To Samos!

Today we walked about 17 km from Filloval to Samos. Last night’s sleep was a little rough thanks to a German pilgrim with a mighty snore!

So we started late and sauntered through a haunting forest landscape dotted with tiny rural villages and tottering ruins.

It began raining about noon, and by the time we arrived at Samos in the early afternoon, we were pretty well soaked.

Samos is dominated by the Monastery of San Xulián. We checked into the hostel in the monastery basement and grabbed some lunch in the village.

Then we toured the monastery. It’s as beautiful as it is immense. I probably took a hundred photos on the tour. The monastic church might just be my favorite church on the whole Camino.

Afterwards, Mass with the monks. My Spanish is basically nonexistent, and even with a Spanish language missal, it was difficult to make the correct responses. In fact, I was really only on sure footing during the Paternoster – because it was in Latin.

(Originally posted to Pilgrims on the Way.)