few houses, and cows grazing.

My roommates included a couple from Belarus (on the left) -- the husband had done post-graduate work at UC Berkeley and has a good friend from Lansing (he could detect my Midwest 'accent'). His wife is a linguist and teaches French at a university. Later in the evening, two more walkers joined us -- Kasia from Warsaw, Poland and Julia, who lives in Paris but is originally from Belarus. The two peregrinas met earlier in the day and then walked together -- Julia had been on Camino del Norte and Kasia was beginning the Primitivo. Conversation flowed before lights were turned off at 10:00, the standard time for sleep at albergues.