#17 Just 95 Kilometers from Santiago

Hello Everyone Can hardly believe I have been walking this Camino for 43 days! I am at a wonderful Alberge in Mercadoiro, Spain. Had a gourmet vegetarian dinner, ending with homemade cheesecake! And I am supposed to be looking at food as nourishment, not entertainment. Ha! We are closing in on Santiago and lots of the Alberges are now run by the government of Galicia. We (Pat, Russ and I) don't like them compared to the Alberges we stayed at in Leon so we are looking for "private" Albergues to stay at. I found this one listed and it was an old Pilgrim Hospital - 800 years old - for the dormitory, and the restaurant is a 150 year old building. What a great job they did for renovation. It's cold, we're in the mountains but they have the wood-burning stove going and lovely music. There are 4 Americans here besides us - where were they back on the 4th of July when I wanted to wish someone Happy 4th of July and we didn't meet one? We are trying to do around 25 kilometers a day so we finish in 4 days. We met a Frenchman on the Camino returning today, so proud to show us his Compostello. I took a photo of him showing us it. I'm getting tired, it's 9:00 p.m. so I'll say goodnight. We're usually walking at 7:15 every morning, but I'll be done soon! Talk to soon and hopefully get some photos posted. Love you all. Marie