Walked today: 5.5 miles
Walked Camino 2019: 331.3 miles
We put in our order last night for clear skies and no clouds above 500 ft. Did we say ‘the Camino provides”?
She delivered as never before! 
The weather looked promising as we left Casa de Lucas this morning.
The first signs of what was in store was encouraging.
We began heading down from our elevation of 4300 ft when the Camino diverted from the road back onto the dirt path.
But the temptation to have some breakfast overcame us 
and we stopped at a 
charming bar/albergue in the village of Bibuedo (pop. 31).
Just around the corner was the smallest iglesia in the entire Camino.
Jim peeked in through the locked door and saw only this.
Shortly thereafter the oohs and ahhhs began.
and this for an aaah!
And then we got serious about going down the mountains…
O.J.hit the spot while we gave our knees and legs a rest
Just after the albergue at Fillobal we passed a Galícian mountain home, 
then continued downward, 
the mountain views 
soon became obscured by a canopied path or in wet weather, a wash.
We walked by some beautiful old trees at “root” level, 
wondering how these massive structures continued to survive with much of their roots exposed for so many years.
At the entrance of the ancient village of Ramil 
was a huge chestnut tree probably several hundred years old.
Finally, after descending over 2100 ft along a 4 mile path down the Galícian Mountains, 
we walked into Triacastela (pop. 772), our destination for the day.
Upon reflection, today was our best day so far on Camino 2019. Although we were tired from the walk, the beautiful weather, the magnificent and varied scenery and the satisfaction of meeting the challenge of the descent of nearly half a mile in elevation made it a perfect day.
Our room wasn’t ready when we arrived at Albergue Atrio, so we walked to a nearby grocery store to pick up some snacks and bottled water. We noticed a hiking gear store across the street and Linda found an extra pair of slacks to wear on the cold mornings still ahead.
We checked into our room (40€) at noon and … 
couldn’t believe what we saw, which made a perfect day, more perfect, if that’s possible.
Having worked up an appetite from our morning stroll, we had a delicious lunch at a familiar restaurant from our stays here in 2015 and 2017.
We know we’re getting redundant, but our lunch was the “creme de la creme” for our best day of Camino 2019.
Roasted vegetables, a pasta salad and cheese cake for Linda.
Pulpo (grilled octopus) and roasted peppers for Jim
Our wine was the best we’ve had so far, a Mencía, 
grown and bottled less than 20 miles from here.
An outstanding day on the Camino Frances came to a close as we finished the blog post for the day and prepared for our walk tomorrow.
Jimandi 