Day 14

First off, a very happy Mother's Day to Melissa Livingston and Margie Brown! 

We left Villafranca this morning around 7:30 to start what would be the most difficult day of walking yet: up a mountain to O'Cebreiro. 

We had no idea what we were in for yet. 

At first we walked forever along a highway. 

But a scenic highway. 

Then we passed through a couple of towns. 

We probably should have taken this offer to ride horses up to O'Cebreiro. 

The road gradually started to incline. But then it kept getting steeper and steeper. 

Here's Mark with our friend Gunnar from Norway close behind. 

He snapped this photo for us. Notice how red my face is. This was no walk in the park. 

Luckily, the higher we went the better the views were. 

After some 17 miles of walking we crossed into Galicia (Santiago is located within Galicia). 

A mile or two later we reached the top of the mountain, where the town of O'Cebreiro is located. 

Mark and I were excited to come to O'Cebreiro because it is where we first learned about the camino de Santiago in 2009. So just for fun, here are some photos from then and now. 

With Santiago today:

2009:

Today:

2009:

Today:

2009:

Today:

2009:

For dinner we had a pilgrim's menu. The highlights were my caldo gallego:

And for dessert, cheese with honey. Sounds strange, but it was amazing.