A post from John.

Today was the day of the much feared hike up to O Cebreiro, the highest point along the Camino.  We began the day with an 8 o clock breakfast in a restaurant close to our albergue in Astorga.  After a wonderful breakfast of toast and more toast, we listened to presentations from Jarred and Charlotte and hopped on the bus to begin the drive to the beginning of our hike.  Along our drive, we made three stops; the first was at El Cruz de Ferro.  Meaning The Cross of Iron, it is a place for pilgrims to put a stone and along with that stone leave a memory or idea that one wishes to leave behind with their camino.  I feel like leaving this memory behind was a much more emotional experience for many of us than we had intended, and the ride to the next stop was much calmer.  At the next two stops we saw a cute little stone bridge and a castle in Ponferrada which was built back in the early 1300’s.  As it got later in the day, we realized that it was going to be quite hot so we hurried to the start of our hike up to O Cebreiro.  The climb, although just a piddly 8 Km, was a vicious incline along the beautiful mountains of Spain.  During an ascent comparable to 2 hard hours on a stair-master, our group sweated quite an impressive amount.  Although we may have felt like dying at the time, the view of the distant mountains complemented by bright yellow flowers was well worth the effort.  Although some (Vivek) completed the hike by 1:15, the majority of us arrived a little more than an hour later and spent some time wandering around the quaint city of O Cebreiro at the top of the mountain where we listened to Patrick’s presentation on the church of St. Mary.  At 4 in the afternoon we hopped back on the bus which we took to our hostel for the night.  Unfortunately, the exact time that we arrived at our hostel the rain started, and we all ran as quickly as possible through the rain to our place for the night.  As of now the rain has stopped and we are all taking our own siesta, showering, and eating.  In all, today was one of the more beautiful days along the camino.